Le Temps Des Cerises

It’s sour cherry time – or rather, sour cherries are just over here in the Virginia Piedmont. A kind cherry tree owner offered me their tree to pick, and I gratefully enjoyed the privilege. But as the garden is going gangbusters (with  planting, harvesting, cleaning and maintaining – ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!), I have little time to write down recipes, so photos is all we get. Maybe I’ll scribble down some of the recipes in the next few posts…

When sour cherries are in season, one rushes to pick, pick, pick and then pit, pit, pit and process. Because the season is very brief: on Memorial day they are blushing, on June 15, they are over!

So what to do with sour cherries:

– pit them, toss them with sugar, other berries and enjoy as a sweet-tart refreshing dessert

– pit and freeze for later use

– sour cherry preserves

– sour cherry smoothie

– sour cherry syrup

– sour cherry jam

– rustic sour cherry cake (freezes very well and is great for breakfast)

– sour cherry ice-cream – a favorite especially when served with rustic sour cherry cake.

– sour cherry pit liqueur! with all that pitting, I simply had to try to make a little bit of Liqueur de Noyau de Cerises for flavoring pastries.

Phew!!!… just writing down the list makes me tired. That was A LOT of cherries to pit.

We are almost cherried out! but not quite… I certainly would not mind if the season was a little longer. I know…  sweet cherry season just started. I’ll be brief too…

(and currants, did I say I am picking red currants? boy, am I picking red currants…)