We have three wonderful sour cherry trees in our orchard, but I always have to be watching, and up early to pick on the day they are ripe, or the birds beat me to them. That system has worked fine for all these years. Now, they are about 3 days from ripe and we are heading away for the weekend tomorrow. Can I pick them unripe? They will be light orange tomorrow morning, if I pick then will they ripen off the tree? I would hate to loose the whole bunch, and my family would miss the preserves!!

-- Marci B. (daleb@kent.net), June 08, 2000

Answers

Pick them, they will ripen! The cherries in the store are picked "green" or not what we call ready! They won't have the wonderful flavor of the fresh picked at just the right stage cherries- --but if I came over for cherry preserves--I'm sure I would not know if they ripened on the trees or in your kitchen!(when ever we have picked ours, there are always some that are not as ripe as others--& they always ripen & I probably could not tell the difference.) Sonda in ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 08, 2000.