Every year we battle the raccoons, squirrels, and blackbirds for our sweet cherries. We've come up with a few tricks to outsmart them, fence them out, and entice them to eat something else. But it's still a battle.
Last year, I decided that I would pick as many not-quite-ripe cherries as I could before the critters discovered the tree had cherries. I picked, pitted, and froze enough for 11 pies. This year, with warmer weather, the cherries began ripening a little sooner, and I fell behind.
This morning I woke up to a couple of raccoons having breakfast in the cherry tree. The raccoons are really very cute. One was lounging on the lawn, feeling full and happy while his partner was up in the tree. The two of them made such a cute picture. But I do have to defend my territory.
So after my breakfast I began picking as many underripe cherries as I could reach. I spent 4 hours picking and pitting cherries. (I think the rest of the cherries will be better as fresh eating cherries, as they're ripening quickly.) I froze 6 quarts of the underripe ones, which will be enough for 3 large pies. And I still have 7 quarts of cherries in the freezer from last year.
You may wonder if I could freeze the ripe cherries. The issue is pitting ripe cherries. Our ripe cherries are on the soft side. The pitter doesn't work well on soft cherries. In contrast, underripe cherries have a dense firmness similar to sour cherries. The pitter I have is really made for a firm cherry.
The flavor of underripe sweet cherries is mild and not as acidic as sour cherries. So I add lemon juice when making pie and cobbler filling. To amp up the cherry flavor I add a few drops of almond extract. I realize some folks don't like almond extract. I'm sure that could be left out. We had a sour cherry tree many years ago, and I baked a lot of cherry pies each summer. I've been ver pleased that I could replicate a sour cherry pie using underripe sweet cherries, lemon juice, and almond extract.
Here's the stage of under-ripeness that seems to work. When fully ripe, these cherries are dark purple. For pies, I pick them when red.
For freezing I add sugar to the containers, but I don't bother with citric acid or lemon juice, as I figure preserving the color of the cherries is not as important in pie filling. I note on the lid of each container the quantities of cherries and sugar. Later, when I go to make cherry filling, I know what I have. I also note that each container has enough for 1/2 a pie.
When I'm turning the cherries into pie filling, I add a bit of natural red color in the way of beet root powder. About 1/4 teaspoon beet powder to 2 quarts of cherries results in a dark red pie filling and has no beet taste.
Have I shown you how I vent juicy pies like cherry pie? After the top crust is set onto the pie filling, I use a sharp knife to quickly cut 4 wide leaf-shaped pieces out of the top crust dough. This seems to be enough to vent this sort of pie and is so much faster than doing a lattice top.
We've been eating the sweeter cherries on the tree for several days now. I do feel full of cherries at this point, and I will be okay if the critters enjoy a good portion of what remains on the tree. I have several pies worth of cherries in the freezer, and that was my aim.
Great save, Lili. I had a weird question for you, though. I remember when I was a kid, getting sick (tummy troubles) from eating too many sweet cherries we picked up at a farm stand on the way to a relative's home. My mom and dad had warned us, and later said it was "not uncommon". Looking back as an adult, I don't know if that was an ascorbic flush (too much vitamin C) or a result of malic acid or other cherry components. In any case, I was curious if you noticed any difference in digestibility (better or worse) of the less-ripe cherries. Just a weird thought that occurred to me. We just got gifted some Queen Anne cherries, and gave them strawberries in return. The cherries were a little beat-up, and DH didn't think they were as sweet as he'd like for eating plain; so I cleaned and trimmed them carefully and made a small cherry cobbler, which was very tasty. :) Our own cherries are not ready, and are very small this year. Sara
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that's anything like eating too many sour apples that I was warned about as a child?
DeleteHi Sara,
DeleteGood use of the gifted cherries! I love a cherry cobbler.
I wonder if your tummy troubles from fresh cherries as a child was the naturally occurring sugar alcohol. The sugar alcohol in cherries do cause digestive issues for some folks. For me, I don't think I am that sensitive to sugar alcohols. I can eat other foods with sugar alcohols and not have issues. As for the underripe vs the fully ripe, I don't notice any difference in digestibility, perhaps because I use the underripe ones cooked/baked? Just a guess, of course.
I've always heard that the difference between unripe apples and ripe apples is that the carbs in unripe apples are harder to digest. As apples ripen the starches convert to easier-to-digest sugars.
DeleteWe have a sour cherry tree and it's always a race against birds, insects, and mold to get some. Some years we don't get any, but this year we got several quarts. It's an old tree that has been limbed up to mow under, so it's hard to reach most of the fruit. I try to make a deal with the birds that they can have the cherries in the top of the tree if they leave the lowers ones for us. However, they never listen. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI laughed over your deal with the birds. The arrangement I proposed to our critters was they could have cherries after I got tired of them. The animals didn't agree. I also kindly suggested to the squirrels that they can eat pine nuts in the pine cones abundant in our yard. Again, they prefer cherries, but will eat pine cones when the fruit is gone. What has worked a little for us is I gather all of the fallen/knocked off cherries and pile them up at the end of a path at the back of our yard, along with a shallow container of water. The raccoons seem to appreciate this. They eat all of the cherries in the pile each day and use the water. I find cherry pits and stems, plus a little dirt, in the water each morning then change it out.
I'm glad you were able to get so many cherries this year. Do you use them all in pies, or do you have other ways to use the sour cherries?
I try to include enough produce in my garden to share. This year was hard because I had to take out my wildflower bed and we took down a tree so it seems like our animals friends have disappeared a little.
ReplyDelete