Cherries are my favorite fruit and I used to eat them by the pound, until I read domestic cherries are 4 times more contaminated with pesticides than imported cherries. Organic cherries are too expensive ($5 for a small container), so I haven't had any cherries this year. :o(

I didn't realize that, Petra. The site linked below confirms what you said and talks about other heavily contaminated foods--among them bell peppers, celery, lettuce, spinach, and potatoes.

I guess it's good that cherries are in season for such a short time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Top Pesticide Foods to Avoid

I've been "pigging" out on cherries for over a month now and I just can't get enough. The lowest price I paid for big huge red cherriess was $1.74 a pound. I am hoping to get out and pick sour cherries this week because they are my favourites and the farm I usually pick them at closed a few years ago but has now reopened with new trees. I also may buy a 10 gallon bucket of them to freeze.

Just like any fruit I purchase I rinse or soak thoroughly. Cherries and grapes are soaked for more than an hour and the water changed frequently. My brother who owns a grocery store told me to do that years ago and I have been doing it ever since.

My love of cherries is the reason for my name on here. I was eating a big bowl of cherries and drinking cream soda when trying to chose my online name. LOL Suits me well. LOL

Anne

Last week was my cherry week! They were so good! I bought a big container at Sam's and we had cherries in everything, plus I put some in the freezer.

That's a good tip, Anne. I never heard of soaking that long. I've been washing the cherries with Veggie Wash, but I'll give the soak a try. Thanks!

Susan, strawberries are also among the top 10, but I've been able to find organic for reasonable. We just joined a local organic co-op and are even getting organic potatoes, which I haven't been able to find anywhere.
It's too bad we have to worry about food safety, all foods should be save to eat.
Here's an interesting link about washing produce:

Here is a link that might be useful: Soak, scrub or spray: Best way to clean fruit, vegetables is open to debate

This afternoon hubs and I were in the grocery store and I saw a woman walking along, eating cherries from a bag in her cart. Also saw her spitting the pits out onto the floor as she walked along. So, not only was this woman stealing (how can you weigh the cherries after she's eaten them?), she was contaminating the store with her spit. Hubs and I left without buying anything.

I love dark cherries. The canned ones make great cherries jubilee. Love that too.

I have been pigging out on cherries for about a month now. They have come down in price from $5.00 per pound to about $1.99 now. I am hoping they will go even lower, and I will eat even more. I usually just rinse my fruit well in plain water and don't think I have suffered any ill effects from not soaking, etc.
Veta

I'm finishing up a box of Rainier cherries and will get the dark red ones next. I love all kinds.

I try to eat 12 at a time so my husband will be rich, because of the old cherry pit-counting rhyme -- rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, tinker, tailor, cowboy, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief...

Cherries! Love 'em both sweet and sour.

The Wisconsin crop won't be ready until mid August. The bulk of our cherries are grown in the Door County peninsula. This spit of land sticks out into lake Michigan. It is late to thaw out in spring and holds the cherry buds back until after the threat of frost. The result is a late, short, but sucessful growing season. Everywhere else in Wisconsin, the cherry blossoms gets frost damage.

The stores here have them at $1.50 a pound. I have been eating over a pound a week. I love them and miss them in the winter. I just rinse all fruits under running water and dry with a paper towel. I can't imagine washing each piece of fruit I eat by hand..especially blueberries which are also cheap right now. 1.50 a pint.

I bought some last week and cleaned most of them and froze them. I still have a part of a bag to munch on. They were $.97 a pound. Nice bing cherries.

Sue

yes love cherries,my neighbor brought us 2 buckets of sour mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmdelicious...when we were kids we had 2 big sweet cherry trees and 1 sour.We use to climb the tree and just sit and eat and eat till we got the runs...To think how many cherries I ate..and seeds.We use to spit the seeds at each other.. bad..

I just bought a cherry pitter this summer, and I can't believe I survived for so many years without one. It's so nice just to be able to eat the cherry without managing around the pit.

I've eaten so many more cherries this year because of it. I get a whole bag each week at the grocery, and it must be 3 pounds.

Thanks for the reminder. I bought some last week while DGS was here. I have to hide some things in the refrig, as he'll go help himself. Like yogurt. I'll hide them all and leave 1 out where he can get to it. Otherwise he'd eat them all.
Leslie

Cherries are absolutely my favorite fruit. I love eating them. Bing cherries are great-I recently got some for $1.46 a pound (the other store had them for a buck forty-nine). Also got some white Ranier cherries. I ate one pound already, today I'll finish the bag! There are good for my feet-I have plantars fasciatis, or heel spurs.

yesss!!!!! every night before bed i have a big bowl, yummmm.

I paid .79 cents a pound for them saturday,at our health food market store.They had a limit of 8#.I was going to ask about freezing them,but you have already answered my questions.They are sooooooooooooooo good!!!

I love this time of year,all the good fruits etc.
Kathi

We love Rainier cherries, but they are very expensive here--like $6 a pound. They are just the best IMHO!

We have eaten quite a few already. I love to go cherry picking, but the season where we usually go will be over by the time we can get there. The season here is just getting into full swing.

Bought some sweet cherries and sour cherries this week-end at the market. The sweet ones got eaten as-is, but the tart ones I made jam, froze some, and made pie filling/sauce with the rest. That became cherry hand pies (cookie size, really too small and fiddly but look adorable), and cherry bars (same recipe, using the re-rolls of dough). There was way too much juice before thickening, so I drained some off....mmmmmmm - cherry syrup!

Want a taste of heaven? A splash of this syrup over ice, then pour over some soda. Yummy.

As soon as I saw the sour cherries I had to get some to make the filling, although I hate cherry pie. I thought "maybe I just always hated canned pie filling". So I tasted the cherry bars. Very good.....I still don't like cherry pie ROFL! But the taste hit the spot. And they won't go to waste.

Dh and DD won't touch them, but the guys at work will be eating them out of the container before I even sit down tomorrow!

Best way to pit tart cherries? Hold a cherry over a strainer in a bowl. Pull off the stem and discard. Push the straw through where the stem was until the pit pops out the other end. Drop the pit into the strainer. This way you catch all the juices that run off your fingers, and drip from the pits.

I love Door County cherries! We were in that area when they were ripe and they were so tasty! We had the best cherry pie I have ever eaten.
Three years ago were were coming back from a trip from Canada and found a woman selling cherries she had just picked from her back yard that morning. I can't remember how much they cost...not too much and they were great. As we neared the US border I started worrying about if I would be able to carry them across. So instead of going into Vancouver to cross I made DH go on the back roads to a less busy customs center. I asked the man if he was going to confiscate my last pound of freshly picked cherries and he laughed and said no, I could take them across.
Otherwise I would have sat there and eaten them all. LOL

I'd love to ... if they weren't $3.00 a pound!

Uncle had 10 or so pound pails that they bought frozen from a local store, that sourced them from a reasonably-close orchard. The store closed a few months ago and I've thought that I should ask the owners whether some of us could make a list of who may be interested and go to the orchard to buy whatever number of pails that folks may want.

We boys used to climb into our black cherry tree (about 25 - 30 feet high) and eat by the half hour.

We put together some bangers that we could activate by pulling a string of binder twine from beside the back door ... but that only frightened the birds away for a couple of days.

One of my friends has netting that he puts over his trees ... but says that some birds always manage got tget through (or around) it.

Enjoy your cherries.

ole joyful