Look like tart cherries to me

15 years ago

Hi All-

So, IÂm over a friendÂs house last night, and the topic of fruits comes up. He says he has a tree in the back yard with some sort of fruit on it, but he doesnÂt know if itÂs edible or not. HeÂs confident that the previous homeowner planted it. So, we go out with a flashlight and take a look. It looks to me like itÂs a tart cherry tree. But, I donÂt have any experience with cherries(yet), so all I know is what IÂve read up here.

So, they certainly look like cherries to me, but before I tell him and his family they are safe to eat, can people confirm? The tree was about 17 feet tall, maybe 2.5" in diameter at the trunk. There were still probably 40 or so cherries on it. Keep in mind that itÂs mid November, so IÂm thinking these would have been ripe quite a while ago. There were some sort of moths on a couple of the berriesÂ any idea what types of moths theyÂd be?

Ok, so I had to try Âem. IÂm 99% sure theyÂre tart cherries, so I did a taste, spit, and swish. :) They were tart, but not astringent. IÂm guessing if they were sweet cherries, theyÂd have all been eaten by the birds. It was weird that I didnÂt seem to find a pit in the one I was eating.

Now that itÂs light out, I could probably go back and get a picture of the tree if neededÂ But, it probably wonÂt be all that exciting because many of the leaves are down now.

IÂm in zone 6b, RI, but heÂs really zone 6a there.

Can people confirm tart cherries? And the likely type of moth? Any guesses at the likely variety? Are the little black spots on it (looks similar to flyspeck and sooty blotch on apples) simply because theyÂve been hanging on the tree for so long? He said they looked much nicer in the middle of the season.

Thanks as always!

-Glenn

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Comments (6)

chills71
15 years ago
my guess would be crabapple.

~Chills
jellyman
15 years ago
Glenn:

Yep, crabapples.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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denninmi
15 years ago
Glenn, you can tell your friend that his crabapples are definitely edible -- they make great jelly, for one thing, or also can be cooked into sauce similar to applesauce, but with sort of a cranberry sauce flavor overtone. I run mine through my juicer to extract juice and pulp without skins, seeds, or stems.
Konrad___far_north
15 years ago
I have some of these growing, mostly are grown as ornamental only.
Great for spring blossoms, [the dark leaf color have pink color blossoms, green leaf have white blossoms.
Some trees turn golden after frost.
In winter when these fruits turn soft, allot of birds, like robin and waxwings love these.
One of my favoured trees.

Konrad
glenn_russell
Original Author
15 years ago
Wow. Could I have been more wrong?!?! How embarrassing. At least I can blame it on the beer. :-) Like I said, I don't have any experience with cherries, and I guess I still don't!

So, now knowing it is a crabapple, although it's hard to see in the picture, I suppose that could be sooty blotch & flyspec, then right? IÂve now cut one open, and I see the apple seed structure of an apple but, itÂs a solid red throughout unlike most apples which are white (yeah, I know there is a variety or two of regular apples that are solid red)
I'm used to crab apples which are more like the size of regular apples... (unless that neighbor I'm thinking of had a real apple tree that he didnÂt take care of and simply called them crab apples). I knew crab apples could be small, but I never thought theyÂd be this small.

The stem, size, and color really looked like a cherry to me. But, I guess this explains why they were harder and had no pit. Now that IÂm less nervous about tasting them, they do have an apple texture. Still quite tart, but really, not all that bad... though I think theyÂd taste better earlier in the season.

One other piece of infoÂ the spring blossoms are whiteÂ he said he didnÂt think there was any pink in them. Any attempts on which variety of crab this might be.

I wonder which type of moth was on them at this time of year? Any idea when theyÂd be ripe for harvest?

Thanks again,
-Glenn
Konrad___far_north
15 years ago
Glenn,
They are ripe now, or just after a couple day's of frost, apple can take up to minus 5 degree Celsius.
There are many verities,..hard to tell, the best bet is at flowering time, drive around and see, then ask,
most likely these trees have been sold in your area, if this trees grew from a seed, then you have one of a kind.

Konrad

Look like tart cherries to me

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chills71

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Look like tart cherries to me

Comments (6)

chills71

jellyman

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