In which I seek Blogospheric advice: what shall I do with CHERRIES?!?!
The two Royal Ann cherry trees are really producing heavily right now, and even with the neighborhood families helping, we can't eat them all fresh.As a librarian, I know how to look for stuff. And yet, I was deeply dismayed at the lack of variety in "cherry recipes" available in books at my library and online. Almost everything--even on the diabetic websites--calls for yaller cake mix and Kool Whip.
Yuck.
I want these cherries to be food, not candy. I can't eat processed white sugar, (and you wouldn't want to be anywhere near me if I did.) Splenda doesn't work either--it makes me crazy AND upsets my digestion, not a popular combination.
Suggestions, please, oh Ether-esque Wize Wonz?
How can I preserve some of these cherries for later without using Karo syrup?
I've got a bunch of (pitted) cherries in the freezer right now, as an experiment, and will report on that. But I'm open to other thoughts if you've got them!
Cherry wine, of course.
ReplyDeleteoh aarene i cannot imagine having that problem and i'm so jealous! nothing could be better. ask my dad - last year when we visited, i ate off the trees for so long, and then went away with three bowls of them, from which i left pits all over the olympic peninsula on our trip. i can't get enough cherries. i actually got 4 off our tiny tree and they weren't ripe but i was afraid the birds would get them so i ate them anyway and they were heavenly.
ReplyDeletei refuse to buy cherries cuz they're too expensive, so i just wait for someone to offer me a chance at their tree.
hmmmmm. neighbors...
~lytha
Ummmm, cherry wine! Definitely a possibility.
ReplyDeleteLytha, if you're in the neighborhood while we're at camp next week, stop by and eat cherries from the trees! I hope there will still be lots when we get back, but it all depends on the weather...and Swampland weather is always an iffy deal, as you know.
Freezing the cherries on a cookie sheet overnight yielded tasty snacks--I'll definitely do more of this! But...need a bigger freezer!
Have you tried Stevia? It's an all natural sweetener. Cherry pie! We also made cherry/rhubarb pie and some kind of cherry preserves when I was a kid on our farm. I too, would just sit in the cherry tree and chomp for hours, trying to beat the birds!!! I miss it, I just buy them now. Expensive, but necessary!
ReplyDelete--Mindy
We've been eating smoothies all summer with store bought strawberries and bananas.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you can stomach dairy, but we just use milk and fruit..no sugar. And it's so yummy and cold.
Freeze your cherries first...and you could also add yogurt for an even creamier cherry smoothie.
I'm salivating just thinking about it!
Sure wish we had cherry trees here.
But we do have peaches and apples ripening!
~Lisa