Picking, Pitting and Preserving Sour Cherries

We have a few Montmorency sour cherry trees that, until this year, didn't produce enough cherries among the four of them to make a single pie. Between rabbits and deer gnawing on young trees, the polar vortex and inexplicable low fruit production, we considered getting out of the cherry growing business. Then everything changed.

This year the trees were loaded with fruit. We harvested and froze more cherries than we've ever used - four gallons in total. After years of negligible returns, we had a bumper crop. Each night for a week, we picked, pitted and froze. It felt like we were real cherry growers! And then with pride I posted my cherry pictures. Turns out most of my friends also had an exceptional cherry season. So much for my amazing fruit production skills. 

Cherries are ripe when they turn deep red and come away from the tree easily. Sour cherries freeze well and make beautiful pies, crisps, cobblers, jam, etc. We used a cherry pitter, but you can remove the pit by slicing the fruit in half and removing the stone or fashioning a homemade gizmo from a paper clip.

I've included the very best sour cherry pie recipe below. Aside from pie, the versatile filling can be used to top cheesecake, fill a black forest cake, baked into Danish pastry or spooned over ice cream.  

Cherries on the same tree will ripen at slightly different times.
Yellow and orange cherries will eventually turn red, signaling ripeness.

Chief gardener had to bust out the ladder to pick! These dwarf trees are about
nine feet tall. We'll trim next year to open up the center. Shaded cherries take longer to ripen.

Unpitted cherries, fresh off the tree.

Place pitted cherries on a baking sheet and place overnight in the freezer.
When completely frozen, remove to a freezer container. Use within one year.

Sour Cherry Pie

Adapted from Bountiful Ohio

4 cups unsweetened, pitted tart cherries, thawed (20 oz)

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 drops red food color (optional, but pretty)

Pastry for 9" double crust pie

In a medium saucepan, combine cherries, sugar and cornstarch. Cook and stir until mixture cones to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in butter, extracts and food color.  Let stand at room temperature for one hour.

Roll out half pastry. Place in bottom of 9 inch pie plate. Pour cherry filling into shell. Roll out remaining pastry. Adjust top crust, seal and vent. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely. Serve. 

Garden Update - June 2015

Hello from chief gardener John! Things are going well in the garden so far this summer.  We've had nice rains and unusually warm weather, which have kept everything growing. We gambled like everyone else and put tomatoes in early, but they are looking fantastic. The asparagus did well but was a quick, short harvest. The greens are growing nicely - we've eaten a lot fresh and just began to preserving the rest. Turnips have been delicious and the beets are almost ready!  The currants and sour cherry trees are producing well - it might be our best year ever for both.  I just planted winter squash and pumpkins from seed. I recently learned planting them a little later than I used to will help avoid squash bugs. The good weather has also helped the weeds, but I've been working to keep them (mostly) under control.    

Tasty garden sandwich with fresh greens, herbs, and pickled hot peppers from last years garden.

Montmorency sour cherry tree.

Slicing and paste tomatoes for juice, sauce, salsa.

Eggplants look great this year! Can't wait for eggplant parmesan!

Sweet and hot peppers. Several are producing fruits already!

Green Beans

Pickling cucumbers. We'll make dill, bread & butter and fresh (refrigerator).

Beets almost ready to pull. We'll eat a few fresh and the rest will be pickled.

Caraflex cabbage produce tight, pointed heads (rather than round). Good for grilling.

Spring Fruit Growth

Growing fruit can be tricky. We have a handful of fruit trees and berry bushes - each a work in progress. Although we're always learning from our mistakes, we still hold our breath each spring to learn which plants survived the winter, and which blossoms will live through spring cold snaps.

Depending on the size of harvest and the type of fruit, we'll eat some fresh and preserve the rest via freezing, dehydrating or canning.

Our oldest apple tree came with the house. I don't know the variety and it's never been a great producer. We should probably replace it with a new tree. Apple blossoms are beautiful and fragrant. This tree will be in full bloom in a couple days.

We have about a dozen blueberry bushes, adding a couple each year. These are three years old. We eat all our fresh blueberries and purchase additional from a local grower to freeze. Hoping to change that this year. Recently added bushes were eaten off by deer. Sigh.

This might be our best cherry year ever. These are Montmorency, a sour variety popular for pies. All four cherry trees are loaded with blossoms. Fruit should be ready to pick in late June/early July. We'll soon net the trees to prevent the birds from eating the cherries.

Currants grow in long chains. They don't look like much now but the blossoms will give way to beautiful deep red berries. We don't eat many currants fresh, but instead dehydrate them. I love dried currants in breakfast scones and often use them to replace raisins in recipes.

We lost a peach tree to the polar vortex two years ago. The remaining peach survived, but only has a few blossoms this year. We'll replace the dead tree, but it looks like we might have to purchase peaches to preserve. Peaches are finicky.

The strawberries are just beginning to fill in. This is the first blossom I've seen. Fruit will ripen beginning mid-to-late May. We preserve strawberries by freezing sauce and whole berries, and canning jam. The May family birthday celebrations typically include strawberry pie, rather than cake.

We've got Anjou and Bartlett pear trees. The Bartlett has never produced a single fruit. We're trying different things, including fertilizing more. The Anjou looks great, producing more blossoms than ever.  We're losing patience with the Bartlett.

The blackberry canes are still leafing out - no blossoms yet. Blackberries ripen in July. These canes are not the thornless variety but I've been happy with their hardiness and berry production.

This is our persimmon tree. Although it looks dead, it's alive. This tree leafs out very late and typically produces lots of late summer/early fall fruit. A native of the state, persimmons grow fast, require little care and are good producers. Despite those qualities, it's my least favorite fruit tree. I'm just not a fan of the fruit. As a result, most of the fruit falls and rots. Which only makes our honeybees happy.

The red raspberry canes are leafing out. I love the fruit - ripening in the summer and again in fall. These are heavy producers, providing us enough fruit to enjoy fresh and frozen whole and in sauce. If you've never had a fresh raspberry margarita, you don't know what you're missing!

I know rhubarb isn't a fruit, but I treat it like a fruit. We've got five rhubarb plants that, along with the asparagus, are the first foods we harvest. It's some of the easiest food we grow: reliably comes up every year, not many pest problems, doesn't require fertilizer, and it produces stalks for several months. While the leaves are inedible, the tart stalks make great pies, sauce, and cakes. And it freezes well.