Reclaiming What is Rightfully Ours: Using Unripe Sweet Cherries before the Birds, Raccoons, and Squirrels Get Them

Every year, same story. Those pesky pests (squirrels, raccoons, blackbirds) beat us to the cherries before we can enjoy even a handful. Earlier this year, we began scheming how we could beat those rascals to the punch.

Yesterday morning, after chasing 6 blackbirds out of one cherry tree, I made a call in my house for all hands on deck. The family joined me to pick all of the reddish cherries we could find. We left the yellow and barely peachy ones on the tree, but got a bucket full of the red, but unripe ones. (These cherries would normally be dark red when ripe, like a Bing cherry.) When picked underripe, the cherries are not as sweet and lacking a bit in flavor.

After lunch, I set out to pit and use these cherries. I decided on an open-faced pie. Cherries meant for eating fresh tend to be quite juicy, so a pie without a top crust would allow for evaporation of liquids. I added sugar, lemon juice, and almond extract until the flavor was just right. The lemon juice gave the cherries the tartness they needed while the almond extract boosted the cherry flavor.

In the end, it was 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1  1/2 teaspoons almond extract that gave cherries enough for 1 full pie just the right flavor. I also tossed the cherries with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to help thicken the juices. In hind sight, I would increase the cornstarch to 3 tablespoons for thickening.

This is how full the pie pastry was before baking, to give you an idea of how many cherries will yield a full pie.

I baked the pie at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Then I reduced the temp to 350 degrees F and baked another 30 minutes. At this point, the crust and some of the cherries were browning, so I covered the pie with an inverted pan (our skillet which has lost its handle was just the right diameter and depth) and baked for another 15 minutes.

After baking, this is how much the cherries "shrunk" down. 

The family agreed -- this pie was absolutely delicious.

There are enough of the ripening cherries for me to do this one more time later this week, if we can keep those pests out of the tree.

Making the most of what we can get from our garden this year.

Homespun Holidays: Our 4th of July Dinner Using What's on Hand

Here's our menu for the 4th's cookout dinner. It uses many of the components of our other summer meals, so I thought I'd share, here.

hot dogs in homemade buns

scratch macaroni and cheese

jello salad using pureed vanilla-rhubarb sauce/plain gelatin as the base with sliced homegrown strawberries and banana slices, all topped with whipped cream from the freezer (leftover from the winter holidays)

large tossed salad containing homegrown Romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, watercress, and radish seed pods, frozen peas (thawed), turkey bacon bits, grated cheese, homemade sourdough croutons, and a scratch dressing

carrot curls, watermelon pickles and olives

s'mores --graham crackers, marshmallows, and large, semi-sweet chocolate patties made from melted chocolate chips

Earlier in the day, we plan on having a combination birthday/Easter/4th of July cake, followed by an Easter egg hunt -- events that we didn't get to celebrate as a whole family due to lockdowns. I baked the cake layers in advance and froze them to make my day just a little bit simpler. I've got the layers thawing in the fridge now, and will frost them Saturday morning. After the cookout, we'll have some fun with fireworks. It will be a long and busy day, that's for sure.

Wishing you all a safe holiday!