Store bought eating ones are usually a Bing. There are tart cherries that can be pitted and frozen, pitted and made in to pie filling and pitted and canned in liquid. Obvioulsy they need to have the pits removed before you plan to do anytihing with them. If they are a Montmorency type sour cherry, they may need more ripening.

Well, even when the cherries are at their absolute ripest, they aren't dark red, more like the color of store bought tomatoes ;)

They are kind of sweet-tart at this point, so not as sweet as the Bing type, but not sour really either. My MIL said that she used to make jam from them, so it's possible and it will produce a nice product. With my limited experience, I just wanted some btdt advice!

I found the most amazing sour cherries last year at a u-pick farm in the Hudson Valley region. And I made a really simple, delicious jam with them. Here's the recipe I used:

Sour Cherry Jam

4 cups prepared fruit (about 3 lb. fully ripe sour cherries)
1 box powdered fruit pectin
1/2 teaspoon butter
4 3/4 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
few drops of almond extract

Bring boiling-water canner, half full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

Stem and pit cherries. Finely chop or grind fruit (I prefer a rougher chop as they break down a lot as they cook). Measure exactly 4 cups prepared fruit into 6- or 8-qt. saucepot.

Stir pectin into prepared fruit in sauce pot. Add butter to reduce foaming. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon. Stir in vanilla and almond extract.

Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. (Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.) Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 min. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. (If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.) This recipe makes about six half-pint jars.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Luscious Sour Cherry Jam

Karen, those definitely sound like sour cherries. They look like little tomatoes, don't they? The ones I pick here taste almost-not-sour when they're at their ripest, but I pick the less-than-ripe ones too and make pie filling. I don't think I could get a full bucket if I stuck to the fully ripe ones.

I agree with adding almond extract to the jam as joybugaloo suggests, but personally I wouldn't add vanilla to the whole batch. You could fill half the jars, then add a little vanilla to the second half of the batch before filling the rest of the jars. Cherry and vanilla are delicious together, but I can taste the vanilla distinctly. The almond extract just makes it taste more like cherries, because cherries and almonds (and peaches and apricots) are related. That's why the seed inside a peach pit looks like an almond. Anyway I would do a little with/without comparison on the vanilla before committing.

You can also put the cherry juice into applesauce, and in that case I would definitely recommend vanilla, it's a delicious combination.

Melissa

Thanks so much for the advice! I ended up finding a recipe online that was similar to the one above but without the vanilla and almond extracts. I had 2 huge bowls of cherries and I made the jam using one bowl in case it didn't work out :) I need to go get more jam jars to make jam out of the second bowl. Melissa - I will try what you suggested - some with vanilla and some without but both with almond extract. It's actually kind of good that I made some without the almond as my BIL is allergic to tree nuts. This way he can enjoy some as well!

Too bad we don't all like close enough to invite you all over for a taste test!!

Thanks again!
Karen

Bickford flavors offers many cherry flavors. Cherry with pit, sweet, sour, wild, and even maraschino. Adding a drop of one them will help to immprove flavor of a cherry pie filling. I used to have a small cherry bush years ago, that was wiped out by birds overnight. I even covered it with netting, but it didn't help as some were able to reach in, or get under it.

Sour cherries are ruby red. When ripe, they are not at all the color of a store tomato.
Maybe you have an unusual variety, but they do not sound at all like the usual Montmorency-type sour cherry. Do they taste like cherries? Is it possible they are something else?

If you do a Google Image search, you'll see photos of sour cherries.

Christine, I believe I was picking "Early Richmond" cherries (see picture below). Every time I looked at the bucket I would think of them as tomatoes until I reminded myself they were cherries.

I saw someone post on another forum that this was the only pie cherry tree sold at Home Depot, so maybe it is more popular with landscapers than the Montmorency type, for some reason.

Melissa

Here is a link that might be useful: Early Richmond sour cherries

Lindsey, Where did you find u-pick sour cherries? I would love to try sour cherry jam but the price of sour cherries in the store is way to expensive.

-Robin

Below is a link to a site that lists many u-pick farms around the country. You can search by state and the listings are county within state. You can also ask for recommendations at U-picks you go to. The farmer featuring strawberries may know of sources for fruits he/she doesn't grow.

On a personal note, I avoid the farms with petting zoos and hayrides because, in my area, they tend to be higher priced than the more traditional u-pick farms. Happy harvesting!

Here is a link that might be useful: find local u pick website

Hi, Robin. The only area where I've found sour/pie cherries is in Columbia County, NY-the Hudson Valley region. In fact, I just bought some today at the Love Apple Farm in Ghent (if you go there, make sure to have lunch in the Mexican cucina--esp. the shrimp and avocado soup!). There's also Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, and you can also try Fix Brothers a little further south in Hudson.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Luscious (my food blog)

Sorry I didn't respond sooner - I didn't realize that there were additionl replies on the thread!

Anyway, the cherries I picked are from a tree (not a bush). It's actually quite a large tree, bigger than the peach tree next to it. I had to use a ladder to reach a lot of the nicer cherries. This is the largest yield of cherries in years. Usually there's just a few and the birds get them all. My FIL severly pruned the tree and I think that helped a lot. I checked the link that Melissa posted on the 'Early Richmond' variety and that looks very similar, so that might be it. The ripest cherries are almost like a marashino (sp?) cherry in size and color, not the dark red I usually think of when someone mentions fresh cherries. They are *definitely* cherries, not something else - they taste great, just a little on the sour side. I don't like them fresh, but my FIL does, so it's just a personal preference to make them all into jam. HTH with regards to the fruit I was writing about - good luck finding PYO farms with cherries. We don't have that where I live - lots of other fruits, just not cherries.

Karen

I'm hoping my poor little Montmorency cherry tree survives. It was just planted this spring and even now the leaves are not fully opened yet. They are almost like they still think its early spring. I think its not going to survive, as these do need lots of leaves growing fully to get a decent root system Its watered very well and has been 'pampered' with TLC, but you can only do so much before it tells you it can't grow..