Life is just a bowl of cherries!

Well, actually several bowls. In fact - almost every bowl I had in the house! We picked 16 pounds of cherries from our tree on Wednesday evening - it was absolutely amazing. We have had the tree ten years or more and have never had a harvest as the birds usually get them all first, we have become resigned to the fact that the tree is just a giant bird feeder :-) But this year............. we couldn't believe it! The branches were weighed down with fruit and although the birds had had a fair amount there were still loads left.

So ........ what to do with them all? I sent DH on an emergency vodka run while DS1 and I continued picking. We sorted, washed and stoned all the cherries and started off 3 litres of cherry vodka. I packed a couple of pounds in a dry sugar pack for freezing and then we called it a night as we were shattered.... the rest of the fruit went into the fridge for processing the following day.

Yesterday I took some fruit into work to offer to colleagues and on the way home got some brandy - can we see a theme developing here...... :-) In the evening, while DS1 cooked tea, I chopped cherries for chutney and got it simmering while we ate. Then I mixed up a cherry cake and started off the cherry brandy. And that was the last of the fruit! The photo shows some chutney, brandy and the cake.



At the weekend we are going to take the ladder to the tree and see how many cherries there are on the branches we couldn't reach......... :-)