Go on out and climb a tree…. A cherry tree!
Sour Cherries make the best preserves. The preserves end up a lovely sweet/tart flavor, and you get to have the benefits of sour cherries all year long! This year Meadow Rain and I went to Bashista Orchards in Southampton MA. We went on opening day, even though it was raining on and off with distant thunder sounding rather ominous. Samascott orchards is another great place to pick your own sour cherries in upstate NY. Picking sour cherries can be a tricky thing, they fruit for just s few weeks around the fourth of July. Some orchards open pick your own one day… and literally have no cherries left the next day, so you have to watch the orchards, and go as soon as you can!
We never rush through these outings, we prefer to really enjoy our time and pick slowly. We filled a huge bucket with almost 10 pounds of cherries! We were allowed to climb up the old wooden ladders to get the best cherries at the top of the trees. Meadow would happily pick fruit all day, and I am more than thrilled to help out while also documenting the outing with my Lensbaby Velvet 56.
Sour cherries are so red and shiny and beautiful! We made preserves out of our cherries the very next day. It took us almost 2 hours just to wash and pit the 10 pounds we lugged home! I will share which recipe we used at the bottom. It is delicious!
We also grabbed a quart of already picked strawberries at check out. Strawberries as an impulse purchase aren’t all that bad, are they? We washed, pitted and preserved our cherries with this recipe from Martha Stewart. Though you can do much more with sour cherries than just make jam, here is a list of other recipes! This was a great way to spend two summery days with Meadow Rain, If you don’t make it out to the cherry orchards this year, keep an eye out for picking time next year (watch the orchard newsletters closly around the end of June, beginning of July!
