What color would you say these beauties are? They look plum to me.
But how can a cherry be plum?
These are Bing cherries, left on the tree about three weeks too long.
Tree over-ripened fruit is one of the sweetest concentrations of sugar on this planet. So yes, taking a bite of one of these is, as my dad says, "pure sugar."
Meet my new best friend:
Hello new best friend.
My brother gave this jewel to me for Christmas and I've been anxiously awaiting cherry season ever since. (They're available with a clamp or a suction base.)
It makes really quick work of the twenty pounds of cherries (picked by my darling of a husband) I'm dehydrating, freezing, and making into cherry butter.
These cherries are slated for dehydration. It takes me about 15-17 hours to dry a whole cherry... halved cherries go much quicker but I like them whole. When finished, they will be great for straight snacking, mixing into granola, trail mix, muffins, scones, and pretty much any recipe (cookie or otherwise) that calls for raisins.
And the juice that drips off of these sugar bombs makes about the best iced tea or lemonade mix-in you've ever had.
I love Summer.
This post is linked to: Simple Lives Thursday and Real Food Wednesday
