Help, help! I've been overrun with cherries! Our 95 year old neighbour, who lives by himself, has allowed me to come in and pick his cherry trees. Wow, he must have planted them 60 years ago because they are loaded! Right now cherries are in hot demand because, in town, they are infested with worms and have been for over seven years, but the worm hasn't made it out here yet so I'm quite glad to pick them.
The first thing I do after picking them is to wash them all.
Then there's the pitting. Thank goodness I bought a double cherry/plum pitter machine last year, it sure is coming in handy!
And then each cherry is cut in half for setup in the dehydrator.
10 trays later and a before shot.
About 15 hours later:
And while the cherries are drying it's time to drag out my pressure canner. I've never canned cherries in the pressure canner before but it's much easier than using a hot water bath so I thought I'd give it a shot.
I managed to fit 18 quarts (yes that's quarts) in! It's a big canner.
The cherries are a bit over done and quite a bit of juice was lost.
Not sure if I'll do them in the pressure cooker again or not. I've still got a ton of cherries to get to... and I'll decide when I have my jars full.
Next on my list is cherry pie filling (got to find a recipe that doesn't use the sour/pie cherries, anyone have one??), and then there's cherry preserves and after that I'd like to try Cherry BBQ Sauce. Better get busy!
UPDATE: I did up some more cherries using the hot water bath method and they are much better than in the pressure canner, to view click here: Cherries (HWB)
UPDATE: I did up some more cherries using the hot water bath method and they are much better than in the pressure canner, to view click here: Cherries (HWB)
6 comments:
I notice that you dried them face down, so got little wafers. If you dry them cut-side up, they'll curl up into little raisin-like things, which are great in salad.
How much head-space did you leave when you canned them? Believe it or not, leaving more head-space will result in more lost liquid (providing, of course, that you hadn't filled them all the way to the top).
Did you hot-pack them, or cold-pack? In other words, had you heated them at all, or just put them in cold?
I am so thinking cherry cheese cake right now!
I love reading your blog!
Dora Renee' Wilkerson
Hi Kansas...You are one busy lady..I tried your cheesecake and it was GREAT!!!!
I wish I was there helping you and learning at the same time! I'm still waiting for my veggies to ripen - I may have enough tomatoes (MAYBE) to can and perhaps some cucs to make pickles and stuff out of...but not sure. My zucchini is getting big and I have another one growing! yea!
The cherries look beautiful! Does the pressure canner force the liquid out (taking notes in my head here)?
What a sweet dilemma! Your pictures are amazing!
What do you think of your dehydrator? I have been thinking about buying one for some time now. After reading your post about it with the cherries It makes me want to go buy one today.
Hey, did you talk your hubby into goats yet? We are going this weekend to look at a new mix. I can't wait to taste the milk.
Take care and you know I'll be back to read more!
Dora Renee' Wilkerson
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