Cherry Picking

My awesome father-in-law bought me a cherry tree and a plum tree a few years back.  When we went to the nursery together to get them, I loved hearing the stories about him and his siblings climbing up the plum tree and collecting all the fruit.  He told me about the cherry tree we were going to get and how the cherries were good for pies and jams.  We got home and right away he set about to getting my two new trees planted, dragging Joe on over from what he was doing to get planting with him right away.  I stood by and could just see my kids climbing on the branches of the plum tree a few years ahead.

The blooms the first year were incredible on both trees, but no fruit.  I sadly watched that first summer as the Japanese Beetles made minced meat of the plum tree leaves.  I eagerly waited the next spring to see if it was permanent damage, but thankfully, no it was not.  There was a beautiful show of blossoms again on both trees!  Then, even more incredible, we saw cherries coming in on the cherry tree!  My mind started racing with the cherry jam and cherry pies I would make.  Cherry cobbler, cherries on ice cream, cherry soda....I could just taste them all from looking at those unripe little white berries.  We went off for a week vacation and came home to discover the cherry tree void of any berries..white or red....gone...all of them....stinkin' birds.  They left us the pits still attached to the stems...super stinkin' birds.

This year, I got a little smarter.  I actually decided we would get a bird net for the tree. With the help of the JackRabbit next door and Smoosh, we headed out to the garden center and made our purchase.  Of course it took the Big Daddy to actually get the net on the tree, but at least now the cherries were protected.  As seems typical this time of year, we had a getaway scheduled and left our little cherry tree with its net on.  There were definitely little white berries waiting to ripen on the branches.  We got back to find CHERRIES!!  Bright, red, edible CHERRIES!!!  Oh those jams, pies, and cobblers to be made!  I might even have to throw a few extra in pancakes or on top of waffles!


With the older kids off at various summer activities, JackRabbit, Smoosh, Squeaks and I set out to do some cherry picking:

Its still a small tree, so they could all reach and pick just fine!

Playing peek-a-boo was a good diversion after she grew tired of her cherry picking....all full 30 seconds of it.

Happy cherry pickin' crew.

Please note from that last pic the bowl of cherries.  There it was...our full bounty.  A bit dismayed, I started erasing the visions of cherry jam and pie and whatnots from my cherry daydream.  Hmmmm...barely a bowl full of cherries.  Nonetheless, they were our cherries and we had waited a few years for our harvest and they were from the tree that my FIL bought AND planted for me, so for those reasons alone, they were extra special cherries and something wonderful was going to happen to them.  And something wonderful did happen to them....Otter.  He and I spent the afternoon pitting the cherries and he found a recipe to make cherry cobbler with.  He then proceeded to make the cobbler entirely by himself.

Messy cherry pitting process.

Yum...cherry cobbler.

We all enjoyed talking about our cherry picking and cobbler making that night at dinner.  We enjoyed that cobbler down to the last bite and talked about all the cherry goodies we were going to make next year.  We have the net ready and will be doing  a cherry dance for a bit more of a bountiful harvest.  And who knows...maybe we will even get a few plums as well!