Dried Cherries

While up in Utah visiting my family, I picked up some cherries. Is it just me, or does it seem like cherries are dirt cheap this season? There must have been a great crop this year. Anyhow, I had been wanting to try drying cherries for a while, but never did because I never had a cherry pitter.  I sure wasn't going to sit and cut all those cherries to get the seeds out. Fortunately for me, my mom has one. So we decided to try drying these cherries while I was up there.

Here's a wonderful shot of me pitting the cherries. We had to do it outside because it's a messy job. You basically stab each cherry with a metal rod, which pushes the seed out into it's own little container. As you pull the rod up, it drops the cherry and it slides out into a bowl you set on the side. It took no time at all to pit my bag of cherries. The juice splatters all over the place, which is why you wear clothes you don't care about.

My son decided to help out. I'm not sure if you can tell, but there are cherry juice splatters all over his face and clothes.

After pitting them, we placed them on the dehydrator and left them there for about 18 hours. My mom checked them periodically, and if they were done, would take them out.

We ended up with a small bag of the dried cherries and I would say they were pretty good. I made some granola cereal and added them to it and it made a pretty tasty breakfast cereal. I must say, though, I do prefer canned cherries over dried. Maybe if I go up there next summer we will can them instead. Maybe if I get a decent crop from my cherry tree I will can them. I guess I'll have to wait until next year.