. . . we finished harvesting all of the cherries.
We've been picking daily for the last week. Each day, we'd pick a dishpan or two of cherries, then my daughters and I would pit them all. Today was our last day, and I'm rather relieved. As I usually do, we left a few cherries on the tree for the squirrels, raccoons, and birds. I like to give them just one last taste before they have to find a new source of food.
So here's our total: 4 jars of cherry preserves, 1 pint of candied cherries, 3 jars of cherry syrup, 3 cherry pies, and 22 quarts of frozen pitted cherries for cooking later in the year. We also have 4 quarts of fresh cherries in the fridge right now, and we've been eating fresh cherries as a fruit for the past week. Fresh cherries, pitted and halved are delicious on salads. Today I made a large salad for lunch -- greens topped with cheese, chopped nuts, quinoa, and fresh cherries. I dressed it with a blackberry vinaigrette. Very delicious, and it felt so gourmet to have fresh cherries on our salad.
This is an absolute record for us. The local weather forecaster said this would be a bumper cherry crop for our area, and he was spot on.
I never thought it would be possible to get tired of eating fresh cherries daily.