Yesterday I picked enough cherries to fill up one of those gallon-plus ice cream buckets. Those cherries yielded enough to make three quarts for the deep freeze. According to my estimates, there's an hour and fifteen minutes of labor in each quart.
I've barely made a dent in the cherries on the tree. Most of them will go to waste, because I've spent about all the time I want to, pitting sticky, sour cherries.
I would, however, like some cherry jam; it's my favorite. I have a box of pectin and plenty of sugar.
If memory serves me, I'm pretty sure I've had trouble getting cherry jam to "jell" sufficiently in the past. That's no big loss, though, because if it's too thin to be called jam, it makes an excellent ice cream syrup.
So I guess I'll change into some clothes that I don't mind getting stained and head to the tree, bucket in hand.
I would love to have a sweet cherry tree; Cliff, however, doesn't think I'd keep it sprayed. I told him that if it were up here by the house, I would remember to spray it. He's not so sure.
I saw some sweet cherries at Walmart yesterday and picked up a bag; then I realized that, at $3.99 a pound, that bag would probably cost me ten dollars, and I put it down.
I really love sweet cherries, though. I imagine I'll be paying the price soon enough and bringing some home.
I guess those cherries are expensive ! Both yours, if your charged for your time and the stores. It always seems like everything I like cost more...
ReplyDeletesour cherries are the best. there are less sour kinds. once I drove to waverly to pick up a gallon of cherries.
ReplyDeleteI love sweet cheeries. I'm drooling.
ReplyDeleteThe pic of David is a hoot. I guess a lot of people are looking like that after eating all of that fast food!
Something about cows chewing their cud makes me sleepy and relaxed. Guess I should make a tape of it for the nights I can't sleep!
I remember when we lived in Oregon, and I picked cherries -- sweet ones -- and canned them; and also some Queen Anne, which were yellow, and they looked so beautiful in the jars. Once when I was sitting on the couch eating cherries and spitting the pits into a pie tin, a daddy longleg spider crawled across my lap and over to the cherry pits and started "sucking on them" or whatever they do.
ReplyDeleteOoooo that jam sounds great!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen a cherry tree in person. I don't guess they grow here. Now I'm wondering???
ReplyDeleteIf you have just one sweet cherry tree, the coons and birds will probably eat it clean before they are even fully ripe. They make a much smaller dent in a whole orchard. Can you find a farmer's market with sweet cherries nearby?
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