The Cherry Project

A family from Powell has a cherry orchard in Montana near the Flathead lake. Every year they send a trailer load of cherries to Powell. They arrive in Powell the day after they were picked; fresh, plump, and juicy. This year I ordered two 30 pound boxes.

I set up a work area in the laundry room. The fruit went from the counter to the sink, through the pitter and on to drying trays.

The cherry stoner, was borrowed from a neighbor. It is sweet. Without a doubt, the best I have ever used. Clean cherries go in the hopper, one rolls into a depression. With a push of the plunger, a cutter goes through the cherry pushing the pit into the box. when the plunger resets, the cherry is brought up and knocked off the cutter and drops into a waiting container. I want one of these!! I was able to do a 30lb. box in about an hour. That is all that will fit in the dehydrator. The pitter went home and the second box had to be pitted with a small metal pitter I have had for a long time. That device forces the pit out the other side of the cherry. It squirts juice everywhere and stains your hands deep purple. It also takes several hours that I spread the job over about 3 days.

The dehydrator runs for a couple days and the result is dried cherries, or chaisens. We ended up with a full gallon bag. we probably ate and shared 5 to 7 pounds of the fresh cherries while we were processing them.