Just want to share with your my experience with Black Gold, a sweet cherry.
Planted in 2010 on a Gisela 5. I topped it off at 6 ft, easy to net.
It flowered and fruited since2013 and has been very productive since then.
Its biggest issue in my humid Northeast is brown rot. BR has gotten worse each year. I lost almost all crop last year to rot. Cracking can be an issue if it rains after a couple of weeks of dry weather, esp. around a harvesting time.
This year I decided to spray Indar against BR, only once, 3 weeks before harvest. Yesterday I harvest the first batch of almost 7 lbs of 99% clean Black Gold cherries. I have probably 10+ lbs on this small tree. Thatās the good news.
Not too good news? It tastes mildly sweet with brix only around 12-14. The fruit were fully ripe. We had almost no rain a few week prior to harvesting. My lawn was crisp and brown. The weather is ideal to sweeten the fruit. The texute is soft, disappointment to me who prefer sweet and crunchy cherries like Bing or Rainier. So BG does not live up to my expection.
I have said it a few times that my home grown fruit should have overall quality better than that of store boght fruit. BG does not, not to me.
I brought all BG to the family cookout yesterday. Family members politely ate a few and went on to finished my store bought Rainier
Many of your may like BG. I just want to share my experience.
Sorry to hear Blackgold is a disappointment there.
Have you tried Whitegold?
The few Whitegolds I got off my tree this year were pretty good. Had a nice bite. Sweet, juicy, tasty, and fooled the birds.
Again, so sorry to hear that Blackgold struck out in your yard. At least you tried. The fact that you were able to grow several pounds of sweet cherries in eastern Massachusetts is a testament to your skill.
cherry sorbet
cherry garcia ice cream
cherry jam
cherry clafoutis
cherry jubilee
cherry juice
dried cherries
plenty to do with less than ideal texture
I have three 1st leaf Pearl series cherries planted this year. The other day I picked up some dark cherries from the supermarket for $1.88/lb they were huge and crunchy, I can only hope for something similar.
OK, that;s enough Iām going to have to start making this stuff, it sounds fantastic! I guess I need a good machine any suggestions? I too often have less than ideal fruit.
I own and recommend this one, although pricey paid $69 from Amazon
This one I bought as a backup for the restaurant, it works just as well and cheaper paid $49 from Amazon
Get an extra 2qt bowl, so you can make back to back batches every 12 hours or however fast you can refreeze the bowls. I own three 2qt bowls between the house and the restaurant.
Sorbet
4 cups fruit (pureeād)
2 cups flavored simple syrup
Ice Cream (American style)
2 cups whole milk
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
flavorings
both are no cook, mix, chill, and then process in machine
French style, with egg yolks tempered into the hot dairy mixture is more work and more $$$.
I find American style to be as creamy as a custard base. However, American style melts fasterā¦
Sorry to hear about your experience Maumung. I too have a black gold in second leaf but the lone cherries it produced were picked away by birds very early. I was hoping to hear that black gold was a more disease resistant Bing but Iāve several times that it is not a firm cherry. If thatās the case Iāll graft it over to something else. Maybe Lapinās. Hopefully the Pearl or York series are better cherries.
If itās any consolation your harvest looks great. Indar must have made a big difference in controlling rot.
So it sounds as if youāve had at least some fruit from the tree for 4 seasons. Iām curious, have the cherries been kinda bland (and softer texture) each season, or were some seasons different than this?
I donāt have sweet cherries, although I planted a Stella just this year soā¦
I had two Black Gold trees. The first one always produced great cherries. The second one has been inconsistent, some years it seems like it oversets and I get a result like you are getting ā low sugar and flavor. So, I liked it a lot based on my first tree but in the last few years with my second tree its been not as appealing. White Gold has been much more consistent, its always excellent. My Sandra Rose fruited for the first time this year and it was also excellent.
There is some chance that there was a variety mix-up at some point, but I doubt it. My original one was on Gisela 5 and the new one is on Gisela 12, maybe thats a factor.
Mamuang,
Those are gorgeous cherries! I noticed all the store bought cherries with exception of one batch this year have been a little off flavored. The best cherries I had this year were the cheapest smallest cherries. My suspicion is that most cherries this year are not as good as they are normally. Location can be a factor on fruit as well. I grow honeycrisp that are good but not as good as a great store bought honeycrisp. Hang in there once you figure out the cherry that consistently is great there you can graft a few over to that variety. Glad to hear Indar worked good for you since that is valuable information for future cherry crops.
Sorry for getting off topic, but, Moley, what is the difference between two in terms of what it can and canāt do? Does it make sense to buy the expensive one for occasional home use, or cheap one is fine?
I believe the ICE 70 to spin slightly faster and is heavier, has the digital timer and will spin a good time after the timer expires ( who could forget about Ice Cream, I know ). The end product is about the same I actually got mine on Prime day of last year when Amazon offered two separate 20$ coupons, Iād wait a week and see what happens on the 12th. Once you fall in love youāll want the 2nd two quart bowl.
for $75-80 Iād get the ICE70, at $50 the other one is very tempting for a first machine.
I added the ICE70 to my Amazon Wish List and suggestions of Ben & Jerryās Ice Cream Dessert Book came up. Do you have this book? And if you do, how many recipes are within? One more question, is Wavy Gravy one of the recipes?
What do you store your ice cream in? A Cuisinart stainless steel 2-quart bowel also came up as a suggestion for 34 bucks.
). The end product is about the same I actually got mine on Prime day of last year when Amazon offered two separate 20$ coupons, Iād wait a week and see what happens on the 12th. Once you fall in love youāll want the 2nd two quart bowl.