My cherries are ripe

[noamnety]

and I need you all to come help pit them. :)





(please hurry, there's a lot)

[susanna]

1. You have a pitter, right?

They are awesome. I use them for olives, too. (I don't grow olives as I live in Michigan, but when I need to make a pasta salad w/ olives I bring out the cherry pitter.)

P.S. I adore cherries...there is a place near Traverse City, Michigan, called the Cherry Republic tht has an AMAZING cherry salsa. I think I could live on it. :-)

[noamnety]

3. I have the handheld manual kind.

nothing fancy. Still, it takes a while. I read recently that in a pinch you can use a sturdy drinking straw as a pitter, also.

Cherry salsa ... wow. I may have to try that. What do they serve it on?

[susanna]

6. When I buy it, I try to get lime flavored tortilla chips.

Regular will do in a pinch, though. The salsa isn't as sweet as you'd think. It is a regular tomato-based salsa with some cherries added, and it's really a complex flavor combination. A friend bought me some a few years before I ever visited Traverse City, and that salsa was my primary goal when I went there on vacation a while back. They sell it online too IIRC; I bought a case and gave it out as Christmas gifts one year. Received a lot of raves about it, too! :-)

[Blue Gardener]

2. I'm jealous

Fresh cherry pie is the best! We always had cherry trees as a child, but now that I live in town I don't have room for a cherry tree.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. I will if I can eat what I pit

I have to, because I can only pit cherries with my teeth...

[asdjrocky]

5. Man those look good!

And who dosen't love cherry pie? I'm actually thinking of planting a cherry tree in my back yard. Any advice?

[noamnety]

10. No advice, other than do it.

Make sure you buy netting once they start producing, though - otherwise the birds may wipe you out.

[jillan]

7. My grandmother used to have a cherry tree.

She would take the cherries, pits and all, and simmer them on the stove with water and sugar until the cherries softened. Nothing was better. Many happy memories of sitting around the table with my extended family, enjoying this treat, spitting out the pits together.

yum ;)

[Gormy Cuss]

8. I'll be right over.

What kind of cherries are they?

[noamnety]

9. They're some kind of sour cherry.

It's been a while since I bought the trees, but I think it was Montmorency. Not the best for eating plain, but super good for everything else. I have two youngish trees that didn't have enough to bother netting yet, and the birds got all those.

The animals are making me crazy here. I have four half barrels sunk into a meadow area, one with horseradish, one for jerusalem artichokes, one for yacon. And the last was my sweet potatoes, and I left it with only a little dirt, planning to fill it in over the season. A mouse fell in, couldn't get back out up the plastic sides, so he ate my sweet potatoes to survive while he was in there. grrrr. I put some little mouse ramps of wood in there and hopefully he'll find his way out - I'm not interested in sifting through the dirt that's in there looking for him. I know he's there, though - there are tunnels in it and I briefly saw him when I was pulling the plants out to relocate.

[RedLetterRev]

11. OO How very cool

Congratulations on such a wonderful crop of provender!

I just got 25 pits from a friend of mine who passes by a 200+ year old homestead on his way to and from work. This variety has been on that piece of ground since before the Rev War. It's some kind of sweet cherry, very red; nobody seems to know the name of it. I soaked the pits in water for three days and they hatched! I carefully put them in starter soil in a seed incubator and am crossing my fingers. I get to keep half of whatever comes up. I'm really grateful to have been given such an old heirloom variety. (I'm trying to grow only heirloom varieties of anything I can -- rain on big agra!)

I must say that pie in the pic is making my mouth water. Cherry and peach are my very, very favorite fruit pies. Send some of that wonderful luck this way :) Enjoy that pie!