My "Romance series" cherries

General Fruit Growing
945

Don’t let me discourage you in any way, Dimitri!! And certainly different growing conditions/climates can make the same tree taste different. And perhaps as the tree ages fruit gets sweeter.

I also very much hope others who read this will comment on how sweet or sour their Romance cherries are, especially those who grow them and also grow Montmorency. My Romance cherries could be abnormal-like I said, I had been led to believe that Juliet especially was sweeter than most other sour cherries, so maybe that is the norm.

And again, their amazing production alone makes them worth growing. Beautiful fruit packed onto almost every inch of the bush. Great bushes- just not as sweet as I hoped.

946

Last year, I let my two Juliet hung until they were so ripe, they started to wrinkled. They were still too sour to my liking. Tthey were the first but only two. I hope the quality will improve as the tree ages.

People said Juliet is the sweetest among the Romance series. I don’t know how others seem to enjoy Carmine Jewel!!!

The sweetest sour cherry I tasted was Danube. I wish it was productive.

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947

Thank you, Tippy, for confirming my own experience with Juliet! I wasn’t at all sure my experience was typical. I am also glad to hear you think Danube is a sweeter sour cherry- I have one on its 2nd leaf and have not yet got any fruit to taste! Hopefully its production will improve over time.

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I removed my Danube. The production was so poor. Others who grew it chimed in and had the same experience.

The fruit tasted very good for sour cherries.

949

I find the Romance series to be richer in flavor. And yes fairly tart, but not that bad. My cornelian cherries are more tart. The plant probably produces more sugar as it becomes mature, but it also produces lot’s of acid.
It may be me? I have no desire to eat them fresh. I like the flavor for processing. It doesn’t matter to me how tart. I like the flavor once balanced in processing. My favorite fruits are like this, black currants, honeyberries etc. I’m not a huge fresh fruit eater. I force myself to eat it.
I have been eating strawberries fresh daily now, but I much prefer dried strawberry chips. I could eat those all day. So when production becomes higher, I will dry the excess. Looking forward to it. I also dry the romance cherries for use in muffins, pancakes and the like. I don’t eat my grapes fresh I make them into raisins which again I could eat all day. I can only eat so many fresh grapes. So I’m very pleased with the Romance series as they fit my needs rather well. I also dry my stone fruit and figs as again I prefer eating them dried. To each his own. I hope you find what works for you.

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950

i like sour richly flavored fruit so tart isn’t a issue for me. ill also be processing them for juice and jams so they will fit the bill perfectly. considering no other cherries grow here, just getting a crop of cherries is like winning the lottery.

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951

I can also say i was surprised by how sour my romeo cherries were, more so than my mesabi. I did a ton of reading before purchasing several bushes or romeo, juliet and CP and everything suggested these were the sweetest of the sour cherries so im a little disappointed to read this. I cant grow sweet cherries here and really wanted something to enjoy fresh, i cant do them in pies and such with diabetes so ill have to find another way to enjoy them. Maybe fermented, still waiting to see if anyone has tried that yet. I can eat them fresh just a little too much kick for me, hopefully juliet will be better than romeo i know its supposed to be…

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952

That’s exactly why they were bred!! Large parts of Canada now can grow cherries.
And apparently Maine too :slight_smile: My son has a place in zone 4 Kalkaska (sounds to close to Alaska!) It sometimes just snows there from Lake Michigan.
He went fishing the other day. He got a Lake trout and a King salmon.
Anyway he is going to put some trees up there.

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953

Juliet 2nd year in ground and already fruiting, she did drop some.

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954

Your experience with Juliet does seem to bolster the old adage “all gardening is local”

For me, I find it at least on a par with Montmorency if not less tart.

As you know I grow Early Richmond which I think is VERY close to a Monty in flavor. (I have a Monty in at a rental as well)

To me, the out-of-hand taste between CJ & Juliet is night and day.

I’ve commented before that CJ reminds me of a vary dry wine, or at least the way my mouth feels after eating them.

On the other hand, Juliet sort of reminds me of just a bigger Amarelle type (Monty & ER in my case…)

The flesh and juice have a pink look about it, which I kinda like too!

I’ve posted this picture before, but they’re on the right. You see the size difference between them and the CJ & ER.

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My two Juliet bushes went in ground as twigs in '16 and this picture is from '18.

Here’s a shot from this morning, the two Juliet’s are on the far right.

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They’ve grown well here, and are loaded.

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This is a shot for perspective with peaches in the background that I’ve allowed to get too big!! (The fencing is 5’)

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So my point is, it’s apparently very hard to have the same taste and growth experience across the regions.

For me, while CJ is a cherry machine - hindsight being 20/20 … if I had it to do over I’d still have CJ, just not 5 of them. In fact I have the 5 CJ’s and 2 Juliet (Pulled 2 Crimson Passion out) and I’d prefer the ratio be reversed.

I don’t think age of the bush impacts flavor but could be wrong (maybe climate/growing conditions from year to year) but the fruit I got in '18 from a twig planted in '16 was VERY good!

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955

I never expected fresh carmine jewel to be pleasant, but I was surprised that recipes needed more sugar than typical sour cherries. Last year, I noticed that only the cherries from the top of the bush get 16-17 brix, while the ones lower down and in the center might only get 10-13 brix. Of course, there was excessive ground water from rain, and the cherries were swollen and dilute. This year is looking like a drought summer, so that will be an interesting comparison.

