Cherry Harvest

When we started this urban homesteading adventure three years ago we planted a bunch of fruit trees, including this cherry.  For the first time, this spring it was loaded with fruit.  A week ago it looked like this.  Things were getting ready, but not yet.

This morning the cherries were ripe and ready to pick.  We headed out with buckets and cleared the tree.

Then into the house we went and started pitting.  My husband used the pitter and my daughters pitted the old fashioned way.  It's a sticky mess, but we got it done.  I fired up the canner and soon quarts were bubbling away.

By the end of the day we had 10 quarts of pie cherries and one cherry cobbler in the oven.  Since this was our first real harvest, it was also our first real taste.

The cherries were amazing.  Tart.  Plump.  Tangy.  And not a worm in the whole bunch.  Our hope was that having the fruit trees in the chicken pen would prevent worms as the chickens ate them all up.  So far so good!