Sour cherries are especially good for baking in pies, pastries and other desserts. Cherry varieties including Montmorency, Richmaon and Morello are grown primarily in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin, where the weather and elevation are just right. When in season, cherries can be very inexpensive. Storing sour cherries for later use, after the season, is quite easy. In fact, cherries freeze very well, retaining more of their flavor than many other fruits stored in the way.
Ensure that the sour cherries are firm and plump with good color. Remove hard, unripe, overripe or bruised fruit. Rinse the cherries. Place the cherries in a bowl in the refrigerator long enough for them to chill.
De-stem and pit the cherries by making a slit in the cherry, pulling the flesh back and removing the pit. Frozen sour cherries that are not pitted first tend to take on an odd almond flavor. Place the pitted cherries in a bowl until all of them are pitted.
Rinse the cherries and drain them until dry. Place the cherries in on even layer on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. Allow the cherries to completely freeze. This method helps maintains the shape of the cherries.
Place the sour cherries in a medium-sized zip top plastic bag. Place the bag in the coldest part of the freezer to keep them frozen hard.