Freezing cherries and storing them in the refrigerator

Fresh cherries can be frozen to preserve them for longer. However, you should only freeze fresh cherries that do not have any dents, so that you are still left with beautiful, round fruits after thawing. If you want to make sure that you are not bringing any uninvited guests into the freezer, you can put the cherries in a water bath for half an hour before freezing. This should bring out any worms that might be hiding in your cherries.

You can also decide whether you want to freeze the cherries with or without their pit. The advantage of freezing with the pit is that the fruits become less mushy when thawing. In fact, it can sometimes even be easier to pit a cherry when it is still partly frozen. The advantage of freezing without the pit is that you can use the fruits as soon as they have thawed. This means that you can conjure up a delicious cherry compote for your waffles in no time.

Want to pit your cherries before you freeze them, but don't have a pitter at hand? No problem. One method is to simply cut open the cherries with a small knife and remove the stone with a spoon. You can also use your fingers. Just be careful – Cherry juice stains easily, so you may want to consider wearing gloves. Another option would be to place the cherry on the opening of an empty bottle. Now you can push the core out of the cherry into the bottle with a chopstick or similar. Our tip: you can make your own cherry stone pillow from the collected pits.

To freeze the cherries, you should first spread them over a tray and let them freeze for two hours. You can then pack the cherries in containers or freezer bags without the red fruits merging into a single large block. The containers or bags should be labelled with the date of freezing to help you keep track of your supplies. The cherries can be stored for a year.

Freezing cherries preserves the majority of their vitamins. When you want to defrost the cherries again, it is best to do this overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature. For optimal results, stretch a cloth over a bowl and place the cherries on top. This allows the cherry juice to drain, leaving the cherries less mushy.

Sweet and sour cherries – what actually is the difference? Well, sour cherries take longer to ripen and are therefore harvested later than sweet cherries. Sweet cherries can often be harvested as early as June, whereas sour cherries are not ready to harvest before July. Sour cherries are smaller, juicier and, as the name suggests, more tart. Morello cherries, which you can often find in the supermarket, are sour cherries. In total, there are several hundred different types of cherry. However, there are no differences in the way you freeze sweet and sour cherries. For sour cherries, just make sure that they are well cleaned and dry before freezing.

The subsequent step of shock freezing on a baking tray is crucial for both sour cherries and sweet cherries. Why? During freezing, the water contained in the sour cherries forms crystals. If the cherries are frozen slowly, these crystals become larger and destroy the cell walls of the delicate cherries. As a result, not only the texture is affected, precious vitamins are also destroyed. By shock-freezing the fruit, you prevent these consequences and the sweet or sour cherries remain crisp and full of vitamins, even after freezing.

If you then transfer the cherries to a freezer bag or container, make sure that you do not overfill them – the fruits should still be left some space to expand. You should also remove any air from the freezer bags.

If your chest freezer is already bursting at the seams and space in the refrigerator is also scarce, there are other ways you can store your cherries.

However, as with all storage methods, you’ll need to be quick! Fresh cherries only stay at their best quality for a few days after harvesting. We therefore recommend that you consume the cherries as quickly as possible or cool them using an appropriate method to preserve the freshness and taste even over a longer period of time.

Bottle the cherries and store them for up to a year

As with freezing, this method can preserve the cherries for up to a year. First of all, you should always ensure that you have sorted the cherries and removed any potentially rotten fruits – Even a single spoiled fruit can affect the entire batch. Then put the cherries (with or without their pits) into sterile jars. Now fill the jars with sugar water and boil in the oven in a water bath for half an hour.

Turn the cherries into compote or jam

Another option is to prepare cherry compote or cherry jam directly from the fruits. The jam or compote can be used in a wide range of meals and recipes including cakes, yogurt and smoothies, or can even be mixed with any combination of your other favorite fruits to create red fruit jelly. This way, you can enjoy the delicious cherries even when they’re not in season.