Community Chat

[Madame Lorrraine]

We're having the most glorious crop of cherries up here in the Pacific Northwest this year. They're unusually big and sweet and juicy, and I'm trying to figure out if there's some way I can preserve them.

The first thing that came to mind is freezing. Is it possible? How is it done? My thought is that you would somehow extract the pits, wash them thoroughly (or maybe do the washing first, before cutting open the fruit...?), dry them, and spread them on cookie sheets to freeze individually. Once they're frozen, use a vacuum sealer to pack them up into freezer bags and keep them stored in the freezer.

Would this work? Or is there a better way? TIA for any good ideas you can share. ......

Also......

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(I don't advise you sit down and eat an entire, huge serving of them, fresh or frozen, no matter how delicious they are. The natural sugar -- fructose -- is a laxative.)

[Love my grandkids]

I'll watch for replies, not that I have the patience to do this but it sounds good! Also, I've eaten bunches of cherries lately with no laxative effect! Didn't know that was a possible "side effect"!!

Hope you get some advice on your project.

[mousiegirl]

Yes, I freeze cherries in a plastic bag or container. They are delicious on a hot day, especially, or in a desert.

[I am still oxox]

I would be afraid of the ""pits"" when they are frozen

[Topaz Gem]

On 6/26/2014 Usedtobeoxox said:

I would be afraid of the "pits" when they are frozen

You can pit them before freezing, using a cherry pitter. I bet they'd be delicious if you ran them through a Yonanas machine. I'm considering picking up the Yonanas, as it gets pretty good reviews.

[Madame Lorrraine]

On 6/26/2014 mousiegirl said:

Yes, I freeze cherries in a plastic bag or container. They are delicious on a hot day, especially, or in a desert.

Is that all you do? Do you get out the pits first or just toss 'em in? I'm thinking I'd like to make "out of season" cherry pies at a later date from the frozen cherries.

And, by the way, we have two varieties of cherry up here--Bing and Rainiers. They're equally good and I just read in today's paper that this is just the beginning of one of the biggest, best harvests in years.

[JustJules]

When I was growing up we had a sour cherry tree that was gorgeous. They were only good for making pies, not eating off the tree, but it produced so many that my mom would freeze them and make sour cherry pie during the fall and winter. She washed and pitted them, and just put them in plastic freezer bags and they were fine. Back then, we didn't have the fancy vacuum seal machines. I think you would be perfectly fine if you pit them, wash and dry them, and just put them in freezer bags. Probably would be best if you use them within 6 months, but you should be fine. I love cherries... YUM!

[Clover29]

I'm not sure that regular glucose (or fructose) from fruit is a laxative. L-glucose, now that is a laxative, but it's man-made in labs, not found in nature.

However, I do know that deer have a hard time resisting apples if they get in an orchard, and too much of the fruit, as opposed to the leaves on the trees which would be much better for them, gives them the runs.

Too much of anything, eaten all in one sitting, is usually a bad idea.

[chickenbutt]

Our neighbor has a huge cherry tree - best cherries ever! This was a good year and we managed to get a bag of them before the birds got to them all.

I've never thought of freezing them, but that seems like a good idea.

I got a recipe for cherry-lime ice pops and made a batch of those. Came out pretty good. Mostly, I just eat a handful of them each day.

One thing I DID learn was about pitting them. I started looking around for pitters and found mostly information about them being really messy so I kept on researching to find a good way to do it without a pitter. I chose the 'funnel in a bowl' method and it worked great. No mess at all and it was pretty efficient.

I love cherries!

[sunshine45]

i freeze sour cherries in ziploc bags. we either go or have friends that go to a farm that has sour cherries for picking during the spring. for a bit more money they will pit them for you. i then bring them home and put them in gallon sized ziploc bags. i then use them to mix into rice, to put into vodka, to add sugar and use on top of ice cream, or to make preserves out of them.