If you are lucky enough to find fresh sour cherries, find out the best way that you can store them so you don't lose any of this precious fruit. I also give tips on how to freeze cherries so that you can make a pie later.
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The skins of sour or tart cherries tend to be more delicate than that of most sweet cherries. The good news is that makes them easier to pit but at the same time makes them more likely to go bad.
Finding a good storage solution is very important. Let me share with you some.
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📦 How to Store
Cherries should be placed in the fridge as soon as you bring them home. The fruit ripens in a warm time of year, so it's important to get that heat off the fruit as quickly as possible especially if you picked them yourself or bought them at the farmers mar.et.
Don't leave them in your hot car for a long while you do other things. Bring a cooler and some ice packs/ice if you do have to make other stops.
The next important thing is to store them in the fridge in something that will allow them to breath and not capture moisture.
When I went u-picking sour cherries in Utah, they came home in a plastic grocery bag. The first thing I did when I got home was to get them out of that. I had a larger plastic clamshell container that I had gotten some apricots in. The nice thing about is that it had holds, so when I closed the lid, moisture had some place to escape.
We picked over 12 pounds of cherries, so I had to use what I could find. I had some plastic containers that would fit in the shelf well. These do come with lids, but in this case, it's better to leave the lid on. Otherwise condensation will become a problem.
I also have a small collection of Stasher silicone bags. Silicone is different than plastic in that it won't have the condensation.
💡 Tip - If you go cherry picking make sure to pick the cherries off with the stems still attached. This is especially true with tart cherries because you will rip the skin if you try to just pick them off the stem. Your cherries won't last as long.
🥶 How to Freeze
If you have a lot of cherries, like I did, you may want to consider putting them in freezer. It's such a short season that I wanted to extend it so I can enjoy the flavor of tart cherries later on (I plan to make my tart cherry cobbler).
I always pit my cherries before freezing them. When freezing there are two guidelines I follow.
- Freeze them as fast as I can. That means putting them in the fridge first, and then into the freezer. The quicker they freeze, the better and by starting with cold cherries they will freeze faster.
- I also want them to lay them flat when I freeze them. That way they will fit in the freezer better.
I took my largest Stasher bag which is ½ gallon and filled it with pitted tart cherries. I then made sure it lays flat in my freezer. If you don't have one, you can use a quart or gallon sized zip top bags depending on how many cherries you have.
🙋 Can You Freeze Cherries with the Pit in Them?
Here is the thing, you are going to have to pit them sometime. And since the fruit will be softer after you freeze and thaw it, this will increase the challenge with pitting. I would always pit the fruit first before freezing.
If you absolutely had to prevent your cherries from going bad, like you suddenly had to leave town for an emergency, then you can do it. The only case I ever would be in a situation like that. Better than tossing them when you get home.
RELATED - Learn about a specific variety of tart cherries called Balaton.
🍒 Learn More About Cherries
If you want to know everything you can about cherries, I would love to educate you. Start with my post on When Cherries are in Season, so that you know exactly when to expect cherries to be in grocery stores.
Check out my favorite cherry varieties - Rainier, Bing, Sonnet, Skylar Rae, and Orondo Ruby.
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