Can you eat wild cherries?

[mrbstephens]

There are many wild black cherry trees in my area and this year one of the trees in my yard is LOADED with cherries. Never in my 9 years living in this house have I ever seen cherries on this tree. So, can we eat them? Cook with them?

 

[patandchickens]

Sure, of course... just taste a few first to see what you'd want to do with them (eat raw, use for pie, or heavily-sweeten for jelly/jam/juice)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

If they are the same type of black cherries on my property, they are very bitter/sour and really inedible. I picked a pound or so to make some liqueur, since we are not big on sweets and the amount of sugar needed to sweeten them for jam would be just ridiculous. Plus, they are a lot of work to pick, since the trees are so tall. I hope you have something different! If they were more accessible, I would juice them and make some wine and maybe some vinegar with them. I would need to go up and down a ladder many, many times, though, to get a few pounds, and even then it would be tricky.

I mostly just cuss them out! They attract yellow jackets into the grass and I have to keep a sharp eye out if I want to go barefoot or in sandals. The squirrels and chipmunks eat the pits, so they bury them in my garden and little clusters of cherry trees come up every spring.

I suspect that they would likely make a great jelly if you are patient and don't mind using a lot of sugar. I'd recommend juicing a very small amount, sweeten the juice, and see if it comes out ok before proceeding with a large batch.

 

[citylife]

I would go out and buy 3) 1 gal. glass jugs, 3) 1/2 gal's cheap vodka, sugar Lots of washed cherries stem removed.
I would take a gal jug and put 2 cups sugar and a 1/2 gal of vodka and shake until the sugar has disolved. Once disolved, fill the rest of the 1 gal jug with cherrys, pits and all. Once a week shake the jar. Taste it in about 6 months.
now........... what about the left overs................... 2 more jugs and what not. Well now. i would play around with the sugar. So............ would still use the 1/2 gal vodka but would do one with 2 1/2 c. sugar and the last one with 3 cups sugar. This way you can find out in 3 batches how much sugar is best for this drink or if you need even more. Shake all bottles once a week. mark them so you know how they are made. I call this "cherry bounce" its like a cherry pie that will make you fall down while your ice fishing. Lolololol The pits are actually important in this drink. So, fill the jug with the vodka/sugar mixture full of cherries and enjoy drinks in 6 mo. or so.

With tart pie cherries I make it with the 2 cups. sugar, so I am not sure how you will need to adjust the sugar.
But, at least this is a good start to a great finish.

The lady w/4 dogs, 4 city chickens, 5 meat rabbits, their kits, and a lizard

 

[aggieterpkatie]

We have 2 different types of cherry trees on our place. One is a huuuge old tree with very small black cherries, but they're sweet. The other one is a sour cherry tree in the hedgerow....bright red cherries! I made cherry crisp with them this year and it was SO good! Next year I'll make more of an effort to pick more of them so I can freeze some.