Pucker Up to Cornelian Cherries
During these last weeks, life has manifested many, many bowls of cherries!
Most days, you can find Pat and I harvesting from three cornelian cherry trees that seem to have exploded this year with their sweet-sour fruit.
Cornelian cherries are popular in Turkey, Iran, Eastern Europe, the UK, and the Mediterranean.
Our half dozen were planted by Torkel Korling, or perhaps nature planted a handful of them. The squirrels and birds have certainly done their part in spreading the seeds around. In fact the tree closest to our house that also happens to shade our stairs leading to the patio is thoroughly ransacked by these hungry creatures. They thoughtfully sprinkle cherry detritus upon our stairs causing a less than stable surface to walk on.
I’m not mad as long as they leave us the cluster of trees near the greenhouse. This trio of trees has been sagging more than ever under the weight of their fruit. It’s a beautiful thing, really. The bowed boughs certainly make picking their fruit closer to our reach. Ninja and Marbles, our cats, like to climb the trees demonstrating their abilities to reach the fruit on top. How lovely it would be to tie little baskets around their necks and train them to pick the ripest fruits, but these are cats and therefore capable but never compliant.
Speaking of ripe fruits. These cherries are downright sweet when picked at their ripest – when they’re dark and soft. I pop them in my mouth and spit out the pit. Anything less ripe, and they’ll cause you to pucker.
Still, we harvest them before their absolute ripest – before the birds fly away with them – and before they’re little stems give way under their pressure and fall to the ground.
This season has been our largest harvest to date with a total of 20 lbs and more to come today and tomorrow.
As a result of our bounty, we’ve had to become more creative in the ways of our consumption.
So far, we’ve made:
Juice – which I added to a gin and tonic. We’ve also mixed it with seltzer and ginger ale.
Frozen treats – Pat has churned both sorbet and sherbet, but he is going to try cherry ice cream next.
Jelly – this is super yummy on biscuits, pancakes, or on top of vanilla ice cream. I’m hoping Penelope gets inspired to add it to one of her cakes one of these days.
Still on the table to try: a cherry ice cream and coke float – a “blushing cow”?, dried cherries, a cherry tart, pickled cherries, hot brie cheese smothered in cherry jam. . .
All in all, as anyone with a bumper crop knows, it’s tricky to keep up with the harvest and processing. We’re considering freezing them. They’d be lovely alongside a Thanksgiving turkey or as a filling for a batch of hamantaschen cookies.
While we didn’t cultivate these trees ourselves, their prosperity encourages us to think what our baby pawpaws, pears, and apples are capable of some day. Cheers to cornelian cherries!