
Acerola cherries in syrup
Five years ago, my husband planted a tiny acerola cherry (also called Barbados, West Indian, Wild Crepe Myrtle cherries, Malpighia Emarginata) plant by the side of our courtyard. Within a year, it started bearing fruit.

Acerola Cherry Tree
Nourished with farmyard manure and lime, and watered in summer, it now bears baskets of delicious, bright red cherries, attracting dozens of feathered friends every day. After eating their fill, unlike so many of us humans, the birds still leave nearly half the ripe fruit on the branches for me to pick, to make several delicious dishes to share with you all.

Acerola cherries / Barbados cherries / West Indian cherries / Wild Crepe Myrtle cherries / Malpighia Emarginata
One of the easiest, quick-to-fix of these is of course syruping the cherries. The cherries are so delicious that you can simply enjoy them by themselves or you can pour over pancakes, dosas or idlis. Children just love to suck on these vitamin rich goodies, spit out the pips and spoon in some more!

Cook Time | 10 minutes |
Passive Time | 30 minutes |
Servings | servings |
- 350 gm acerola cherries (fully ripe)
- 240 gm sugar
Ingredients
| ![]() |
- Set a stainless steel pan on low heat.
- Tip in the sugar and the cherries.
- Stir softly and continuously for 5 minutes. The sugar would have melted by this time.
- Turn up the heat and stir continuously. If the syrup becomes too frothy and starts to rise, turn down the heat for a few moments. As soon as the froth subsides, turn up the heat again.
- After cooking for 5 minutes on high heat, switch off the heat and let cool naturally. When cool, transfer to a clean, sun-dried, airtight glass jar.
- Enjoy good health and superb taste!
No preservatives have been used in making this delicious syrup. If you intend to store it for more than two days, please do refrigerate.
am not sure about juice, but i am going to come for ACEROLA CHERRIES 🙂 or maybe for a sapling 😀
Thank you, deeps!
Hi. where can I get the sapling ?
Hi Suzanna,
The saplings should be available in most fruit plant nurseries. I am also trying to root some cuttings. It may take around 3 months for the rooting. Have a great day!
Lucked up! on one of these today at Walmart reduce down to $10 it looks very healthy it’s about 3′ tall. I don’t know how long I need to wait to plant it because we may still have a freeze I live in Jacksonville Florida.
Hello, just wondering if you leave the seeds in or at what point you’d go about taking them out?
Thank you for asking, dear Michelle! The cherries being so soft, I simply leave the seeds in, as otherwise, the cherry would get tattered and squashed while cooking. The seeds hold the flesh together, and my children love to suck the sweetened flesh off the seeds!