While cherry picking one day, my husband and I overheard a woman talking about the health benefits of cherries. I imagined a patent medicine man from the 1800s: “Yes that’s right folks, just five cherries a day will cure your gout, banish your back pain, arrest your arthritis! It’s a guaranteed genuine natural elixir!”

Turns out that my fictitious barker was spouting some truth. Sour cherries contain anthocyanins, which have powerful anti-inflammatory properties. They are purported to relieve painful inflammatory conditions such as gout and arthritis. Plus a cup of fresh sour cherries has 40% of your daily recommended allowance of vitamin A, 26% of vitamin C; 2% of calcium and 3% of iron.

Growing up, we had three cherry trees on the farm. There was a black cherry tree a few yards from our backdoor and two sour cherry trees on the far side of the field beside the garage. I would happily climb through the barbed-wire fence and cross the field to fill my pail with cherries. Then, with little supervision, I would make a sour cherry cheesecake, using a pre-made gram cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese.

I have long since lost that recipe but have happily found many other sour cherry recipes. Here are a couple of my favorite ones.

I could eat sour cherry pie filling with a spoon, though it is a little more civilized to eat it in a pie. Here’s a version you can throw in a lunch box. The recipe is adapted from a cherry turnover recipe from www.recipegirl.com who adapted it from The Art & Soul of Baking, which probably adapted it from some place else.

Ingredients
For Crust
11/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
1 stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8-ounce package of cold cream cheese, roughly cut into pieces
I teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar

For Filling
2 cups pitted & halved fresh sour cherries
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 Teaspoon salt

For Assembly:
1 large egg yolk
2 Tablespoon milk
Sugar

Method
Crust-
You can make this either using a pastry blender or a food processor
-Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl, mix for a few seconds.
- Cut in the cold butter pieces with pastry blender and mix, until the mixture looks like crumbs (or pulse with food processor).
-Add vinegar and cut in the cream cheese and mix until a ball forms ( or pulse quickly with food processor until a ball has formed).
-Turn the clump of dough onto floured surface and knead gently to bring dough together. This dough is forgiving but try not to over work it.
-Flatten into a 7-inch square.
-Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.

Filling
-Pit cherries and place in medium saucepan.
-Mix cherries with sugar, cornstarch and salt.
-Heat over medium until juices have thickened.

Assemble
-Heat oven to 375°F
-Place the dough on a lightly floured surface.
- Roll into a square that is roughly 15×15 inches. The dough will be stiff and a little hard to work.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut into nine 5-inch squares.
- Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease with butter.
- Place the dough squares onto prepared baking sheets. Place a couple of tablespoonfuls of the cherries onto each square.
- Whisk the egg yoke and milk together
- Brush edges of pastry square with egg wash. Carefully fold into a triangle, keeping the cherries enveloped in the dough. Use the tines of a fork to press the edges together and seal them.
-Brush the tops of the pies with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
-Using a sharp knife, carefully cut two-three slits in the top of each turnover to allow steam to escape during baking.
-Place baking sheets in oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the sheets halfway through.
-Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool. Serve warm with ice cream or at room temperature. I like mine plain. I want as little as possible getting between me and that sour cherry pie filling!

Yield: 9