Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Two Days in Pictures…

Sunday Evening - remember I said I thought the next Cherry Tree would be ready soon… turned out it was ready right then.

Black Cherries 001So I called my sister that night and told her she needed to come out if she wanted any of these cherries… and so she did.

Black Cherries 003

Monday morning - we started picking… see those red cherries in the picture below… those are from a different tree – they aren’t ready - yet.  Seems there are two trees planted together… or I guess it could be that the black cherry tree was grafted onto a different root stock and the root stock grew a tree as well.

Black Cherries 005 

I finally reached the top of my ladder…

Black Cherries 007

I picked all I could reach and said that was enough!

Some of my pickings… everything got put in the refrigerator Monday because I was too tired after a morning of picking cherries and an afternoon spent working in the garden.

Black Cherries 009

Tuesday Morning… Let’s see – first a trip to the store for more canning jars.  This is the book I worked from – a Mothers Day gift from my daughter last year.

ball book

This sounds good…

 Black Cherries 012

Wash and drain the berries…

Black Cherries 021

Then I used this cherry pitter… one cherry at a time… 3 cups worth of cherries took me 1 1/2 hours.  Can you say tedious?

 Black Cherries 013 

Then I decided to use this antique cherry pitter I had hanging in the kitchen.  I picked it up last year poking around antique shops.  You roll some cherries in the top… turn the handle…

Black Cherries 015

The pits come out here…

 Black Cherries 016

and the cherry come out below…

  Black Cherries 018

Now tell me please why there isn’t a modern stainless steel version of this guy around?  I had 5 cups of cherries pitted and ready to use in 30 minutes.

  Black Cherries 020

Sure is a shame you can’t smell this… or better yet taste it!

Black Cherries 022

I made 2 batches of the Black Forest Preserves… one per the recipe and one I used orange extract instead of the almond and added some cinnamon – yum!  Then I made a batch of Cherry Jam using the same recipe I used on Sunday when I canned the other cherries we picked.  A 4 cup batch of cherries for more jam and a 3 cup batch for more preserves are in the freezer… for some day when I have nothing better to do.

Not a bad day – 3 batches of jam/preserves canned… and a couple of tired feet.

5 comments:

smiledarlin said...

And I froze 6 qts of black cherries... from my pickings, for use at a later date...
We really should ch to see if there isn't a stainless version of the stoner.

Lori said...

oh, I am so jealous!! No cherries here. drat! I can taste my toast spread with those cherries. you lucky woman!

Anonymous said...

I will be over just as soon as I can for some cherry preserves and some howdy time!

Anonymous said...

http://www.shopwiki.com/cherry+pitter

guess you could have a nice choice here !

I'll just go to the store and get a little bag to munch on then buy some jam . I don't have a cherry tree and likely the bears would get them before me !
Mary

warren said...

Oh wow those cherries look great!!! I am eating some now that I got at the grocery store for way too much money! Jealous!