Cherries

A week or so ago, I got a text from my friend Jen: “Cherries ripe for little cherry pickers!” We headed out that very morning and picked what ended up being about six cups of pitted cherries. Maybe that doesn’t sound like so much, but believe me, that’s a lot of cherries for little hands to pick. And if anyone asks me to pit cherries before next year, it’ll be too soon.

(We also left approximately one million cherries on the two beautiful trees the Hinrichs have in their backyard. Every time we thought we had gathered all we could reach on a branch, we looked up to find a nearly equal amount!)

So the kids have different capacities for cherry  picking. Simon was the least interested (by far), and Ian stuck it out the longest. At one point, Ian was nearing meltdown because he couldn’t reach any more cherries. Jen came to the rescue with the brilliant idea of using the mini-trampoline. I don’t know if it actually helped him reach any more cherries (the flying leap was not super effective as a technique), but it sure did do the trick for redirecting his energy and staving off a tantrum.

So far we’ve made Cherry Hand Pies and Cherry Crumb Bars (just substituted cherries for blueberries). Next up, I’ll make a batch (or two) of Cherry Barbecue Sauce.

And here’s a little blog bonus for a rainy Monday afternoon: I realized that I never did post last year’s cherry pictures. Last year we made a pie with my grandma: best ever. The recipe itself was unremarkable, but the memories of our first cherry picking experience and my ninety-one-year-old grandma rolling out dough with my kids are precious.