Dried Cherries

One of my brothers was visiting our parents in Eastern Washington and on his way home came through town and dropped of a few cherries that he had gleaned with my parents from a friend of the family's farm.  We ended up with two grocery sacks full of Rainier cherries.  Since cherries don't last long we knew we would need to preserve them in some way or try to eat them all quickly and suffer the consequences.

We decided to dry all the cherries because we enjoy eating them year round in a homemade trail mix that consists of the cherries, almonds, and dark chocolate chips.

The first step is to pit the cherries.  We inherited a cherry pitter a few years ago and have found it works quite well when the cherries are still firm and plump.  One of us knocks out the pits and drops the cherries in a bowl while the other takes the cherries from the bowl, cuts them in half, and places them on the dryer.

The only downfall with working with cherries is that they tend to stain your hands.  You can see the mark left by the Rainiers on my thumb below after we finished loading all the drying trays.

A day and half later we were still left with two bags full of cherries, though at least now the bags can be stored.  They probably won't last us all year but they sure will be sweet to have.