We started out the day with a plan to go do some cherry picking at a local orchard, so we loaded up the car with buckets and boxes and headed on out. We were really disappointed when we got there though - the place had only been open 2 days, and nearly all the cherries had been picked already! We spent a little while climbing ladders and searching for lone cherries among the leaves of the tree, but it soon proved fruitless (ha!) and we gave up. We did walk away with a small bowl of eating cherries, so all was not completely lost:
Driving home, we were debating heading out to Sauvies Island in search of another cherry place when I realized that we were about to pass right by our favorite raspberry farm. And since we hadn't picked any of those yet this summer, and it was a rare upick adventure where had Matthews help (raspberries are the berries that I love to hate you know) we changed gears and headed out to fill our boxes with raspberries. We got a 29 pounds in just under an hour:
The ones on each end are Willamette's and the ones in the middle are Cascade Delight. Those ones were for fresh eating, while we used up most of the Willamette's making raspberry jam. We got 20 half pints of jam put up, which delighted Matthew to no end, since raspberry jam is his absolute favorite.
I still had cherries on the brain a couple days later when I saw a local fruit stand advertising local no spray local cherries for $1.99 a pound. The kids and I were sorting through the boxes, and finding quite a few moldy cherries so I was thinking that cherries just weren't meant to be for us this year. Then one of the workers pulled out some boxes from the fridge for me, where the cherries had held up better and just a couple were looking past their prime. But because of those few yucky ones, she gave us the 20 pounds box for just $20.00! At a buck a pound, I was definitely willing to sort through to pick out the moldy ones, especially since there really weren't that many of them. Look at all those beautiful cherries!
Washing, pitting, and canning 20 pounds of cherries is not a small feat. You think its going to go fast, and that you are going to have them all put up in a few hours, but hahaha. You're not. It took me 3 days to get through them all, and by the end of it as I was staring down those last few cherries, all I wanted was to never see another one ever again. I know come mid winter I wont be feeling that way anymore though - all my hard work will surely pay off then:
I made; canned cherries, cherry preserves, cherry-raspberry conserve, sweet cherry jam, and cherry marmalade (which was so disgustingly sweet that I threw it away right after making it). Canning is a lot of work, but its also really fun and highly rewarding to open the cupboard and see all the food that I have made and preserved for my family for the winter. It feels a little...pioneerish. And I love it!
Driving home, we were debating heading out to Sauvies Island in search of another cherry place when I realized that we were about to pass right by our favorite raspberry farm. And since we hadn't picked any of those yet this summer, and it was a rare upick adventure where had Matthews help (raspberries are the berries that I love to hate you know) we changed gears and headed out to fill our boxes with raspberries. We got a 29 pounds in just under an hour:
The ones on each end are Willamette's and the ones in the middle are Cascade Delight. Those ones were for fresh eating, while we used up most of the Willamette's making raspberry jam. We got 20 half pints of jam put up, which delighted Matthew to no end, since raspberry jam is his absolute favorite.
I still had cherries on the brain a couple days later when I saw a local fruit stand advertising local no spray local cherries for $1.99 a pound. The kids and I were sorting through the boxes, and finding quite a few moldy cherries so I was thinking that cherries just weren't meant to be for us this year. Then one of the workers pulled out some boxes from the fridge for me, where the cherries had held up better and just a couple were looking past their prime. But because of those few yucky ones, she gave us the 20 pounds box for just $20.00! At a buck a pound, I was definitely willing to sort through to pick out the moldy ones, especially since there really weren't that many of them. Look at all those beautiful cherries!
Washing, pitting, and canning 20 pounds of cherries is not a small feat. You think its going to go fast, and that you are going to have them all put up in a few hours, but hahaha. You're not. It took me 3 days to get through them all, and by the end of it as I was staring down those last few cherries, all I wanted was to never see another one ever again. I know come mid winter I wont be feeling that way anymore though - all my hard work will surely pay off then:
I made; canned cherries, cherry preserves, cherry-raspberry conserve, sweet cherry jam, and cherry marmalade (which was so disgustingly sweet that I threw it away right after making it). Canning is a lot of work, but its also really fun and highly rewarding to open the cupboard and see all the food that I have made and preserved for my family for the winter. It feels a little...pioneerish. And I love it!