I’ve been mixing them with other high sugar fruits, but more recently I’ve found that they can be made more palatable by removing some of the juice first, as I described here. I also noticed that seem more mellow after freeze/thaw, but that could be from juice release. It’s like carmine jewel cherries are 30-40 percent more cherry flavor in the same size package.

When using juice in ice cream, CJ will taste a bit like blackberry or black raspberry if the acidity is low enough. It will taste more like cherry if enough juice is added to taste the acidity. It definitely has a interesting flavor dynamic that sets it apart. I’m growing to like them more and more over time as learn how to work with them. The only thing missing is a mechanical pitter that is more efficient than my skewer method.

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956

Every single part of your post is extremely interesting to me (and others I’m sure) and I very much appreciate you writing it! I’m having a GREAT cherry year (my first good one ever) and as a result I’m suddenly fascinated and enamored with cherries. Your post is timely and so helpful.

I should first confess that I just don’t have a sophisticated or, I think, an extremely sensitive one. I can, however, detect the differences in CJ and Juliet and understand what you mean about CJ leaving that dry-wine aftertaste/after feel. I also hope I made clear that of the 3 I have- CJ, Romeo, and Juliet I do think Juliet is (slightly) the sweetest and also closer in taste to Monty than the other 2- but still far far more sour. It also produces the best for me.

But where my mind is really blown is hearing that you find Juliet to be “on par with Montmorency if not less tart”! You see, in the days since my original post saying I found my Juliet to be more sour/tart than Monty, my Monty cherries have ripened more and I’ve paid more attention and the differences between my Monty now and Juliet has grown a lot. In fact, I was going to post elsewhere about how thrilled I am with the sweetness of my Monty cherries. I have honestly bought sweet cherries at the store before that were no sweeter than my Monty. Of course the “meat” of sweet cherries and my Monty is different in texture, density, etc. And I’m not suggesting my Monty is sweeter than typical store bought sweet cherries-not at all. But in terms of sweetness only, my Monty this year are as sweet as some not-very-sweet sweet cherries if that makes any sense. THis takes them even further from Juliet than I first stated!

But in conclusion, I want to be clear that you and I (meaning our experiences with Juliet) are in agreement on almost every single thing you said except sweetness. The taste you describe, the juice color, the very high production rate of Juliet, and so on. ANd I’m very happy to have Juliet.

BTW…loved all those photos-very nice. Your Juliets look a lot more like a tree than my bushes do, but of course that is just pruning styles I think.

Thanks again for your great response. I think this thread will be helpful to lots of people considering planting Juliets.

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957

A few updates on my cherries.

My Carmine Jewels are about done. The below picture is from a week ago. What remains on the bushes has gone past their prime.

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Carmine Jewels with and without stems, mulberries (Shangri La), strawberries.

Now my 2 year old Juliets are starting to produce. Of my 4 bushes only two have a significant crop. (These are the two I got from Costco last year with Week’ss Roses tags on them.)

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Picture from today. Carmine Jewel on left, Juliet on right. The Juliet was the first one of this variety I have actually eaten. It was big, juicy, and surprisingly tart, but also sweet. I am interested in seeing how sweet they get over the next week or two.

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Juliet cherries under netting.

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958

i have romeo, juiliet and monty that all hopefully set fruit. funny thing is c.j is bigger and a year older with no blooms. maybe i mislabeled them. but anyway i should be able to compare them and post my results. hopefully my netting comes in before they start to color. had some cherries on them last year and the damned birds got them!

959

Fruit size can also depend on the amount of fruit set. I have 3 CJ bushes. Last year, they all produced about the same amount in terms of weight (~40 lbs each), but the one bush overset and produced much smaller cherries than the other two.

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960

Thanks Steve! Looking forward to your report. I’m sure that up where you live getting a heavy cherry load that the Romance cherries provide will be a lot of fun and much appreciation. Speaking of your nets coming in, I hope you saw my posts a couple weeks ago when my cherries started to turn red! You just have no idea the level of bird pressure you are going to face- if it is anything like here. It is insane. Even after i finally got my nets on, it is unreal how cunning birds are for cherries. They will cover ever inch of the net, especially the bottom where it comes together. Any cherry within neck reach just inside the net is gone. If there is a hole of any kind in the net, they WILL find and exploit it I don’t get the same level of bird pressure on any other fruit-not even blueberries which are a close second. I tell you this just to tell you to go ahead and seal your net good the first time. I tend to sort of half-way do it thinking it is good enough, then having to redo it and go back over it and seal it all up. GOOD LUCK!

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961

At first, I was amazed that your Juliet has produced so early and held on th its fruit.

Well, now that you told us your Juliet is a potted plant from Costco, it makes a better sense. My Juliet was bare root.

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Your describing how and what you do with your sour cherries makes me feel better. Worse comes to worst, we can make ice cream out of it :grin:

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963

Excellent photo’s and the cherries look so delicious. For the cherries you posted which ones are n s e and w in the photo?
I also love montmorency and while i am hopeful for juliet a overripe monty is one of my favorite cherries. How would you compare Early Richmond in time of bloom and hardiness to snap frosts and does it ripen at a different time?

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I’m certainly going to get some kind of mechanical pit remover for next year (open to suggestions everyone) but in the mean time, tell me about your skewer method? Right now I’m just doing it with my finger.

Thanks, also, for confirming that CJ’s are just sour and it isn’t just mine!