What to do with 18 pounds of Cherries?

A few weeks ago I purchased 18 pounds of cherries for just $24 thanks to Bountiful Baskets. If you haven't heard of Bountiful Baskets you must check them out! Once I picked up our cherries, I was then faced with what to do with them all before they went bad. I was able to split half of them with family, but that still left 9 pounds of cherries. How in the world would I be able to use them all before they went bad. Thanks to Pinterest I was able to get a few ideas.

Fruit leather was the first recipe that caught my eye from Healthy Living. The only problem was I didn't have a cherry pitter so I would have to pit each and every cherry by hand.......not good - I also didn't have a food dehydrator. I was able to find a food dehydrator, but still no cherry pitter. I went to about 10 different stores and not one carries a cherry pitter. I got the brilliant idea that I would just cook the cherries and once they were cooked down I would mash the cherries and then get the pits out that way. The idea was a tad flawed. Long story short I was able to get all the pits out and blend up the cherries and get it on the dehydrator. In fact, it is still in the dehydrator as I type this.



So tell me, what would you do with 9 pounds of cherries?