pink as as the bing on your cherry
Sorry, I like Aerosmith, and I’m tired of sayings like “Life is just a bowl of cherries.”
The surest way to get the fruit lady to call me and tell me the cherries will be here tomorrow, is to do this – it seems haying time is cherry canning time.
Raked hay
The cherries are late this year, and we weren’t even sure if we would be able to get any, because of terrible late frosts this spring. We’re on the list of a small fruit buyers group, and when the fruit is in – you better believe that you jump when the call comes. I bought 12, 20 pound boxes, and did some bartering with my frozen broiler chickens. The cherries are #2’s, but after growing up in an old orchard, a blemish here and there, or different sizes, don’t phase me. They sure look better than the $3.99 # for organic #1’s. I paid $1.00 per pound, and I had to drive 12 miles to get them, but it was worth it. That is the price for u-pick conventional cherries, and I would have to go pick them.
Our old cherry trees have died of blight, and our new ones have produced about 12 cherries! So I’m glad to get these, we missed out last year, and I have 11 quarts of canned sweet cherries left from 2006, we have been eating them sparingly.
Canning these will dominate my time for the next few days. I plan to make jam, canned whole cherries, freeze some for smoothies, and maybe some cherry liqueur… . And, we will stuff our faces as much as possible. Oh yeah, and get that hay in the barn!
Throwback at Trapper Creek 
I love cherries…enjoy the next few days…they seem really busy…and that hay looks so good I can almost smell it!!!
I’m salivating… Cherries are my all-time favorite fruit, and those are just gorgeous!!! My trees won’t be producing much for a few more years.
And Henry the bull is quite the big guy. Yikes.
Cherries are the fruit of choice here too! They’re really late this year and expensive too.
I just paid $4.99/lb and they are not even organic.
You can them whole?
Gorgeous cherries!! Our men are thinking of making a trip to PA to look at used tractors. Our 930 Case threw a piston (it is nearly 50 years old) and tractors are high up here. If they go they are going to bring me home some peaches to freeze!
Do every brandy a few jars? I love those whole brandied fruits on pound cake in the winter 😉
Kristen, I’m still canning away, and you’re right that hay smells good. Our neighbor who jogs by our haybarn, calls it the Nasal Passage! She’s a nurse, hence the name.
AMWD – Isn’t there just something about cherries – we have eaten too many! But, enjoyed every gluttonous minute.
Henry is a doll, he comes when I call and is fitting right in. No pun intended. 😉
Linda, they sure are good, but I can’t believe how much they cost in the store.
Kim, wow that’s a lot, considering how fast we can blow threw a pound. I do can them whole, because the pit really imparts flavor over time. If you wanted them for pies, or smoothies, they should be pitted though. This way is pretty easy, since there isn’t much prep before the actual canning process.
Threecollie, I know how that Case feels, being a little older than the tractor. Yummmm, peaches won’t be ready here until August, and when I say here, I mean Oregon, not here. Good luck on the tractor hunting. It was cheaper for us to have ours completely rebuilt than to buy used. Used tractors around here are out of sight, price-wise.
Kathie, thanks for stopping by – I made some brandied cherries two years ago, but I don’t seem to be going through them very fast. The pound cake idea sounds good…
I brandied a few jars this year to try. The pound cake suggestion is a good one!
I LOL at the bull pun! Ryan seems to be “fitting in” well around here too!
What a great price ont he cherries-it is one of our favorites too.
Gina, I’m starting to think about doing some more brandied cherries… except I’m running out of hiding spots! Usually, I imbibe on espresso ganache, that I cleverly disguise in sour cream containers 😉 It’s medicinal, you know!
That’s good about Ryan, Henry is turning out to have a real good disposition. PHEW!
Every year I think the cherries will get too high to afford, but so far so good. When I think of all the work it takes just to get them to picking stage, I think they really should cost more, but I’ll take a good deal when I get it!