The joy of this drink is that you don’t have to engage in the tedious task of removing the pits from the cherries. You do, however, have to remove the stems from a quart (about 2 pounds) of sour cherries and toss them into a blender until they’ve turned into a rough mush. Some of the pits will be chopped too; that’s fine because you’re going to put them in a strainer and press hard, extracting as much puree as you can. Discard the solids.

Put the cherry puree into a pitcher and stir in the juice of four lemons, and about a half cup of sugar.  (If you like things really sour, you might want less; if you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ll want more.)

This will keep for a day or two in the refrigerator, but after that it becomes rather murky. When you’re ready to drink the lemonade, pour into glasses and add water (or sparkling water) to taste.