North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Don Yellman <don.yellman@webformation.com>]

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