Sour cherries are one of the most fleeting things we grow. The window from first ripe fruit to the end of harvest is rarely more than two to three weeks, and the trees do not negotiate. When they are ready, you pick. When they are gone, they are gone until next year.
We grow sour cherries here on our farm in Oxford, North Carolina — 40 acres in Granville County that our family has farmed since 1987. The trees take years to establish and produce modestly even at maturity, which is part of why sour cherries are so hard to find at the grocery store. Commercial growers need volume; we grow for quality. Our cherries are harvested by hand, brought to the Carrboro Farmers' Market within 24 hours of picking, and sold in pint containers until they run out.
What to do with sour cherries
The name is accurate — these are not sweet eating cherries. They are tart, complex, and deeply flavored, and they are the correct cherry for baking, preserving, and cooking. A sour cherry pie made with fresh fruit is a different dish entirely from one made with canned filling. Sour cherry jam — which we also make and sell — has a brightness and depth that sweet cherry preserves cannot match. They are also excellent in savory applications: reduced into a sauce for duck or pork, or macerated with a little sugar and brandy as a topping for vanilla ice cream.
Our sour cherry preserves
We make our own sour cherry preserves in small batches, using fruit from our own trees. No artificial pectin, no added color, no preservatives beyond the sugar and the process itself. The result is a jar that tastes like the fruit it came from — tart, jewel-red, and intensely flavored. We bring them to the Carrboro Farmers' Market every Saturday alongside our fresh produce.
Find us every Saturday from 7 AM to 12 PM at the Carrboro Farmers' Market. Fresh sour cherries are available for a short window in early summer — follow us on social media so you know when the season opens.