North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jfruth@tds.net>]

   When I harvest Wild Black Cherry, I do it the way Black Bear do it. 
Bend the tree to the ground.  I use a length of rope and my spare tire to 
hold it there until I'm through picking.  When the bole becomes too thick to 
be bent down, I use a step ladder but (up to) 4" trees can be bent down 
providing you do it every year.
   Like Chokecherry, the fruit is born on racemes.  Unlike Chokecherry 
whose fruit all ripens at the same time on any given tree, Black Cherry 
fruits ripen one at a time so there are ripe fruit and green, and everything 
in between, on the same raceme.  That makes for inconvenient harvesting, 
having to pick one berry at a time instead of stripping the whole raceme. 
If your tree is in an area that is not subject to alot of bird pressure, you 
can wait until all the berries per raceme ripen, as most will hang on until 
they become very overripe.  At that point, they become sugary-sticky, messy 
to pick but worth the mess to make jelly.  We make Black Cherry Jelly here 
at Brambleberry Farm.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
www.bberryfarm.com
(218)568-8483 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]

This is great
fruit, the trick being to find those trees & branches which can be harvested 
from
the ground or from the bed of a truck.  If you have enough success w/ this 
project,
please share the best techniques you find, and also the scionwood.


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