Thanks skyjs. I would also say of my Hungarian cherries that Danube is about a week ahead of Montmorency, Jubileum possibly up to two weeks ahead, and Balaton perhaps a few days ahead in my location. They mostly seem to have cherries hanging in fewer numbers of one to three instead of more as I see with the clusters of Montmorency, but perhaps this is a function of the age of the tree. The cherries hanging as singles with Danube in particular probably somewhat helps explain the larger size of that cultivar. The Hungarian cherries also seem to separate from the stems more easily when picking which is nice and less messy. I would give more information on Balaton but I do not really have a fair comparison because the tree is sickly and has never grown right. However this is no fault of the tree but rather the result of me stupidly planting it in a gopher cage. These gopher cages might be a good idea in theory and you can get them in chicken wire 1/2 inch mesh but the problem is that they are still made of the usual galvanized material and so they do not corrode away easily. So, my Balaton cherry has always had sickly growth from what I presume is a problem of root strangulation. If the cage had simply corroded away after a few years of root establishment then all might have been well, but instead I got a fairly well gown tree now with half its buds missing except out near the tips of the limbs. What good is a gopher cage if it kills the tree's roots more effectively than a whole army of hungry gophers? Ah well, chalk that one up to experience or perhaps the lack of it. I can say that I think Balaton tastes the most like Montmorency but is perhaps a little larger, and it probably would be bearing quite well by now if not for the aforementioned gopher cage fiasco. I hope you folks are not plagued by the notorious cherry fruit fly. For those of you who may not like to spray excessively and who do have to deal with this irksome pest, let me recommend my organic method of dealing with the little buggers. The trick is to pick and eat the cherries right when they get ripe and wait no longer. By doing this you get your extra protein from the tiny eggs or maggots before they are big enough to notice or have done any damage of consequence within the fruit. If you let them hang on the trees eventually the cherries turn soft and fermented and rotten inside and are hollowed out by the disgusting little fruit worms. This trick does not seem to work on currants however, as the worms from that species of fruit fly start to develop inside well before the fruit is ripe. I hope this helps. This post was edited by agritopiate on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 19:48

They will have to be pre-cooked at some point to blanch and so make them safe for canning to stop the enzyme action and to soften them a bit. That is the reason for the "boil for 1 min." part of the NCHFP recipe - blanching. In that 1 min. of boiling time you aren't going to lose all that much juice, if any. Think of it like making jam only with jam the fruit gets cooked in with the rest of the ingredients. Here the fruit only gets that 1 min. Dave

They have ground cherries at one of our farmers' markets. I haven't made a pie with them but if I did, I'd probably use my basic fruit custard pie recipe. FRUIT CUSTARD PIE 4 large peeled peaches or 2 cups raspberries, blackberries or cherries 9 inch pastry shell, unbaked 2 eggs 3/4 cup sugar Pinch of salt 1 cup whole milk 1 Tbs. Butter Ground cinnamon or nutmeg Bake pastry shell for 5 minutes at 450 degrees. Separate one egg; slightly beat egg white. Brush pie shell with a thin coating of egg white. Slice peeled peaches into bottom of pastry shell, or spread cherries or berries over bottom. Beat eggs, sugar, and salt thoroughly, including the reserved egg yolk and the remainder of the egg white from the pie shell wash. Add milk, mix, and pour over fruit. Dot with bits of butter and sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. Bake 10 minutes at 425 degrees � then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes longer or until set. Cool to room temperature; then refrigerate. Serve chilled.

We had some very old cherry trees part of my Grandfather's orchard . As a kid I would climb into one of these huge standard trees and eat cherries . These were earlier than the Montmorency my other Grandmother had . I finally concluded they were early Richmond many years later . About equal on taste . I will let you know how Danube tastes . Getting a blush on some now .