Processing Cherries at Home

Gear

1 cherry tree, very prolific (this one is a North Star variety)
1 mid-height ladder
Bowls. Lots of big ones.
A sink
A spider strainer
Gallon size bags

Step 1 - Picking the cherries
For this step I use a 1 gallon size plastic bowl with a wide bottom. This means I can set it on the paint can rest on the ladder, which makes it easier to use both hands to move the branches around and remove cherries. Typically you can use one hand to gently pull the branch towards you and pull a few off at a time and put in the bowl. As you can see in the picture, the branches are all drooping down due to the weight. Once you pick the cherries of the branch, it springs back to a much more upright position. This can make it hard to strategize where to start.

For each section of the tree - usually I move my ladder about 5 times around the tree - start at the top and get as many branches as you can reach.

When the bowl is full, I go inside and transfer the cherries to a different one, and continue to use the more stable plastic one. Metal and glass and can warm in the sun, are often heavier, and have smaller bottoms so they're less stable to move around outside.

Step 2 - Washing
Once all the cherries have been picked, put the stopper in the sink and fill with cherries from a one gallon bowl. Water should be cold and keep filling until sink has 2 inches water above the top of the cherries. Using the spider straining or your hands, stir the cherries around in the water. Any leaves, dead cherry stems (there were lots this year) or rotting cherries will float to the top. You can use the strainer to skim then off.

Working through the rest of the cherries, pull of the rest of the stems and discard. Drop the cherries back into the water. Once all stems and debris has been removed, move cherries into strainer a handful at a time, inspecting quickly as you go. Toss any that are squishy or with obvious bad spots. Once the strainer is full, rinse the cherries again and then pour out to dry. I pour them onto a paper towel lined baking sheet. About 1 gallon will fit on a tray, though they will not be in a single layer - about half or slightly more will double up.

Continue until all cherries are processed, then let dry.
Once mostly dry, remove to gallon size bags and place in the refrigerator to be used.

If you're feeling festive and want to celebrate the end of the first day of cherry fest, refer to my Cherry Lime Spritzer recipe! It was delicious and refreshing, and a nice reward to use up some of the cherries after a long hot day.

If you can believe it, that little tree to the left had 4 completely full gallon sized bags by the end of the day - after we used a pound for syrup and ate a bunch more!