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We get a lot of these off our tree every year, even when the other fruit trees don't produce much. They are too sour just to munch. Spouse & I don't need to eat pie or other pasties. I tried canning them into preserves, it was lots of work & required a lot of sugar.
Can sour cherries be dehydrated & taste good? I would consider buying a cheap food dehydrater if that was the case. Also, has anyone made juice, or even wine from sour cherries?
You can also use them as you would cranberries and make a jellied sauce that is fabulous with BBQ'd pork.
Juice them and mix with lemonade & add a shot of gin for a fun summer cocktail.
Find directions online and brandy them, then put them in the middle of s'mores made with cinnamon grahams, dark chocolate w/ chili and marshmallows for a grownup cookout treat.
If you've got enough, call up a local small bakery or Middle Eastern restaurant and see if they want to buy them off you. It's harder to find fresh sour cherries and they may jump at the chance to use them.
We get a lot of these off our tree every year, even when the other fruit trees don't produce much. They are too sour just to munch. ...
Really? Too sour. I'd say send them to me. The ones I bought at Sprouts a few weeks ago were too sweet. Can you do a fruit/vege swap with someone you know? Perhaps they would like the sour cherries, but have too much of another fruit or vege that they would like to trade with you.
I would use them fresh in smoothies with something naturally very sweet to offset the tang. Is there a fruit you normally find too sweet to really enjoy? Use that one. The antioxidants in sour cherries are too good to pass up.
Before drying, you will have to remove the pits. You can buy a little cherry pitter for about $10. It wouldn't work for a ton of cherries, but it works fine for the fruit of one tree for family consumption.
I use dried pie cherries in my home made granola. Maybe do a cherry almond granola with them.
I'm afraid that my favorite use is cookies or pastries, which doesn't help you. I like them right off the tree. To eat them fresh they have to be fully ripe, and yes, they are yummy and tart with a nice pop to them.
If you pit them and freeze them, you can whirl them in the blender with a tiny bit of milk and a spoon of sugar and get yourself a fresh cherry milkshake. Or, instead of sugar, use another frozen fruit that is sweet, like home grown ripe peaches. Just enough milk to thin it a bit, not too much or your milkshake becomes too liquid.
I know you said no pastries, but you can make an awfully nice cherry bran muffin. Those are healthful. I make the oat bran muffins with fresh fruit in them and those are well received by my family. They aren't too sweet and the oat bran reduces cholesterol levels.
When I planted a sour cherry tree in my Maine back yard....the birds ate them faster than they could ripen....and since I really didn't need the fruit....I didn't cover the trees to protect them.....the feasting was fun to watch and I considered it a down payment on the enjoyment I had year round from the birds and nature in general.
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