Cherries!

Jun
5

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The cherries are ripening on the tree by the front porch. I’ve been picking what I can reach with a chair.
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I’m going to try to back a truck over there or something this weekend so I can reach higher. So far, I picked a pound of cherries yesterday.
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But there are more! And I must have them…..

These are sour cherries, which are best eaten sweetened and cooked, but I like them right off the tree, too. I’m not sure what I’m making with them this year. Jelly is easiest with cherries because you don’t have to deal with the pits, but I’m a sucker for cherry jam, so I might go to the trouble. I haven’t decided yet. First I have to figure out how to get them off the tree from the higher branches. A friend of mine told me a story about how when she was a kid, she spent one summer sitting in a cherry tree reading books and eating cherries. Which reminded me of the joke–why do elephants paint their toenails red? (So they can hide in cherry trees.) I think I’d feel like an elephant if I tried to climb this cherry tree.
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But I wouldn’t mind sitting in a tree for the summer reading books and eating cherries.

When I was a kid, I used to sit in a plum tree to hide from my piano teacher when she came over on lesson day, but that’s another story!





Comments

  1. Sue, a Florida Farm Girl says:

    Yummmmmm…..cherries. I love those things. Lucky you to have your own trees.

  2. glasslass says:

    I’m sure you know this but just in case there is a gadget called a cherry pitter. But be careful with your thumb. I used one years ago when I picked two cherry trees in one day and had to deal with them quickly. I used a pitter and hours later couldn’t feel my thumb. What I’ve lived with is a nerve was damaged and that thumb looses feeling when it get cold. Very annoying, and with that said I sure wished I had some to be able to make a fresh cherries pie. Nothing better.

  3. theo says:

    In Traverse City, they gently shake the trees causing the fruit to drop to the ground then go about picking them up. A friend of mine is in great demand at cherry picking time because she has an almost zero kill rate on the trees when she shakes them. Much easier than climbing something 8)

  4. AnnieB says:

    Oh I do love sour cherries!

    When I was a kid we had a HUGE sour cherry tree in our backyard – we had a three story house and the tree was much higher than that. My grandmother used to bake sour cherry pies, and instead of a woven lattice on top the made kind of a “lattice” but it was really rows of little hatchets – in remembrance George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, of course!

    I also remember falling out of that tree after climbing it and getting multiple stitches in my hand! No broken bones, luckily.

    Thank you for awakening these memories Suzanne! :snuggle:

  5. Sarah T says:

    Tart cherry juice is delish, or pit and freeze to eat during winter. :yes:

  6. ClaudiaL says:

    Yummy!
    Do you know anything about cherry plums? I have a tree loaded with them and this is my first year farming. Any advice, suggestions?

  7. Marge_in_Michigan says:

    Love your pictures, love cherries, but please don’t try to pick from that folding chair. I did that once and folded myself right to the ground!!!!! Ouch! Huge hematoma!

  8. Glenda says:

    Our cherries aren’t quite ready yet. We pick what we can standing and then I climb up an 8-foot ladder while Max (DH) holds it steady. There is nothing better than a pie made with cherries straight from the tree. Canned pie cherries can’t compete. We try to freeze enough for several pies during the year. Be careful climbing anything!

  9. Joell says:

    :happyflower:
    Cherry preserves—yummy!

  10. joykenn says:

    Orchards around here use a tripod ladder or orchard ladder that’s very stable and let’s you get close to the tree. It’s wider at the bottom rungs than the top rungs. It’s useful for tight spaces, especially getting up in trees to pick or trim or prune them.

    I was just up in Door County Wisconsin which is known for its cherries (tart and absolutely delicious). It’s early in their season which is in July. Everywhere you go you can buy a little cherry pitter but glasslass is right that your thumb can get tired of using it. There are larger pitters or “fruit stoners” that are easier on your hands. Look online for a “cherry stoner” and you’ll find lots of larger ones that make it easier to do batches of cherries for under twenty bucks.

  11. Lois says:

    Went to the grocery store when my now 16 yr old granddaughter was about 3. Walking by the fresh fruit section, she decided she wanted a cherry. So, I thought what the heck and grabbed one for her. I wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing so on the next isle she finally bit into it. Very loudly she says “Nanny, this thing has a BONE in it”! First – and last – time I ever nabbed anything in a store!

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