Cherry Pickin'

I’m sure a few of you have seen the pictures of our house on our Flickr sites. Our back yard is full of fruit trees and bushes. We have apples, pears, figs, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, currants, black currants, strawberries, sweet and sour cherries. That is a LOT of fruit. Most aren’t ready until late June into July and some a little later.

We’ve excitedly been waiting for cherries since last summer. We have a huge tree that grows behind the garage, and it’s a perfect boost into the tree for prime picking. There were so many cherries last year that we were giving them away, because they would go bad before we could eat that many. Since German refrigerators have small freezers, if any, there was little we could do to save them for later.

This year we are ready. We bought a freezer with enough space to save a few cherries for late fall or winter, our mouths salivating at the thought of yummy cherries. With the weather not being so nice and sunny, July has crept up on us and the cherries are ready.

We went out picking Monday night. We could see all those shiny deep red ornaments hanging from the tree. To the top of the garage with our bowls, we began picking. It didn’t take long to find that most of the cherries have either become too ripe and split, or been attacked by bugs. After we finished picking for the night, we came in with one almost full bowl.

It was late and I didn’t really want to clean cherries, but if I let the cherries sit, they might get bugs through the day. With my new cherry pitter in hand (Thanks Jef!), I got started. It’s awesome! I love it! I really wish I had it last year with all the good cherries. Definitely beats cutting them in half and digging the pit out with my fingers.

Last night I baked a cherry cobbler or crisp, whatever you want to call it. It was good, but cherries not as sweet as remembered. Next time we’ll try a pie or just eat them from the tree, although Osu likes them all.