Cherry picking season in Crestwood has officially begun...yesterday my brother Glenn and I picked for about an hour which resulted in 15 pounds of tart, ruby cherries. Unfolded paperclips in hand, a vinyl tablecloth, plenty of paper towels and several hours later my Dad, Glenn and I had pitted and sorted all the cherries.
It was getting a bit late to do anything with the newly pitted fruit, but I was prepared. A few days earlier I made a batch of pie pastry and it was calling out from the refrigerator, screaming to be used in a glorious cherry pie! I quickly assembled and baked the pie. It was left cooling on the counter top on a wire rack, for about an hour. It takes a pie several hours to cool so that it is edible, unless it is a assisted by half an hour of sitting over an vent blowing cool air ;) So at 8:30 p.m. Mom, Dad, Glenn and I enjoyed the fruits of our labor ala mode, mmmm, delicious!
I spent several hours today joyfully chopping, measuring, stirring and boiling cherries, sugar, and pectin to create the canned wonder of Cherry Jam. (Insert sigh of contentment.) I suppose some would consider it "work" but when you love what you do and the resulting creation, it is a cheery time in the kitchen.
Today's kitchen efforts also yielded a free-form Cherry Galette topped with sanding sugar, just as yummy as yesterday's pie (yes, the first pie is gone).
We should have enough jam to last us until next year...but I might just make another trip to the cherry trees, we'll see.
