Preserving the Cherries

After the cherry picking, the preservation job begins. We didn't have as big a crop as years past with only 6 1/2 jars of jam and 4 pies but we'll take what we got. It's so lovely to enjoy our cherries in the dead of winter.

Cherry pitting instruments

If you look at the picture above carefully, you'll see a bobbypin (yes, a bobbypin - story to follow) from year one;
the next is the silver handheld that pits one at a time, barely a step up from the bobbypin but a few less hand cramps; then the chop it man which is still just one or two cherries but you just hit the top with your palm which saves finger cramps - and he is cute; and this year, thanks to Maggie, a kindred jam making spirit, who graciously gifted me this multiple cherry pitter, I had no hand cramps this year. Thank you again, Maggie. The cherries were smaller than usual, so a few pits got through, oh well. I have to give credit to Mark too who gallantly pitted cherries with me more than one year.

The first summer we lived in the cottage, I was so busy making it livable that I almost missed the ripe cherries. Once I discovered them, a bumper crop, I called friends to come to help themselves. I picked enough for us and then was faced with the fact that I didn't have a way to efficiently pit them. I went to the hardware store and couldn't find a cherry pitter anywhere. I didn't want to drive another 25 miles and spend several hours searching so I asked a couple elderly women at the hardware store if they had any suggestions. One said to use a bobbypin. She went into detail how it works and they wished me well. Maybe they had a good chuckle about that but it does work! It's hard work, my hand was cramped, but the curved end of the bobby pin effectively caught the pit and slipped it out. While doing the job, I knew I had a mission to find a better cherry pitter. Now thanks to my friend, pitting cherries isn't quite so daunting.

Here's the new pitter in action, very

efficient and you can see it's capacity

is greater than one at a time

The beautiful ceramic cherry pie on the

lazy-susan behind the fresh cherries is a

hand painted gift from my young friend,

Sasha. Isn't it exquisite?

I got 6 1/2 jars of first of the season

cherry jam. It is delicious - of course

we had to try it right away!

My favorite jam cookbook. It's an

investment but it has recipes the likes

of which you never tasted before along

with old standards. Her methods are

modern and make this process a lot

easier.

And I also got 4 pies from this years crop, two of which made it to the freezer for later.

The finished pie, yum!

And of course there is always leftover pit crust that has to be baked off for an additional treat for those crust lovers.

When there are children around, I use cookies cutters in the shape of a bare foot imprint to cut the extra pie dough. Once sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, they look like dirty feet...and kids love 'em for both the name and the taste!

Summer for me is enjoying the fresh fruit and vegetables but also the preservation of them for winter. It is such a satisfying feeling in winter to be able to pull something from the pantry or freezer that I put up in the summer. It is worth the time and effort it takes to do the preserving.

This year I plan to dry some things as another way to preserve the harvest.

Hope you are having a fun and fruitful summer.
Delores

P.S. I've had a number of readers ask me about the flowers in the masthead of my blog. Yes, they are roses from my garden. Beautiful, yes?