Cherry Harvest

This spring has been one of the rainiest in recent history. And while it has caused flooding (with tragic results in some places here in Arkansas) and other ills, it has been a blessing to all the fruiting and flowering plants. My roses have not been so floriferous and full in years, and every type of fruit and berry is laden down to breaking with ripening bounty. My tiny tart cherry tree, just 8 feet tall, gave me two gallon bags of fruit this year! Enough for a pie, and a bit of jam and syrup.

I harvested in two batched, saving them in the fridge until I had enough to work with. In years past my youngest son, Will, had always been excited to help me pick and pit the cherries. I have wonderful memories of sitting on the porch with him, pitting cherries and talking about what I would cook with them. This year he was not only at work when I began the cherries, but he is newly married and moved out. That made the time very bittersweet. I started out thinking I would work up the berries inside. I had forgotten how just breaking the fruit spurts juice everywhere, on windows, down the apron, and after just a few dozen it begins to run off the hands. I quickly transferred my bowls to the normal spot on the porch before my house looked like a spatter-work Monet painting. Or a murder scene. I tell you, after the fourth time one sprayed in my eye like crimson battery acid I was thinking murderous thoughts...

But it can be nothing but a joy to pick the berries when you are buried in the heart of a tree that has these ruby-colored gems dangling everywhere. In fact, I picked a gallon the morning of Will's wedding. It took up some of the time that would have been spent waiting for the anticipated event, and it soothed my mind very quickly. Last year the spring was so dry and unseasonable hot that things did not fruit or bear like they should. The birds were so desperate to find things to eat that they ravaged the cherries, elderberries, and other things before I had time to begin to pick. I didn't begrudge them, because wild things can't simply go to the store when times are hard like we can. This year there was so much for them to eat that they left my tree almost completely untouched. But after I took my harvest I left the last flush for them to eat at their leisure. One should not be stingy with so much goodness.

"I value my garden more for being full of black birds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs." ~Joseph Addison

I began trying a store-bought pitter that I found for a dollar and pitted a cherry at a time. It worked well, but in the time spent putting the cherry in and taking it out, I could do two by hand. It is simply a matter of inserting the nail in the hole where the stem was and splitting the berry to extract the seed. It took me over an hour to do two gallons, and the amount dwindled from the large bread bowl to the smaller mixing bowl. When you work very hard at something with your own hands, it is worth more to you! So I needed to decide what to do with my red treasures.

For Will I usually made an open topped shortcrust tart (he doesn't care for pie crust). But since it would only be for the hubby, my folks, and me, I made a small pie in a graniteware pie pan that was given to me by my Cousin Patty in Mississippi. It would satisfy my need for a proper pie, and leave enough to make jam that could be slowly savored through the year. 

Perfectly fresh fruit is a beautiful and delicate thing. Usually I just eat it straight out of hand, but if it is to be cooked, it needs to not be overwhelmed by extras. My cherries are tart, or baking cherries, so they needed a bit more sugar than a sweet cherry. But no so much that it would lose that lovely tart edge to them. For this pie the only ingredients were- 4 cups pitted tart cherries, 1 and 1/4 cup sugar, and 4 Tbsp cornstarch, all mixed together. The cornstarch is to thicken the juices so the pie will be cuttable and hold together.

This was poured into a homemade crust and dotted with butter before being capped with a second crust. I cut slits for the steam and juices to escape. Just after this I sprinkled the whole top with granulated sugar to make a sweet and crusty top.

And then I decorated. One of my favorite things is to decorate pie crust; when I was small, moma and I would do all kinds of fanciful things. You can do a person's initials; once the boys and I did goldfish all around the edge of a pie for my pop. But I really like to just give an indication of what lies under the golden crust. Here, my lovely cherries.

A bit of water and a drop of food coloring carefully painted on makes your creations as vivid as you would like.

The finished product out of the oven, look at that waft of steam! I'd dare a hobo to snatch that pie off the table and still have fingerprints left!

 I  really love the rustic look of a homemade pie. I remember when my pop was in a bad accident at a construction site and had to be home to heal for months. He got cabin-fever and started making scratch pies that would be waiting when moma and I came home from school...

And here it is, ready to put into my mouth! See how perfectly the cherries and juice stay in the slice, not leaking all over the plate? Use cornstarch or tapioca as a thickener, cooking till the juices jell for a perfect pie. See my post about making Strawberry Rhubarb pie for pictures to show how you can tell if your pie is ready to take from the oven HERE.

A perfect fruit pie should hold it's contents when sliced, and not spill everywhere. Yes, the pie leaked juices through the upper crust, but that is what they do. I make sure to put them on a cookie sheet with rimmed edges to catch any drips so I don't have smoke coming out of the oven ;). And look how flaky the crust is!

I'm gonna do a brag here for a moment, and do a flashback. When I was pregnant with Will, 20 years ago, I won my first Best of Show ribbon at the fair on my cherry pie that was decorated with stems of cherries all the way around the crust. It won over all the other entries, even the decorated cakes! It was just the encouragement a 24 year old, soon-to-be moma of three boys, needed to throw myself into baking all the things I could dream of. Somewhere there's a picture of me beaming, while holding the pie over my big belly, but who knows where that went?

 And here is the remainder of the cherries being cooked down with sugar into jam.

 The fruit gave off so much juice that I feared it wouldn't thicken, so I poured off two small jars of it to use as a syrup over fruits or cakes. And then I got three other jars of sealed jam, plus one half jar that I put into the fridge and have been eating over yogurt and granola for glorious breakfasts!

Next year my cherries may literally be "for the birds", but I will treasure the memory of how generous my little tree can be. And there are blackberry ripening; pears, crabapple, and plums plumpening, so, Dear Reader, you will see much more fruitiness from me this season ;)