Nanking cherries

Yup.syrup, fruit roll ups, cherry bars, cherry crisp, jams. Mix with other fruit for all of the above too.

My grannie makes delicious jelly from these, put on fresh hot homemade rolls :yum:

1 Like

Sounds great. When should we arrive?

Iā€™ll let you know if there are any leftovers.

Got a gallon of cherries out of the freezer and made some jelly. Yum yum

3 Likes

Looks AWESOME Derby!!!

Do you just use a juicer then, or do you actually pit each cherry?

I froze them first which is supposed to make them juice better. Than I put them in a large sauce pan with one cup of water . I heated them up a bit, not to boiling. I mashed them with a potato masher and then squeezed the remains through cheese cloth. then it was ready to turn into jelly. I know, lot of work for a little jelly, but my wife said it was the best cherry flavor she had ever tasted. It was much stronger than what my mom makes, she must water it down more.

Nothing easy is ever worthwhile. Savor every bite!!

2 Likes

Nanking cherries are blooming but I donā€™t really see any pollinators working on them.

2 Likes

Nice! I bought two Nankings this year. If you were out in the cold morning the pollinators might be waiting for warmer sun? I know last year I thought the same thing, then there were thousands of them.

I was trying to buy Cupid from a Canadian nursery. He couldnā€™t ship to the US. He said he prefers Evans and Nanking over the romance cherries. I still bought the four sold here in the US anyway, along with a Hansonā€™s sand cherry. I bought an evens too, Lol!

I took the photo at 11 am, it is in the sixties here today. I think the honey bees are up in the silver maple trees. Really only two of my Nankings are blooming right now but they should all bloom in the next week if the temperature stays up.

1 Like

Johnny,
I grew about 100 Hansen aka western sand cherries. I think the taste is not something you will like until you process them into jelly and then they transform into something better. The 100+ nanking I grew iā€™m removing as well although they taste tart and sweet and are an overall nice cherry. I grew joel and removed it and I wasnā€™t impressed. The reason why iā€™m removing those is after tasting the carmine jewell its my opinion carmine jewell is that much better in every way. Its larger and has a higher flesh to pit ratio. The hansen and nankings will produce for you fast in 2-3 years. I would recommend you use them in the meantime but wait until you start getting those Canadian cherries producing for you Dwarf Sour Cherry, Sour Cherries, Dwarf Sour Cherries for sale

I bought mine from Honeyberryusa too. I will save the best location for the carmine Jewel then. I donā€™t have a lot room left in my sun belt.

I wish someone would do some work on making a larger nanking cherry. They are good for juice, jelly, fresh eating etc but I always use a stem juicer to extract the juice out of them. The pit / flesh ratio is about 50/50 on the ones I grew. Carmine Jewell cherries are not big but the pit is very tiny and because of that they are an excellent pie cherry. You canā€™t really make pie out of nanking or western sand cherries. If you use the nanking for wine, juice, jelly etc I can see why you would grow them because the tart taste of nanking cherries can be very addictive to people like me that like that flavor.

1 Like

Yes , I use them for jelly and love the flavor, I have never tried a carmine jewel though. I hope to make wine some day , but it takes a lot of cherries to make it worth while

1 Like

To each their own, but Iā€™ve grown all those cherries and I much prefer the Romance series to Evans or Nanking. Of the 4 Romance I grow (Carmine Jewel, Cupid, Juliet, and Romeo), Juliet is my favorite.

2 Likes

Don3a,
The Canadian cherries are so much better varieties in taste and for processing etc I donā€™t even think there is a comparison. Price now thatā€™s something different so for the conservative orchardist try carmine jewell mine sucker and because of that you will have plenty of plants and cherries that taste good.

I was wondering when he told me that. I havenā€™t had either, but I will soon if everything goes well. I might be giving bushes away. Might as well all be whatā€™s the best and remove the rest.

1 Like

I was able to call and cancel my order for the two Nankingā€™s and the sand cherry. I will concentrate on the romance cherries. Thanks for the heads up and steering me in the right direction.