Stomp them. Can them. Soak them in liquor. If you’ve ever fantasized about brandied cherries or hot cherry pie during those cold winter months, this is the year to make it happen on the cheap.
I carried home bucketloads of cherries last week from orchards where the cherries were too small to sell to warehouses. Rather than let the little reds rot, orchardists invited locals in for free pickins. Just make sure you ask first.
So what do you do when your fridge is bursting with cherries? Here’s what I came up with:
22 pounds: Cherry wine
13 pounds: Brandied cherries
10 pounds: Canned cherries
15 pounds: Frozen cherries, measured 6 cups per freezer bag to use for cherry pie. Also good for smoothies, cherry ice cubes, hot cherries for ice cream … My mom is also a winemaker, so I might just give all my frozen stock to her. Maybe.
* Bonus 10 pounds: Dried cherries. I ran out of time and fruit, but the recipe is down below.

I found the recipes for dried, brandied and canned cherries in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Here’s the full process for each:

Brandied Cherries: Yields 6 pints
6 pounds dark, sweet cherries
1 C sugar
1 C water
¼ cup lemon juice
1 ¼ cups brandy
Wash and pit cherries. Sterilize 6 pint jars (with one extra, just in case) in the dishwasher. Ten minutes before adding cherries, heat the jars, rings and caps in hot water. I used the canner to do this.

Meanwhile, combine sugar, water, lemon juice in a large saucepot. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Add cherries and simmer until hot throughout (until it starts to get foamy/bubbly).

Remove from heat. Stir in brandy. It doesn’t have to be top shelf. I used Jacques Cardin, and the finished product tasted fine to me.

Pack hot cherries into hot canning jars with a slotted spoon. I highly recommend investing in a rubber jar-grabber to lift the jars out of the hot water. Fill to about the first ring at the top of the jar. Ladle the juice from the pot into the jars, just covering the cherries.

Remove air bubbles by inserting a spatula between the cherries and jar. Gently wipe the top of the jars with a wet paper towel. Top with a cap, twist on the ring and whallah! They’re ready for a 10-minute boiling bath in the canner. Make sure the jar tops are covered with at least an inch of water.

After 10 minutes in a rolling boil, take out the jars with a jar-grabber. Let them cool on the counter with about 1-inch between each jar. Don’t hassle them for 24 hours. Check the seals the next day to make sure.

Canned cherries:
2-2.5 pounds cherries per quart
Syrup: Use medium or light.
•    Light: Dissolve 2 ¼ cups sugar in 51/2 cups water.
•    Medium: Dissolve 31/4 cups sugar in 5/1/4 cups water.

Wash cherries, pits can be left in or taken out. Keep syrup hot. Ladle a ½ cup syrup into hot jars. Pack jars with cherries to the first ring. Ladle hot syrup to barely cover cherries. Remove air bubbles by inserting a spatula between the cherries and jar. Gently wipe the top of the jars with a wet paper towel. Any stuff on the lid will ruin the seal. Top with a cap, twist on the ring. Put boiling water canner for 25 minutes. Take out jars. Let them cool on the counter for 24 hours with about 1-inch between each jar.

Dried cherries:
Wash, cut in half, remove pits. Dry at 165 degrees in a dehydrator for 2-3 hours. Then, dry at 135 degrees until leathery and slightly sticky.

Cherry wine: Brew at your own risk, although I’ve done both safely.

The bootlegger’s way:
1 quart Vodka (4 cups), doesn’t have to be top-shelf
2/3 gallon bing cherries, pitted and washed
3 cups sugar
Sterilize a 1-gallon glass jar in the dishwasher. If you don’t have a dishwasher, wash it well in hot water. Pour vodka, sugar and cherries in jar. Stir in water until jar is full. Plug the jar with an airlock, a rubber stopper or something so you don’t attract fruit flies or ants. Set the jar in the sun for 10 days to 2 weeks. Stir with washed, wooden spoon every morning and night. Place in wine bottles and store in dark place.
Source: Johnny, a buddy of mine at the Wenatchee Valley Farmer’s Market

The winemaker’s way:
I adapted this recipe I found on a Bellevue winemaker’s blog:
38 lb Bing Cherries
Sugar, water *The blog lists how much he used, but it really depends on the SG reading which will be different for every batch.
3 tsp pectic enzyme
Sulfite to 50 ppm (equivalent to 3 Camden tablets)
0.5 tsp tannin
Premier Cuvee yeast (or 71B by Lalvin to better metabolize the malic acid, especially if your cherries are tart)
Here’s what I did: Wash crush bucket. Sterilize fruit net (I bought mine at Bear Foods in Chelan), stopper, fermentation bin and hydrometer. Destem and wash cherries. Dump them in a bucket big enough for stomping. Wash your feet! Stomp. Pour cherry guts, pits and all, into fermentation bin, lined with a fruit net or cheese cloth.
Strain some cherry juice into hydrometer to get a specific gravity reading. Cover fermentation bin tightly, cork with a rubber stopper. I found some calculators at grapestompers.com which helped me calculate how much sugar to add based on the cherry juice’s SG. Some folks also calculate the ph and acid content, but that’s a bit sophisticated for me. I consider myself a bootleg-winemaker hybrid.
Dissolve sugar into water. Bring to boil. Cool for a half hour at least. Pour into fermentation bin. Throw in Camden tablets and cover.
The next day, prepare a yeast starter. After the yeast starter starts foaming, add it to fermentation bin. Add pectic enzyme and tannin. Stir daily for 7 days with sterilized spoon. Strain fruit. Transfer to carboy and cap with an airlock.

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