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Drying Cherries? Is that a thing ?

 
David Livingston
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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 ?

David

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Burra Maluca
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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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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.
 
Leigh Tate
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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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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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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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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.
John S
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Lee Gee
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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.

∞

 
Devin Lavign
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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.

"Where will you drive your own picket stake? Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific point at which you will finally stop running, at which you will finally fight back." (Derrick Jensen)

 
Jay Angler
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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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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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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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Or leave the knife in the drawer...

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
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S Tonin
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I use Bexar Prepper's method for pitting cherries:



(I use a stainless straw)
 
Oscar Brown
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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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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.

"Where will you drive your own picket stake? Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific point at which you will finally stop running, at which you will finally fight back." (Derrick Jensen)

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

You can only be young once … but you can be immature forever!

 
Ken W Wilson
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Can you dehydrate pie cherries?  They have a lot more juice.
 
John Weiland
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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!

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

 
Jay Angler
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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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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.

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein

 
Lana Weldon
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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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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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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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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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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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