Sweet Cherries in Food Storage

So, part of our recent fruit stand adventures have included cherries. We bought these beautiful, LARGE, sweet cherries by the bin. That means about 400 pounds worth to prepare and sell at the farmer's market and to whoever else signed up and wanted some.

We had the crazy idea to put them in the back of our vehicle in order to keep them more temperature controlled. It worked - here are the pictures to prove it!



We had a few people who forgot to pick up the fruit they had ordered. After a few days, cherries don't last, so I started canning cherries. This is a first for me - I'd never bottled cherries before, but they were so easy! Just wash them and remove the stems. Pack them in a jar with a light sugar syrup and process the jars in a water bath canner. Easy. And they are so pretty! I haven't wanted to open a bottle yet to see how they processed, but I'm sure they are still just as sweet and good as before I put them in .

Here is the middle of processing. I ended up with 20 jars to put in my food storage on my shelves. We love to have good food when we want to eat it in our storage.

(How is your storage coming? Do you have any questions, concerns, inspirations?)

Amazing Cherry Pie Filling (with Recipe)

Okay, so I've been asked for the recipe enough, I need to just print it here on my blog - and as promised yesterday that I would publish it today... here it is:

Cherry Pie Filling
yields about 7 quarts of pie filling

Ingredients:
6 quarts pitted cherries (I use sour pie cherries)
7 cups sugar
1-3/4 to 2 cups clear jel-A
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
9-1/2 cups cold water
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring
1/2 cup lemon juice (bottled concentrate, not fresh)

Combine sugar, clear jel and cinnamon in a LARGE pan. Add water, almond extract, and food coloring. Heat on medium until it boils and thickens. Add lemon juice. Boil 1 minute. Fold in cherries. Fill clean bottles to 1/2 inch from the top. Process in a water bath canner for 40 minutes at 3001-6000 ft altitude. (For other altitudes, feel free to contact me for the variations.)

Remove and Let cool so seal will set.

Enjoy.

p.s. I have really only been able to find clear-jel A in only a very few places. One place is out of state, the other place has been my local health food store. Try that, if you don't know where else to look.

Cherries are in Season

I received a question a few days ago about what to do with cherries. Well, here are some ideas - since cherries are now in season in Idaho.

First suggestion is a post I did a while ago - great pictures and talk about cherries: homemade-american-cherry-pie-filling

I have friends that love to dry (dehydrate) cherries. It is very easy to do - just pit them and "break their backs" by turning the flesh out so they dry better. Place them on a tray and in the dehydrator for a few hours until dry.

Next suggestion would be just canning cherries - like rich flavorful Bing cherries. You want to make sure you can the flavorful ones - not just the early cherries that don't have much flavor to them. So, how do you bottle cherries? you ask.

Well, here are some guidelines for easily canning sweet or pie cherries:

Wash cherries. Remove pits, if desired.

(My favorite method for cherries:) Raw Pack - Pack cherries. Shake jar to obtain full pack. Cover cherries with a boiling syrup (I use a light syrup - using about 9 cups water and 2-1/4 cups sugar. Boil until clear.)

Then you water bath process them (at 3001-6000 feet) for 35 minutes. If you live at a different altitude, feel free to contact me for the changes in information.

I use (sour) pie cherries for cherry pie filling. They usually come on later in the fall. I'll post the recipe tomorrow, so I don't overwhelm you with too many options and recipes at one time in the same post. =)