Sour Cherries

Both of our cherry trees produced a lot of cherries this year, with the Northstar in mid June and the Evans Bali in late June/early July. We picked, pitted and froze cherries numerous time.

Tons of green cherries developing 

Pitting the cherries is time-consuming, but the pitter does work

Sour cherries are a nice addition with other fruit, such as in this peach and cherry crisp.

We've enjoyed this sour cherry crisp recipe in a 9X9" pan or deep pie plate.

For a small batch of cherry crisp in the smoker, in a 6" skillet:

• 8 oz frozen sour cherries
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp corn starch

Combine these in the 6" skillet, top with the blended crisp:

• 3 Tbsp rolled oats
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 2 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp butter
• pinch salt

Smoke, covered with foil at 350 for 30 min, then remove foil and smoke another 20 min or so until the top is browned.

Our friend Dawn makes a great cherry cobbler in a 9X13" pan from a Thomas Keller recipe. I tried making a smaller batch in an 8" skillet reducing this recipe to 1/3, but it turned out too bready. Back to the drawing board on this one. 

Sour Cherry Jam

I halved this recipe, taking some liberties with the quantities. I started with 1 lb 11 oz frozen cherries, and started cooking them slowly in a saucepan until they were fairly hot, then added 3 Tbsp of my low-sugar pectin and brought it to a boil. I added 2 cups of sugar and returned to a boil and boiled 1 min. I took it off the heat and added about 2 Tbsp of amaretto liquor. This made about 3.5 pints of jam, which we froze to keep.