Most people will remember summers with cherry earrings and red sticky fingers. There’s hardly anyone who didn’t steal them from the neighbor’s garden as a child, the delicious fruits in all shades of red were too tempting – and still are today. A summer without cherries is not an option. Whether fresh from the tree, as juice or jam, cherries belong to summer like strawberries belong to spring.
Water with your meal
In summer: drink a lot! Due to the heat and a lot of outdoor exercise, we put more strain on our bodies than usual and lose a lot of fluid through sweat. We have to feed these back into the body. While our body normally needs around 2.7 liters of fluid a day, this figure increases in summer. Here we should drink enough, preferably (mineral) water. It supplies our body with the fluid it needs to function optimally. Water is a solvent and means of transportation, a component of all our body fluids and also the main component of our body itself. This consists of approx. 65 percent water. We can drink water – but we can also eat it. Fruit has a very high water content, even bananas have a water content of around 75 percent. The cherry is superior here with approx. 85 percent. So snacking on cherries from the tree is not only a change of pace on a summer walk, but also a hydration bonus for our bodies. The high water content of cherry fruit also means that the nutrients it contains can be absorbed much better than from foods with a low water content. Vitamin C, E, folic acid and vitamin B6 are thus easily transported to their destination in dissolved form.
But cherries are not only a healthy and tasty source of liquid straight from the tree. Cherry juices are a special treat.
Variety and juice diversity
While the dark cherry varieties usually also produce a dark and coloring juice, the lighter varieties usually produce a non-coloring juice. Sweet cherries produce a slightly sour to very sweet juice, whereas sour cherry juice has a sweet-sour to very sour aroma. The reason for this is the up to three times higher acidity of sour cherries compared to sweet cherries. The advantage of sour cherries is that they retain their flavor even when processed. If you want to make your own cherry juice, you should process the picked fruit very quickly, as it will not keep for more than one or two days even when chilled.
Recipe for sour cherry juice
You need three kilos of sour cherries for this
Rinse the sour cherries thoroughly in standing water and drain. Then place them in a large pot and cover them with cold water. Heat slowly and cook over a low heat with the lid on for about 10 minutes. Then line a large sieve with a damp cloth and place it in a large bowl. Carefully pour the cherries with the juice into the sieve and leave to drain for 30 minutes. The juice is then boiled again and poured into the boiled bottles provided.
The cherry juice from our own production can now be enjoyed pure or as a spritzer. It is also a tasty and colorful ingredient for non-alcoholic cocktails.
Not just for drinking
If you want a little more bite, a delicious cherry compote is ideal. The short cooking time means that vitamins and minerals are retained and the cherry compote has a high liquid content, making it an ideal summer dessert.
Ingredients for 8 portions of cherry compote
1 kg dark sweet cherries
1 vanilla pod
30 g butter
40 g sugar
50 ml kirsch
100 ml orange liqueur (e.g. Grand Marnier)
200 ml red wine
1 cinnamon stick, small
1 tbsp cornflour
Preparation
The cherries are washed and pitted. Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Then melt the butter in a pan and lightly caramelize the sugar. Deglaze with kirsch and orange liqueur and reduce by half. The mixture is then topped up with red wine. Then add the cherries, cinnamon, vanilla pod and its pulp and cook uncovered over a medium heat for 10 minutes. Mix the starch with a little water and use it to bind the cherries. Then cook over a low heat for two to three minutes. Leave the finished compote to cool and refrigerate overnight, covered with cling film. The compote can be served with vanilla ice cream or simply with vanilla sauce.
Liquefy the summer with cherries
We can eat cherries straight from the tree, drink them as juice or enjoy them as compote. In any case, they are healthy and tasty sources of nutrients and liquid, making them the ideal addition to a healthy summer kitchen that tastes good. And don’t worry about stomach aches, even if legends say otherwise – cherries are also good with water!
