Sour Cherries

Sour cherries have been among my favorites for as long as I can remember. When I was in grade school we had two cherry trees. I remember picking cherries with my mother and grandmother. Grandma would stand on the ground and pick, I would climb the tree and pick and my mother would climb up a step ladder to pick. My Grandma would quit first and begin pitting. My mother stopped next to go in to roll out the pie crust, giving her cherries to her mother to pit. Then she would come out and get me and my cherries so I could help Grandma pit the remainder. The cherries were covered with water which we drained off before we pitted. Through the years I have grown adept at pitting cherries, learning that if they squeaked, I should check for a worm. Occasionally a pit would make it through, but not often. Those pies were wonderful. Sometimes we would pick as many as we could and make jam. There is nothing quite so good on a piece of buttered toast as cherry jams with its tart chunks.

About twenty years ago, my in-laws bought two Montmorency cherry trees, which we planted on either side of what is now our driveway. I felt that if I was going to have trees in the yard, they should be working trees and I really missed being able to get good cherry pie. It took a few years for them to grow enough to produce as many cherries as I needed to make any thing. They are medium sized trees, not regular and not miniature. They are just like Goldilock's porridge - "Just right." When people find out that we have cherry trees, they think they want some, until I explain that they are not the dark red sweet Bing cherries. I have only a few friends knowledgable enough to want to come and pick our cherries.

I have a system for using the cherries I pick. Every Spring I enjoy the flowers on our cherry trees as I watch to see if they get frozen or not. If they are frozen we won't get any cherries that year and any that are left in the freezer will have to be enough for the coming year. If they don't get frozen, I pull the bags of frozen cherries from the previous year and turn them into jam, keeping enough for a pie or two until the cherries ripen. As the weather gets warmer, my husband and son put nets over the trees to prevent the birds from nesting in the trees and eating all the cherries. It would be like not even having to get out of bed for breakfast.

Usually at the end of June or beginning of July, it is time to pick the cherries. I take my special cherry picking bucket, and untie the net to get underneath to pick, while the birds yell at me from neighboring trees. My special bucket is bright red and is only used for picking cherries. That way I always have a safe bucket to use that doesn't have any cleaning chemical residue in it. I pick the bucket fairly full and bring the cherries inside to our double sink. I make sure one side is cleaned out and the drain closed before I put the cherries in and run water on them. Usually I drain that water and refill it twice.

Picking the cherries is often a solitary job. It leaves time for thinking. I often wonder about how cherries are handled by the companies that sell jars of jam. How do they get the cherries off the trees? Do they remove the wormy ones when the cherries are pitted or is it kind of like cider? I always use my left hand to pull down the branches and pick with my right hand. That way I have one hand that isn't too sticky to open the door when I go back inside. I get fairly fierce about pulling the branches down and occasionally hear the tree crack a bit. I pick the ripe cherries, but never pick the brown ones, since they are full of worms. I leave the unripe cherries for later when they ripen. I love the color of ripe cherries. I swear they are the ideal shade of red for a sports car. Every year we cut the limbs that I can't reach that are full of cherries and pick those cherries too. The trees always look like they have been scalped after we finish. I think that is why we can manage to get the nets over them in the spring. Some years the tops get frosted and the next year it is barely possible to get the nets over the trees.

I watch movies as I pit cherries. We borrowed a friend's cherry pitter once,and found that each cherry still had to be picked up individually. it was less efficent than pitting by hand. I cover things on the kitchen table with a large towel so that they don't get sticky with cherry juice. I fill a square pan with cherries from the sink, draining the water, and sit at the table putting the pitted cherries into a quart measuring cup. I put the pits and the wormy cherries into a small bowel which I dump every time I refill my square pan with cherries. When my measuring cup gets full, I put the cherries into a zip lock bag that I have written the date on. I squeeze out any extra air, and seal the bag. Then I spread the cherries out so the bag is relatively flat. I put the bags into the freezer so that they will be ready for pie. It is the right amount of cherries for a pie. I find that if I pull out two made ahead frozen pie crusts and a bag of cherries first thing in the morning, I can have the pie cooled and ready to eat after dinner. Cherry pie filling needs to be cooked before it is put into a pie crust and thickens better with cornstarch than tapioca. Cherry pie and vanilla ice cream is among my favorite foods.

Before I begin filling the measuring cup I usually put enough cherries into our dehydrator to fill it. We like dehydrated cherries better than raisins. The dehydrator has to be watched and the shelves moved every couple of hours. There is a fine line between dehydrating and cooking that takes some care. If they aren't dry enough they will mold, too dry and they taste burnt. I put the dehydrator on the porch so the heat is outside. Dehydrated cherries are especially good in oatmeal cookies and in bagels. We also like to eat them right out of the dish.

I try to wear tan clothes when I pick and pit cherries so that there are no stains on my clothes. Cherry juice stains are especially hard to remove. I cover my hair when I pick since the branches try to snag it. Also there are often ants in the trees and I don't want them in my hair. I can pick up to ten cherries in my hand before I throw them into the bucket, but usually do four or five. It isn't smart to squeeze the cherries, because then the sticky juice runs down your arm. Sometimes while picking my right hand will get really sticky and my fingers kind of hold together as I pick.

Like other solitary jobs, my mind gets creative while my fingers work. I planned this article while I was picking If you can't find a sour cherry tree or someone to pick for you the closest store bought cherry pie filling is Lucky Leaf, but it is only close not the real deal. I have found that lots of people are more than willing to let me pick the cherries for them, and pit the cherries for them, and freeze the cherries for them and make the pie or jam for them. People are like that. All they want to do is to eat the treat. They can't enjoy the treat as much as I do, since they didn't work for it. In the winter when I make toast for breakfast the taste of the cherry jam has all those memories of warm days under the tree.