Life is just a (giant) bowl of cherries.

The cherry harvest has begun. Oh. my. God. There are so many cherries. I knew there were a lot of cherries on that tree, but I had no idea. I was actually worried to begin that we wouldn't be able to reach so many of them because the tree is too tall and our ladder is too short. I had no reason to worry. One afternoon of picking cherries, mostly from what we could reach on our own, and some from a ladder yielded a gigantic bowl of cherries. It must be about 10 or 12 pounds. I really should get a scale. I even thought this bowl would go fast....but it's not.

Anyway, I should start at the beginning. We finally figured out the variety of cherry we have. It's a Montmorency cherry, which is one of the most popular sour cherries for pies and preserves. It's not that sour though, just a little tart. You can still eat them on their own and they are tasty.

On Sunday afternoon I went outside and starting picking with wild abandon; I wanted to get all the ripe cherries off the tree that I could. Then I would just start canning it and making pies, right?

On Monday I rushed out in the morning to get on the canning wagon and got myself a book, The Complete Book of Home Preserving, and a set of canning supplies including a gigantic stock pot that fits over two stovetop burners with a wire jar-holder thing, a jar lifter, jars, some cheesecloth, some pectin and a cherry pitter.

Cherry pitters are like the coolest thing ever. Last summer Mike and I went to a u-pick cherry farm and we pitted our cherries with a nail. This is way better.

I decided to start off with some jam. It seemed like the easiest thing to make given that this is my first try at canning and preserving. I pitted the cherries needed for the recipe and only then realized just how many cherries we had. I still have all the cherries on the left sitting in my fridge waiting for me to do something with them. It only took the little bit on the right to make 5 - 8 ounce jars of jam.

And then there was jam.

Today I need to get back in there before the cherries go bad and make a pie....and I think I'm going to make a big batch of pie filling and can that for later. Suddenly my life went from spending three hours in the kitchen everyday to six. Sheesh.

As a side note, Mike just came in the house with one of the “apricots” and said they are starting to turn red and he thinks they are red plums. Or maybe they are nectarines. We just don't know. You will have to come back for the exciting conclusion. It might take a couple months though.....I can hardly wait!