Cherries ,cherries and more cherries!

So the fruit harvest begins!

Another mama in the neighbourhood called us up on Saturday, exasperated with the seemingly never ending supply of cherries from the three trees in her yard. Luckily we had an extra hand with an out of town house guest, and happily trooped across town to take advantage of her generous offer to help ourselves! ( she begged and pleaded!)

The next morning I spent about three hours pitting the 15 pounds we picked. We don't own a cherry pitter, so I tackled the job armed only with a wooden skewer. It was tedious, and very messy, but I got the job done. Halved and pitted they filled 7 trays on the Excalibur.

Last night we picked about 30 pounds more, pitted and chopped half of that in front of a good movie. Still have another 15 pounds to deal with today... Jam maybe?

So the house is a juicy disaster... there is cherry juice splattered up the walls. It looks gruesome!! The bonus was, it was a family affair. I usually tackle these things myself. This time the kiddos even helped... and it truly was a help!! Usually I keep them far away from the kitchen. When I am armed with an unusual amount of patience I organise something that they can help me with... but honestly I dread it because I am left with a huge job of cleaning up... after the job already took twice as long! It looks as though we are in a new era though. The boys helped with every step, from picking to pitting, to chopping to lining them up on the dehydrator trays, to peeling them off again.... and of course eating them!. Putting food up just got a little easier. I honestly never thought I would see the day! To a bountiful harvest ahead!