Miraculously, our Nanking cherry blossoms dodged this year’s April snow and freezes.
Combine Nanking cherries with chokecherries for a great fruit wine. Nankings also make a tasty pie, but speaking from experience, it takes two people about two hours to pick enough for one pie. Then you have to remove the pits. Not so for wine making.
Freeze, thaw, toss into the fermentation vat
Freeze the cherries, which breaks them down, thaw, and toss into the primary fermentation vat. The pits stay behind when you squeeze out the wine in a filter bag seven to 10 days later.
My horse Dell loves to grab a mouthful of cherry foliage when we walk by these bushes. I’ve never offered him the wine. He does love peppermints and I had a pony who loved grape Nehi. I suppose anything is possible.
Farm to wineglass with our Nanking-Chokecherry wine.
Learn more about home wine making: 17-year-old-treasure from the “vineyard”
See our Harvest album: [gallery_bank type=”images” format=”masonry” title=”true” desc=”true” responsive=”true” animation_effect=”” album_title=”true” album_id=”7″]