Every year around my summer birthday, I like to find a pick-your-own fruit farm, pick buckets and buckets of whatever is in season, then make so many treats from it. Since I lived for years in the Northeast, what was in season during the weeks around this June date is completely different. Last year, after moving back “home” to Kansas City, I realized that being so much further south made a big difference on seasonality—instead of strawberry picking for my birthday, it was already time for cherries. I scoured my online U-Pick sources for anywhere that had one of my favorite fruit jewels in the world: sour cherries. Some people call them tart cherries, but others call them my favorite colloquial name, pie cherries. These cherries are bright red, incredibly juicy, and packed with flavor, though not as sweet as many of their other stone fruit counterparts. They do make especially good desserts for this reason (since you’re adding sugar anyway, and their flavor is lovely) I baked my haul into pies and cobblers galore but as I neared the end of this sweet stash, my desire to put in a big effort diminished.
I couldn’t let those perfect gems go to waste, and this sour cherry syrup was the result. It’s so good, so easy, and so special—such huge reward for very little effort—that I will now be making a batch every time I get the “good cherries.” Spoon your syrup over ice cream, blend it into a milkshake, or use it to make an ice cream soda or float! Or my personal favorite move is to mix it into fresh squeezed lemonade or limeade for a sweet-sour summer treat. It keeps for up to three months in the refrigerator, so it’s also great as a cocktail mixer, too, because we’re essentially making homemade grenadine. Best of all, reserve and enjoy the bonus by-product: the simmered, sweetened cherries. When the syrup is strained, reserve the fruit to spoon over your favorite dessert, stir into yogurt, or purée them to make fruit leather. —Erin Jeanne McDowell
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