My mom’s friend kindly invited us to pick cherries from her tree tomorrow. Mom sent me this picture. Am I right to assume they’re pie cherries? Sweet cherries aren’t usually that red, right?
I’m hoping they’re pie cherries, because I like them better in baked dishes.
Did you taste one? If they are sour, they are. They look like mine.
No, I just learned about them at work today and we’re going tomorrow to pick.
Sweet cherries can be yellowish with a red cheek, red, very dark and anything in between. Just depends on the variety.
Makes great jam!!!
I use sweet cherries in pies. They’re delicious
Ok, awesome, I’m just used to sweet cherries being dark red or yellow and red (seems everyone around here grows Bings and Rainier). I like them, but not for pies and such. I did make jam from them a few years ago and it was great.
I’m not as sure as others that those are pie (ie sour) cherries. Sure wish we knew more. For example, where is this, that would help. So would a close up, especially with one cut open. Sweet cherried have more “meaty” texture and aren’t quite as juicy in my experience. Also they are usually larger.
Sweet cherries can have a bright red color as well. In fact, most have that color before they are totally ripe.
Another thing that has me suspicious is the fruit being in bunches- at least some of it. Sour cherries can do this too, but in my experience its much less common and sour cherries usually hang alone or in pairs. There are exceptions- I get a few bunches- but not many.
Anyway, let us know how it turns out. And as others have said, don’t be disappointed if they are sour cherries. I froze 15 quart-bags of sour cherries and use them all year long and love them.
Update: I see you are in Washington. That doesn’t help much so could be either way on that. I was thinking if you were in the south there is very little chance they are sweet cherries. In WA its of course very possible.
I am in Washington, but central Washington which is a desert. There are orchards everywhere, mostly apple, but cherry, too.
I’ll report back when I get the cherries.
They seem to be sweet cherries, but not that sweet. They’re small, and soft, not great for fresh eating. I’ll make jam or strain and make jelly. My mom opened one and found a worm, but the ones I opened were worm free. I’m not too bothered by them, the bad cherries will be sorted out when I pit them.
Use solution of 1 cup of warm per with 1 tbsp of salt to soak cherries to get rid of worms in cherries.
Otherwise, you can keep those worms for extra protein 
My money is now on those being sour cherries, which can be fairly sweet. But those look like pie cherries.
I think they’re sour cherries, too, they aren’t sweet enough to eat alone.
Are they transparent looking?
My sister has a cherry tree in her front yard. The first few years it made light red cherries that tasted okay but not very flavorful.
Eventually there was a year in which they were ignored and the cherries turned dark like Bing and were delicious. They had just never been allowed to ripen before.
They were definitely ripe, falling off the tree and birds were eating them. I decided that pitting would be too much work for these small cherries, so I cooked/mashed/strained and used low sugar pectin to make jelly. It’s setting up nicely. I ended up with 5 4oz jars and 2 8oz, and a little extra for the fridge. I’ll give an 8oz jar to the owner of the tree, as a thank you
