It's a blustery, snowy day in mid-January, yet harvesting strawberries and sweet cherries is on my mind.
My husband is planning his art show season and some of the better prospects are front loaded in early summer. If he's accepted to display/sell his poetic angel images at these coveted shows, we'll be far from home for six weekends in a row -- just as our favorite fruits are ripening.
Since we built a tiered strawberry bed in the front yard, we've been able to forego picking our own at a nearby farm. It eases the process somewhat because we can pick and freeze 2-3 quarts at a time -- as opposed to the 40 or more we would cart home years ago. Hulling, slicing and macerating that volume of strawberries filled the larger part of an afternoon and evening.
Now, I skip outside at dawn or after work, pick what's juicy and ripe, prep and store them in less than an hour at a time. So much more convenient!
But when we're away for a few days at the height of harvest, it reverts to being a chore -- and we tend to lose more than I'd prefer to mold and slugs.
The timing on cherries is even more crucial -- at least here, in Upstate New York -- our window for picking un-split, ambrosia spheres is less than a week. July 1, the u-pick farms generally open for business, and by July 6, there's little to be found within reach -- even with a ladder.
Last year, I took a long lunch break and we drove to a nearby farm to pick in a drizzling rain, rather than risk losing out. We then spent the entire evening pitting, freezing and canning cherries -- until midnight.
So, unless our own black gold tree, which produced just two cherries last year, can meet our nearly insatiable demand, we will be hard-pressed to pick and process enough fruit to ease next year's winter blues and stave off colds/flu.
In the meantime, I guess I'll just grab a bowl of frozen cherries to enjoy while helping Kevin fill out his applications.
My husband is planning his art show season and some of the better prospects are front loaded in early summer. If he's accepted to display/sell his poetic angel images at these coveted shows, we'll be far from home for six weekends in a row -- just as our favorite fruits are ripening.
Since we built a tiered strawberry bed in the front yard, we've been able to forego picking our own at a nearby farm. It eases the process somewhat because we can pick and freeze 2-3 quarts at a time -- as opposed to the 40 or more we would cart home years ago. Hulling, slicing and macerating that volume of strawberries filled the larger part of an afternoon and evening.
Now, I skip outside at dawn or after work, pick what's juicy and ripe, prep and store them in less than an hour at a time. So much more convenient!
But when we're away for a few days at the height of harvest, it reverts to being a chore -- and we tend to lose more than I'd prefer to mold and slugs.
The timing on cherries is even more crucial -- at least here, in Upstate New York -- our window for picking un-split, ambrosia spheres is less than a week. July 1, the u-pick farms generally open for business, and by July 6, there's little to be found within reach -- even with a ladder.
Last year, I took a long lunch break and we drove to a nearby farm to pick in a drizzling rain, rather than risk losing out. We then spent the entire evening pitting, freezing and canning cherries -- until midnight.
So, unless our own black gold tree, which produced just two cherries last year, can meet our nearly insatiable demand, we will be hard-pressed to pick and process enough fruit to ease next year's winter blues and stave off colds/flu.
In the meantime, I guess I'll just grab a bowl of frozen cherries to enjoy while helping Kevin fill out his applications.
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