# looking for pie cherries (red)



## duxdog (Apr 13, 2008)

My Dad makes cherry wine and this year the tree he gets them from didn't produce. Does anybody know where I can get sour cherries at? They are sometimes called pie cherries. I was in TC last weekend and everybody I talked to acted like they didn't exist lol.


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

They just started shaking sour cherries in Oceana county. Millions of pounds will be harvested but to get any is pretty hard. It is to bad a guy can not get a tub of them from the processors have pitted them but I do not know how.

You can get a few quarts at some of the stands but the cost is rediculous.

I want a tub to dehydrate but have not been able to figure out how to get one.

You must not have been talking to the natives in TC as they would have known what you were talking about. The Lelenau Penn. is covered with cherries.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

Tarts (pie cherries) don't normally ripen until mid-July. Now this year, they would have been early, if we hadn't gotten frosts in May that ruined much of the crop, then rains in June that bloated and split much of the rest. I'm told that many orchards will not have ANY tart cherries this year for retail sale-they'll process what they've got for juice, reduction, etc. 

Frost leaves little ugly brown and black spots all over them, and the bloating/splitting sets them up for mold. 

So, not much in the way of tarts up here this year. We do have blacks, but not many of them, they have also bloated and split with the heavy rains, but we picked almost a gallon last weekend and if you were picky, you got good ones. 

Blacks/sweets are normally considered too sweet for pies. 

I don't know how the weather was in lower western Michigan, but you should be able to find some tarts that are ripe now from that area...somewhere...


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## Burksee (Jan 15, 2003)

As is Old Mission Penninsula! 

You might try the folks at the Cherry Hut in Beulah, just south of TC. They might give you some info on where to get what your looking for. 

http://www.cherryhutstore.com/


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## duxdog (Apr 13, 2008)

Thanks.


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## bucko12pt (Dec 9, 2004)

Plenty of tarts on the Leelanau Peninsula this year and they actually started shaking sweets out here last Monday and tarts on Thursday of this week. That's about the earliest that I can remember tarts being harvested. It was nearly August 1st last year and harvest did'nt finish until late August. A month earlier this year and they actually will have local cherries for the Cherry Festival and not have to ship them in from out of state.

You can buy tarts in 30# containers locally from Leelanau Fruit near Suttons Bay. Several people I know buy them there for wine making. You also can buy strawberries in 6# and 30# containers, sliced with sugar added. Not sure what other products they sell there.

Leelanau Fruit is on M 22 about three miles south of Suttons Bay.


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