Nanking Cherries

Throughout the campground there are Nanking cherry trees growing and they are loaded with beautiful, tiny, red cherries. The trees growing near the camping areas are small, bush-like trees, but they are so prolific and covered with fruit. The birds don't seem to want them this year and the owners said we could pick what we wanted. We tasted them and though they are not super sweet, they are good.

The campground owners, Brent & Linda, saw that we were enjoying the cherries and invitied us to their house (located at the campground) to pick some of the fruit from the trees in their front yard. There are a number of small trees, again loaded with fruit. We already had a large gallon plastic bag full and gathered another 2 gallons. We couldn't possibly eat all the fruit without getting a belly ache, so we boiled the fruit, strained out the seeds and skins, and bottled the concentrate.

There are claims that cherry juice will relieve pain from exercise. We've found that too much fly casting can cause arm soreness and it seems that the "pain" might be lessened by the juice. We froze some of the concentrated juice for later consumption. We could also make jelly or syrup. We add an equal part water and some sweetener and it is totally delicious! It's got to be healthy, too! Any suggestions on what to do with the fresh juice?