Cherries are the ultimate summer fruit. Once harvested, however, they only keep for a few days. Properly stored, they retain their aroma; Cherries can also be preserved very well in a variety of ways.

Cherries can be preserved for months

Proper storage of fresh cherries

Fresh cherries begin to rot and mold within a few days of being picked. You should therefore observe the following in order to keep them as long-lasting and aromatic as possible:

  • Store stemmed cherries. In this way they do not lose any juice, remain tasty and no putrefactive bacteria can penetrate.
  • Always keep fresh cherries in the fridge. The cool temperatures ensure a longer shelf life.
  • If necessary, remove the cherries from their plastic bag or tray after purchasing. The air can only circulate poorly in it, which means that mold can easily develop.

Freeze cherries

If you want to enjoy your own harvest outside of the cherry season, you can freeze the cherries. The fruits are safe for several months in a freezer bag or a tightly closed freezer container. When freezing, you have two options:

  • Freeze pitted cherries: If you want to save as much effort as possible when processing the cherries later, freeze them without the pits. Place the cherries next to each other on a board in the freezer for a few hours. This will prevent the juicy fruit from freezing into a lump.
  • Freezing cherries with the pit: If you leave the pit in the fruit when freezing, this has the advantage that the cherries do not lose any juice. They are also easier to pit with a knife when frozen.

make cherry juice

If you want to use the juice from the cherries for drinks or desserts, you can easily juice cherries at home. The easiest way to do this is with a steam juicer, as you don't have to pit the fruit for this. The juice heated during hot juicing can be stored in sterile bottles for up to a year.

Boil cherries

Cherries have a particularly long shelf life if they are preserved. Heating destroys germs that would otherwise rot the fruit. You can boil cherries very well in different ways:

  • Preserve whole cherries: Put cherries with or without pits in sterile jars, fill up with sugared water and cook in the oven in a water bath for 30 minutes
  • Cook cherry compote: stone the cherries, put them in a saucepan, cook with spices and a little water or wine, thicken with starch and place in sterile jars
  • Cooking cherry jam: Stone the cherries, mix with preserving sugar, leave to infuse, then cook for four minutes to jam and place in sterile jars
  • Cooking cherry jelly: Extract the juice from the cherries by steam, boil the juice with the preserving sugar to make a jelly and fill into sterile jars

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Vegetable garden