North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[tanis grif <tanisgrif@yahoo.com>]

Get the juice off the pits as soon as you can.  Put an inch or 2 of fruit in 
a pot and break the skins with a potato masher, then squeeze out the juice in 
a wine press.  Fresh juice for jelly, for wine do a shorter fermentation on 
the fruit than you normally would.

Great fruit, some variability from tree to tree, but those with poor fruit 
make nicely scented firewood.


 

On Monday, August 18, 2014 6:44 AM, "dwoodard@becon.org" <dwoodard@becon.org> 
wrote:

I've heard of these cherries being used for jam and jelly, and I 
suspect they would be good for any use where the slight astringency is 
not objectionable. They used to be known here as "rum cherries" because 
the early settlers used them to flavour their cheap rum. They would fill 
a jar or crock part full of cherries, top it off with rum, and leave it 
as long as their willpower held out, up to maybe a couple of years. I 
deduce they would be good for cordials.

I don't know whether they have the reported health benefits of 
cultivated cherries, but I would expect so.

Probably a Victorio strainer or equivalent would be useful for 
extracting the pulp.

I've read that this species is something of a weed in Central Park in 
New York - on clay soil. I read that they are a favoured tree of 
sapsuckers, and that hummingbirds and orioles raid the holes/seeps. The 
wood is apparently much liked for veneer, and may be more valuable than 
black walnut.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada