If you are lucky enough to have a fruiting cherry tree in your yard, you may now have too many cherries for your family to eat before they go bad or before the birds eat them. Here are ways to preserve, cook, freeze or get rid of your abundance. This is a guide for using up your cherry harvest.
I wash, pit and halve the cherries. Then place them cut side up on a dehydrator; close but not on top of each other. Dry for about 2 days until leathery. Put on a cookie sheet for about 15 minutes to cool down. Then put in a large plastic bag overnight. If there is any moisture in the plastic bag, put back in the dehydrator for a few more hours.
Keep testing until there is no moisture in the bag, so that there will be no mold. After this I put them in a wide mouth jar, and vacuum seal. Will keep at least a year.
Source: Various dehydrator books and friends. These might keep longer than a year, but I've always eaten them by year's end. Good luck!
By Ms. Carmen
Pit them as you begin to harvest them, put in a freezer bag and freeze. Tastes great months later!
By Louise from Utica, NY
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