Picking Sour Cherries!

Posted bynancyonthehomefrontPosted inGardening, Prudent Pantry, RecipesTags:, , , ,
sour cherries

Sour cherries grow in Vermont but their season is short, sometimes only two weeks long! If we have an unusually cold spring there might not be any sour cherries. Last Friday my husband and I decided to go on an adventure and find some elusive sour cherries to pick!sour cherries

There was an orchard on the Vermont – New York border, a little more than an hour away that had sour cherries, so off we went!sour cherries

It was a cloudy cool day and the grass was wet from the night’s rain but the cherries were indeed abundant and easy to pick. With my husband and I picking we managed to pick 13 pounds of cherries in a little over an hour! They were absolutely beautiful!sour cherries

You may ask what I’m going to do with all those cherries? The first thing to do was to pit them. The folks at the orchard said not to waste my money on a cherry picker but to just use a paper clip. A little tedious but easy and I put some music on and pitted away!sour cherries

Next I mixed up a batch of my wonderful Sour Cherry Cordial. So easy to make and it is the essence of summer! You must be patient as it takes four months before you can enjoy it. However, it is the perfect drink to enjoy in the middle of winter sitting in front of the wood stove! It’s been years since I made a batch so I doubled the recipe. After all it does make a nice gift when placed in a fancy bottle!

Sour Cherry Cordial

2 ½ pounds of sour cherries
3 cups vodka
3 cups of sugar

Put the vodka and washed, crushed cherries (without stems) in a large container.sour cherries cordial

Let the cherry vodka mix sit in a cool dark place for one month. Shake occasionally.sour cherries cordial

After a month, add the sugar, and let sit another month, shaking when you think of it. Strain, bottle, and let age for four months.

Drink as an aperitif, or digestif, chilled or warm, in small glasses. We enjoy it over crushed ice.

As I sip the cordial I will remember our outing and the warm sunny days of picking sour cherries in the orchard.cordial, prudent pantry, prudent living

I did not use all 13 pounds of cherries in the cordial, I also have two bags of pitted cherries to use for cherry compote and/or a pie! Plus I gave my neighbor two pounds and in exchange she is going to give me a jar of her delicious cherry blueberry jam!

20 thoughts on “Picking Sour Cherries!”

    1. Daisy,
      Overtime I think of cherry pies I think of that old song, “can she bake a cherry pie, billy boy, Billy boy..” 🙂

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  2. MMmmm boy that does sound good. We picked our cherries 2 weeks ago and I put them up in 4 cup bags enough for 10 pies and yesterday I made yummy tarts with puff pastry—excellent. I am going to try your recipe—-oh how do you manage to wait for so long???
    MB

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    1. MaryBeth,
      Cherry Tarts sound amazing, if our house wasn’t on the market I would have picked twice as many to stock out freezer! 🙂

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  3. It is so nice that you are giving your neighbor some wild cherries and she is going to give you some cherry blueberry jam. Trading is always a wonderful thing to do and seems like a dying art.
    JM, IL

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      1. When you write “bottle and let age 4 months”……..do you mean a corked bottle or will a mason jar work?

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      2. I imagine a mason jar would work just fine! I have a husband that is in to fancy labels and corked bottles! 🙂

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