This was the first of about five large containers of cherries that my wife and I picked today. Just the other day, they seemed yellow, but the hot weather seemed to move the ripening process along.
The birds complained noisily—we should keep our cherry-picking hands to ourselves. But we are leaving the entire top of the tree to them, so we don’t think they have much to complain about.
The next challenge is to run the cherries through the pitter, a monumental job no one enjoys. After that, the consensus is that we’ll freeze most until we know which recipes for jams and jellies we’ll use.
The tree is a heavy bearer, but it wasn’t always so. It was moved twice from locations where it did not thrive. Finally, it wound up in front of the house, happy and content to bear heavy crops yearly.
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Lucky you! I wait for Rainier cherries to arrive at our markets–but I pay a price for them!
We never have to buy. We get enoughfor the fresh season, and then we make jam and jelly.
But by the way our cats have always loved the tree because it attracts akk the local birds. There are lots of little cat cries, growls and howls of frustration.
haha! Win-win for you and the cats!
Do you pick the cherries when they are not quite ripe? We closely watch our cherries ripen. Normally we decide to wait one more day to pick them but when we go back the next day, the birds have already harvested.
Yum!
We just finished freezing five quarts dor making jelly after the heat breaks.
Oh man…