The Sour Cherries are ready for a last round of picking. The nets have been lifted and we have the last 100 kg or more of sour cherries that are now ready for picking. Please book so that we can plan for your visit.
We promise we won’t bombard you with heaps of emails.
Just the basics:
- when the sour cherries will be ready and when the sweet cherries will be ready
- when bookings open
- any Marble Hill Cherry products or events we launch during the year
- when the season has ended.
CAUTION sweet cherry lovers! – Morello cherries are not the same as sweet cherries. They are smaller, acid, slightly bitter, but full of flavour. Most people can only eat them if they are cooked into jam, middle eastern rice and chicken dishes, or Black Forest cake, or made into liqueurs or cherry beer.
Good Year for Morello (Sour) Cherries
We now have 100 Morello (sour cherry) trees producing fruit and also planted another 100 in the winter of 2018 and another 50 in 2019. Sour Cherries are usually ready between January 2 – January 16.
Sour cherries can be used to make:
- Sauces
- Cherry Jam
- Rice dishes
- Recipes from Persia, Turkey, Morocco,
- Cherry Vinegar
- Marble Hill Cherry Ice Cream
- Marasca – Cherry Liqueur from Croatia, Romania and around the Mediterranean
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Romanian Sour Cherry Liqueur
1kg of fruit, (e.g. Sour Cherries Morellos)
400g of sugar
about 500ml of alcohol. (Vodka, Grappa, or other spirit )
You put the sugar with the fruit first (I use a large glass jar), leave them at room temperature (for them that’s around 20C max) for about 1 week to 10 days, shaking the jar regularly to mix the sugar in.
The fruit should release a significant amount of juice.
Make sure the jar is able to breathe ( I put a cheese cloth over the top rather than lid for those first 10 days or so).
You then add the alcohol and put the lid on the jar.
Leave the jar in a cool, dark place for 2-3 months.
You can use all sorts of fruit for the same process, but you will need less sugar for sweeter fruit. Enjoy.
Thank you Maria from Romania, who gave the recipe to her daughter who came to pick the sour cherries January 2018.
Cherry Tea – Iran
Put 10-12 sour cherries (frozen or fresh) in a mug.
Pour on boiling water and let stand for 15-20 minutes
Stir with a fork to break up the cherries and release the deep red colour and flavour.
Optional add sugar , or pour through a strainer (but the cherry stones and skin stay at the bottom, so its not necessary to strain – just drink carefully).
Thank you to a sour cherry picker who passed on the recipe. January 2018
Try this recipe for Albaloo Persian Sour Cherry Rice
Dish shared by a kind customer.
http://www.mypersiankitchen.com/albaloo-polow-persian-rice-with-sour-cherries/
