Cherries!

July is cherry-picking season in our area.


We have two really tall trees and of course the cherries grow in the hardest-to-reach places.




For some reason, the birds don't eat too many of the cherries, and there are never worms. It's great!


I think Talea likes having a great excuse to climb dangerously high into the trees more than she likes the cherries themselves.


The only problem is, what do you do with so many little red cherries? You can only eat so many before you're running to the bathroom every few minutes.

Ah-Ha! Cherry jam and homemade maraschino cherries.


The maraschino cherries are good, but the texture is a bit soft, and they look a bit mangled since I had to hand-squeeze the pits out (I didn't have a cherry-pitter). Did you know cherries stain your hands a nasty color?



The juice revealed just how nasty the yard work has made my hands. I swear I wear gloves while working in the yard, but I do way too much handwashing and such so my hands are hammered, and I never remember lotion.

Next year, I'm pitting then freezing a lot of it, and I'm making more jam (its so tasty, yet slightly sloppy, like dessert topping). I cheat and put a little red food coloring in the mix to make it look prettier.