It's Gone !!

I had one little cherry on the Stella cherry tree. Yesterday I was sitting on the glidder under the carport and enjoying the nice weather. Suddenly I saw a large bird fly away from that tree.
I thought, oh no !! The birds are going to eat that little cherry. So, I got up and picked it.
The plan was to save it for Sandy when she gets here (tomorrow night) but after I picked it, I plopped it in my mouth with nary a thought of saving it.
Sorry Sandy. It was delicious!!

Cherry Harvest

The cherries are ripe a little earlier this year, thanks to that hot spell we had recently. Problem is they all get ripe at one time then. The crop isn't as large as it was last year and the birds are eating their fill. They are not afraid of me or that fake owl I bought to scare them off. Sunday I'm going to make one batch of cherry jam. I hope I won't cook it as long as last year, it was too thick. Also, I'm going to try a small batch of fruit leather again. I don't want to waste cherries on that if it doesn't turn out good. (Oh, so many projects.)

We have collected 190 recipes so far for the Winton Centennial Cookbook. Almost half-way there. I have an old recipe book from Winton, titled Winton's Recipe Roundup" compiled by Winton Women's Improvement Club, printed in 1954. Lots of familiar names in it, some relatives also. The cooks went to a lot more trouble back then. You can tell it's an old recipe when it calls for Oleo, or butter the size of an egg. Then instead of putting it in the freezer, you place it in the deep freeze. I haven't heard that expression for a long time.
The next Winton Hometown News newsletter (July/August) will be mailed out the end of June or first part of July. We will be reminding people that we are looking for their CURRENT recipes, not just the old ones from parents or grandparents.
We hope our readers will find our stories interesting and that they will want to send in their stories as well.

Cherry Jam

I finished the second batch of cherry jam today. It was much easier than the first batch.
I used a paring knife to remove the pits last week. What a mess! Red cherry juice ran down my arms and off my elbows. I looked like I got the worst end of a serious fight.
I ordered a cherry pitter from Amazon after searching the local stores and not finding any. The one I bought is made by OXO. It's really neat, the work goes much faster and is not messy.
I tried making the cherry fruit leather, but I had too many cherries pitted. It was only supposed to be 1/8 inch thick on the cookie sheet, but I think it was more than that. Oh well, I guess I can always make jam out of it. I had some on a pancake tonight. Very good.
I'll try the fruit leather again when the apricots are ripe.

It's the Pits

Well, here it is, cherry season is basically over in my backyard.
So, do you think I could find a cherry pitter?
Lots of them online, but it's a little late for that. Guess I need to plan ahead. Actually, I didn't know I was going to need a cherry pitter until recently. I was just going to eat them fresh and give away the rest. But then decided to try making some cherry jam.
I went all over today.
To the Mall, Downtown, Across Town; one place I went, he just sold the last cherry pitter a half-hour before I got there.
Guess it's back to the paring knife.
I found some recipes online for cherry fruit leather, I was going to try that too. But the cherry jam is the main thing. I want to take some with me when I visit my daughter this fall in the Netherlands.

Cherry Pickin' Time

A friend came over to pick some cherries today. Her husband put up the tall ladder and picked from the higher branches. He said he's never seen so many cherries in all his life.
As soon as they left, Maggie noticed something new in her backyard and couldn't wait to climb to the very tip top to look at the neighbors back yards.

I picked more cherries and took them door-to-door. I learned one thing today -- EVERYBODY loves cherries.
Wednesday~ I was on the short ladder picking cherries again this morning. As I reached up to pick the cherries above my head, there was Maggie. She climbed the tree without me noticing and was right by my hand, wanting to know what I was doing.
She's quite a cat.