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nafex - [NAFEX] Freezing Tart Cherries

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  • From: Don Yellman <don.yellman@webformation.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Freezing Tart Cherries
  • Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:32:05 -0500

Barbara:

If your tart cherries are browning in their freezer containers, the problem is not the
variety but something in your freezing technique or the type of storage you are using.
Northstar and Montmorency should freeze bright red, and stay that way for up to two
years in deepfreeze storage. We have been freezing these cherries for over 30 years,
and browning is not a problem, although I don't know what "brick-red" means.
No cherry is going to be exactly the same color it was on the tree once it has been
made into sauce, a pie or cobbler.

Processing of tart cherries should immediately follow picking. You can't let
them stand around much before pitting and bagging. Use ziplock freezer bags,
and evacuate all possible air before sealing the zipper. Add 1/2 cup sugar
to each bag, and squish the sugar around to help it go into solution in the
juice. Sugar is a natural preservative, and fights browning. Once the bags
are filled, place them immediately in deepfreeze storage. The freezer
section of an ordinary refrigerator is not adequate, since these units
undergo a defrost cycle twice in each 24 hour period. We also have Meteor
cherries, which are indistinguishable from Montmorency aside from the genetic
size control of the trees.

There are no cherry varieties out there that offer better color retention
than those you already have.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA




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