Imagine a burst of flavor that dances on your palate – sweet, with a delicate hint of bitterness, enriched by deep caramel undertones. This is the intricate tapestry of taste offered by sour cherry preserve: layer upon layer of thick, rich flavor that is both sophisticated and pure. The moment you experience it, your mouth explodes with a vibrant complexity of summer’s finest, forever transforming your culinary world. Having embraced sour cherries in my kitchen every summer since childhood, I am passionately committed to sharing their wonderful versatility with fellow food enthusiasts.
This evocative description hails from my previous article, where I recounted a memorable trip to a sour cherry orchard and the delightful preserve we crafted. It’s hard to believe that post dates back to July 2017! Far too much time has passed since I last celebrated these magnificent ruby fruits. It’s high time for a fresh perspective and an updated tribute to the humble yet extraordinary sour cherry.
To truly appreciate sour cherries, it’s essential to understand what sets them apart from their sweeter counterparts. Sweet cherries, such as Bing, Rainier, and Lambert varieties, are naturally high in sugars. They typically boast a larger size, sturdy structure, and firm flesh, making them ideal for fresh snacking. Sour cherries, on the other hand, often referred to as tart cherries, are the preferred choice for baking and cooking. Their lower sugar content is a significant advantage, as their inherent acidity provides a bright, vivid flavor profile that intensifies beautifully when cooked. As their sugars concentrate during the baking process, they develop a profound depth of flavor unmatched by sweet varieties. Notable sour cherry varieties include Montmorency, Morello, and Balaton. These delicate fruits are generally smaller and softer than sweet cherries, signaling their perfect suitability for preserves, pies, and other culinary creations (Bon Appétit, July 23, 2021).
During our years living in Europe, baking and canning with sour cherries was a cherished annual tradition. These delicate fruits have a remarkably short season, typically a small window at the end of June into early July. This brief period is your golden opportunity to acquire and use them fresh before they spoil. For those residing in the Chicagoland area, you might find select sour cherry varieties at specialty grocery stores like Fresh Farms International Market and Rich’s Fresh Market. However, for an experience that truly connects you with nature’s bounty and offers unparalleled freshness, I wholeheartedly recommend the adventure of picking them yourself. It’s an incredibly rewarding and enjoyable activity for all ages!
This is precisely what my family and I did earlier this month. We embarked on a delightful journey to Fruit Acres Farm Market and U-Pick in Coloma, Michigan, dedicating a lovely Saturday morning to collecting these precious tart cherries. Located just an hour and a half’s drive from Chicago, Fruit Acres is a family-owned farm steeped in nearly 200 years of history. According to information proudly shared on their website, “The Friday family settled this 200-acre fruit farm, located in Coloma, Michigan in 1846. The Fridays were originally from Bavaria, Germany, and named Freitag. Randy and Annette (Friday) Bjorge are the 5th generation of the Friday family farming the same land. We met in college, and Randy likes to say he married the farmer’s daughter. We took over the farm in 1991 after Annette’s father, James Friday, passed away suddenly.” This rich heritage imbues every aspect of the farm with a sense of dedication and passion for cultivation.
The Friday family’s agricultural expertise extends beyond sour cherries. Their expansive orchards yield a diverse array of fruits, including black and Rainier sweet cherries, juicy peaches, delicate nectarines, sweet plums, crisp pears, and an impressive selection of apples. This commitment to variety ensures a vibrant harvest season, offering something for every palate.
Beyond the U-Pick fields, Fruit Acres Farm operates its own market, conveniently located approximately one mile from the family fruit farm. Here, they proudly sell their own homegrown produce alongside a curated selection of other local fruits and vegetables, creating a vibrant hub for fresh, seasonal goods.
The market is a testament to the bounty of the region, with local berries, sweet corn, fragrant cantaloupe, and a continuous influx of other seasonal fruits and vegetables arriving daily, ensuring peak freshness and flavor for customers.
Upon our arrival at the orchard, the rain had just ceased, leaving behind a softly cloudy and atmospheric sky. Stepping out of the car, we immediately entered a truly magical realm, brimming with an air of joy and wonder that captivated both children and adults alike. The fresh, earthy scent of the damp ground mingled with the sweet aroma of ripening fruit, creating an inviting sensory experience.
And there they were – the true objects of our desire! Each sour cherry, a testament to nature’s artistry, showcased a captivating ruby-red transparency and a delicate, fragile appearance. These tart treasures were truly a sight to behold, glistening with remnants of morning dew and promising endless culinary possibilities.
Our entire family eagerly engaged in the delightful task of cherry picking. With countless recipes already swirling in my mind and little time to waste during their fleeting season, my mission was clear: to fill our buckets with as much of this precious fruit as possible. The rhythmic plucking of cherries, the shared laughter, and the simple pleasure of harvesting our own food made for an unforgettable morning.
