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Drying Cherries? Is that a thing ?

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posted 9 years ago

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Well this year we have lots of sweet cherrys and I am wondering about drying them . Any one tried this ? Did you take the stones out ? Was it worth it ?

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Burra Maluca

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posted 9 years ago

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I've never dried them myself but I used to buy dried ones when I was in the UK, and yes, the stones were taken out.

Now I grow my own, I tend to freeze the surplus, with stones taken out and spread on a large tray until frozen, then packed loose in bags.

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Kate Muller

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posted 9 years ago

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Sweet cherries are one of my favorite things to dehydrate. You will need to pit the cherries and using a cherry pitter will make removing the pits faster.

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posted 3 years ago

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I've never tried it, but I think it's very much a thing! I like this video because it has a lot of good tips, even something to do with the stems!

They look really good, but sadly, my cherries are tiny compared to these. Maybe I need another cherry tree.

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Jay Angler

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posted 3 years ago

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Most years, the squirrels, robins or ravens get all my cherries, but the times they didn't, I absolutely pitted and dried them. Most years I end up having to buy dried cherries which I substitute in recipes calling for maraschino cherries which I dislike both for the flavor and the artificial colouring. Today I made my "Canada Jay" cake, which calls for 2 cups of dried fruit, made up of 4 different types. Today I used home dried raisins, apples and figs, and store-bought dried cherries. #2 Son told me to "get them put away or I'll keep snacking on them until they're gone"!

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Barbara Manning

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posted 3 years ago

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If your cherries are too small to pit, then split them or at least score them and try drying the cherries with the pit. The pit probably won't explode in the dryer, and you may end up with a bonus of dried pits, which are great for packing in a study bag or pillow-like thing that you create. The pillow-like thing that you create is an excellent source for a heat pack for your feet at night or a simple bag of heat to put on a sore shoulder or knee. Here's what Google has to say about it: https://www.google.com/search?q=dried+cherry+pit+heat+bags&rlz=1C1FNES_enJP1027JP1027&oq=dried+cherry+pit+heat+bags&aqs=chrome..69i57.10681j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I got a cherry pit-filled bag as a Christmas gift one year and still use it. The pits take the heat from a microwave well and stay warm for hours. Use it on any joint or to warm your toes at night.

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John Suavecito

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posted 3 years ago

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I have eaten dried cherries many times. As my mother in law would say, "They are so much better frozen if you've got the space." We do have the space in our freezer. They are so much tastier frozen than dried IMHO that I don't dry them.
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Lee Gee

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posted 6 years ago

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YES!

Pit them. Put them single layer in a dehydrator. Candy! Store them in an airtight container.

Pit them. Put them in your Vitamix, pour/slather it on a teflex sheet. Fruit leather. Store it in an airtight container.

Flavor some neutral spirits with them.

These methods are not drying but worth mentioning?

Pit them. Put them in a single layer in the freezer. Then store them air tight.

Ferment them. Sugar, water, whey and a little time on your counter/fridge. Yum!

Preserves, jams.

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Devin Lavign

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posted 6 years ago

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Yep people do it, and charge lot of money for them

For example $9 for this

So pull out those pits and dry as many as you can. Those cherries are better dried than doing nothing with them. Winter will be much better with some dried cherries in it.

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Jay Angler

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posted 6 years ago

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I make a lot of "cakes" based on muffin recipes (because muffin recipes generally have half the sugar of a cake recipe). Any time the recipe calls for a dried fruit I don't grow and dry myself, I substitute one I have dried. Dried cherries are awesome. I use them in Christmas baking which calls for maraschino cherries which I've never liked and are full of yucky stuff. I also put atypical dried fruit in bread recipes, so instead of raisin bread as a treat, I have dried apple bread or dried fig bread.

Unfortunately, the squirrels tend to get all my cherries.

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Morgan Lawson

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posted 6 years ago

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wow this is very interesting! I wonder if you eat them just like that after drying them or you can put them in cakes or other sweets???

Jay Angler

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posted 6 years ago

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Meant to mention - I got a cheap Thrift store cherry pitter which does the job if there aren't too many, but I find when home-drying things like cherries or grapes, the easiest way is to cut the fruit in half and put it skin-side-down on the trays, so if you don't have a pitter, try that.

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Joylynn Hardesty

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posted 6 years ago

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Or leave the knife in the drawer...

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S Tonin

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posted 6 years ago

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I use Bexar Prepper's method for pitting cherries:

(I use a stainless straw)

Oscar Brown

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posted 6 years ago

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I drying cherries every year, my wife uses them for baking in the winter. We are pitting cherries fast with a paper clip...

Devin Lavign

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posted 6 years ago

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S Tonin wrote:I use Bexar Prepper's method for pitting cherries:

Bexar is awesome, she has some great videos about common sense homestead things.

John F Dean

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posted 6 years ago

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Cherries were one of the first items we used on our dehydrator.