We returned home around lunchtime, our buckets brimming with ruby treasures. Just a few hours later, I began crafting my first sour cherry masterpiece: delectable cherry cheesecake cookies. This recipe, originally featured in America’s Test Kitchen’s “Holiday Cookies” booklet (2010), is an absolute keeper, and for good reason – these cookies are nothing short of phenomenal. While my hand-shaped creations may not always win beauty contests in photographs, their flavors and textures are consistently outstanding, guaranteed to satisfy even the most discerning sweet tooth. The magical combination of cream cheese, butter, and fresh sour cherries results in incredibly soft cookies, and their intense, bright cherry flavor is utterly glorious! I often opt to omit the graham cracker “coating,” a personal preference that allows the pure cherry essence to shine through even more. Using fresh sour cherries for the topping yields truly amazing results every time. A fantastic perk of many cookie doughs is their freezer-friendliness, which offers incredible flexibility. Preparing a large batch and freezing portions of the dough frees up valuable time, allowing for more summertime fun instead of spending an entire day confined to the kitchen. Less intensive baking in one go translates directly to more leisure and enjoyment.
Just a few days following our cookie baking spree, I transformed more of our freshly picked sour cherries into homemade jam and syrup. The kitchen filled with the sweet, tart aroma as the fruit simmered, promising deliciousness for weeks and months to come.
These versatile preserves quickly found their way into various culinary applications. One of my favorite uses is as a delightful topping for a light and airy sponge cake. The vibrant tartness of the cherry jam perfectly complements the subtle sweetness of the cake, creating a truly irresistible dessert. It’s simply divine!
Beyond traditional baking, I also harnessed the jam’s potential to create a spectacular sour cherry ice cream. My secret? Simply folding the homemade jam into a rich vanilla ice cream base, often enhanced with a handful of fresh mulberries picked straight from our garden. The result is an absolutely scrumptious, creamy treat with pockets of tart cherry goodness. To elevate this fabulous summer dessert, I add a few refreshing fresh mulberries and sour cherries on top, creating a beautiful contrast in texture and an explosion of berry flavors. A homemade summer indulgence is effortlessly born!
Currently, my pantry shelves are beautifully stocked with an impressive collection of sour cherry jam jars and bottles of glistening syrup, ready to brighten any meal. In addition to these classic methods, I also employ other effective preservation techniques for pitted sour cherries, specifically dehydrating and freezing. While previously frozen sour cherries might become a touch softer or “watery” in texture once thawed, I firmly believe they remain absolutely amazing for baking purposes. There’s an undeniable joy in retrieving a bag of perfectly preserved sour cherries from the freezer in the depths of winter, knowing they will transform into comforting sponge cakes, rich bread puddings, or vibrant pies, bringing a taste of summer sunshine to colder days.
Speaking of pitted cherries, if you find yourself without a dedicated cherry pitter, or if your trusted tool has unexpectedly failed (a frustrating experience I’ve encountered myself), fear not! There are several ingenious alternative methods. My personal favorite, and one that my mother and aunt relied upon many years ago, involves a simple safety pin. To use this technique, insert the pointed end of an open safety pin into the cherry where the stem was attached. Gently push it through and artfully wiggle it down and around the pit until the pit detaches and pops out. Another highly effective method, particularly successful with the softer flesh of sour cherries, is to simply squeeze the pit out. By applying steady pressure to the cherry, the pit can often be forced out. Do keep in mind, however, that this technique might result in a slight loss of precious cherry juice and could leave your cherries a little squished. For those seeking even more options, I’ve seen various online discussions suggesting the use of chopsticks, straightened paper clips, metal straws, or even skewers. These and other creative approaches are thoroughly explored in the insightful Bon Appétit article, “How to Pit Cherries Even if You Don’t Have a Pitter,” a valuable resource for any home cook.
While the peak season for fresh sour cherries and some early berries may be winding down, the promise of more deliciousness from Fruit Acres Farm eagerly awaits. The first succulent peaches, cultivated with care in the Friday family’s orchards, are anticipated to be perfectly ripe for picking during the first week of August, ushering in another wave of summer’s sweetness. Following the peaches, a bountiful harvest of crisp, flavorful apples will take center stage, offering yet another opportunity to enjoy the fruits of Michigan’s rich agricultural landscape.
Are you a devoted fan of sour cherries? How do you incorporate these wonderfully tart fruits into your cooking and baking repertoire? I am always eager to discover new techniques and recipes, so please share your insights and culinary secrets with me – I would absolutely love to learn from your experiences and expand my own sour cherry adventures!
Disclaimer: I was not financially compensated by Fruit Acres Farm Market and U-Pick for this post. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.