I figure if someone from the future hasn’t tried to stop me, I can’t be messing up that bad.

Ken W Wilson

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posted 6 years ago

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Can you dehydrate pie cherries? They have a lot more juice.

John Weiland

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posted 5 years ago

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Will bump this thread with a question or two.

Seems to be a banner year for pie cherries. We've canned and frozen enough, but have a surplus....don't really want to run the food dehydrator just now and we aren't in a zone that naturally dries things very well due to bugs and humidity. It would be nice to take a bunch into fruit leather.....and I do have parchment paper, but is there any way to just use a stainless steel metal surface or is parchment/silicon really the main way to do this? Also, I'd like to do it in a solar over by cracking the lid to allow for moisture to escape.....hopefully okay to do it this way? Thanks!

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Jay Angler

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posted 5 years ago

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John Weiland wrote:

is there any way to just use a stainless steel metal surface or is parchment/silicon really the main way to do this?

My concern would be it sticking. One trick is to use a pan that small enough to fit in your freezer - when the metal and leather are both frozen, you may be able to twist the pan and have it pop off. I've done this with the plastic frame of my dehydrator, but not done it with metal, so you might want to do a small quantity as a test?

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John Weiland

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posted 5 years ago

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Thanks for the tip! I was also considering using just the thinnest smear of coconut oil on the pan surface, which of course is probably a bit strange and not conducive to room temp storage of the fruit leather perhaps....?? The freezing idea is a good one for sure.....will give that a try in tomorrow's heat.

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Lana Weldon

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posted 5 years ago

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There is quite a demand on dried cherries I think... I just know where to buy dried sour cherries, and they are not cheap, but really nice. I'd love to know where to buy dried sweet cherries but impossible to find around here. There is an increase in people wanting to consume dry fruits, logical because of less packaging, less processing/cooking etc.

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posted 8 months ago

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I'm very happy for my dried cherries this year. Dried fruit in the store tripled in price since last winter, but my cherries i dried to a crisp many years ago are perfect.

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Nancy Reading

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posted 2 weeks ago

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Thank you permies! I seem to have sweet cherries to use this year and I wanted to try dehydrating them. I don't have a cherry pitter, but I'm pretty sure I have an old fork and I know I've got a pencil!

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Ac Baker

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posted 2 weeks ago

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Exciting! (If I'm just serving me, I'm lazy, and mostly de-pit as I eat!)

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G Freden

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posted 2 weeks ago

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I made the fork pitter years ago and it's great. I also use it for de hulling strawberries, quick and neat.

When I was a kid, my mother dried sweet cherries off our tree but none of us kids liked them. She like to make scones with them in, but only she would eat them (looking back, this was probably tactically done). I imagine I would like them these days, but the birds don't give me a chance.

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Joao Winckler

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posted 2 weeks ago

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ha, same situation here, birds are absolutely relentless with cherries. I barely get a quarter of what the tree produces before they've had the lot. Starting to think dehydrating whatever I do rescue is actually smarter than freezing, at least it clears up the freezer space.

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Nancy Reading

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posted 2 weeks ago

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Joao Winckler wrote:Starting to think dehydrating whatever I do rescue is actually smarter than freezing, at least it clears up the freezer space.

Yes - freezer space and healthier perhaps than added sugar jams, which is a default almost for fruit for me!

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G Freden

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Nancy Reading wrote:
Yes - freezer space and healthier perhaps than added sugar jams, which is a default almost for fruit for me!

We're on a fruit ice cream spree at my house--pureed berries/fruit, sweetener (we're a low- to no-sugar family--I use stevia/erythritol blend), whipped cream. I'm on the lookout for some ice lolly moulds, but for now we're enjoying it with a bowl and spoon. True, it takes up freezer space, but not for long in this weather. So far we've done gooseberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, blackberry. I'm keeping a close eye on my fig tree for the next batch.

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Carla Burke

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posted 2 weeks ago

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On a forewarned type note... Some sweet cherries can end up tasting rather more like grapes, once dehydrated. I have one such batch in my pantry, that I have been very sad about. I don't hate raisins, by any means, but they're not my favorite dried fruit, either, and I much prefer my cherries taste like cherries. I don't have a solution, yet.

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Jay Angler

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Carla Burke wrote:... I much prefer my cherries taste like cherries. I don't have a solution, yet.

Soak them in cherry liqueur for an hour before using?

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Nancy Reading

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Carla Burke wrote:On a forewarned type note... Some sweet cherries can end up tasting rather more like grapes, once dehydrated. I have one such batch in my pantry, that I have been very sad about. I don't hate raisins, by any means, but they're not my favorite dried fruit, either, and I much prefer my cherries taste like cherries. I don't have a solution, yet.

I don't mind if they taste of raisins really, as said above, it's just a way of preserving that potentially doens't use extra energy or add suger.