Today on the farm . . .

 . . . 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.

A One-Year Compost Pile

I've mentioned before that we compost using two different compost bins. The first one is a straight-sided, rest on the ground, open to the dirt beneath plastic bin. It takes about a year to completely fill. I layer yard and kitchen waste with cardboard and paper. I don't follow precise ratios, but instead try to remember to add some paper and cardboard from time to time.

The above photo is just after lifting the plastic bin off of the pile after one year of filling. The pile is about 3 X 3 feet. I've moved the bin to a new location, so we can improve the soil there.

After one year you can still see some paper and cardboard in the layers, as well as some dried stalks from plants. I'll begin to turn the pile over into an adjacent bare spot to improve decomposition sometime this summer, when I have more time of course. As material breaks down, the pile shrinks.

In the meantime, I can access some good composted material from the bottom. I have dug out a couple of gallons of compost to amend soil when planting some perennials and shrubs this spring and summer. I simply dig away at the bottom edge of the pile where everything is pretty well decomposed.

Occasionally someone in the household will add something to the compost that is only partially compostable. Here's the plastic lining from a take-out paper coffee cup. All that is left is the plastic. The paper part is long gone. I pick these bits out when I come across them when digging. In a perfect world, my family would remember that these cups don't go into the compost but are better set aside for fire starters in the outdoor fire pit. It does make you think, though, right? When we get a takeout coffee, our tasty hot beverage is steeping in a plastic-lined cup. That can't be good for us. 

We've had the same plastic compost bin for 25 years. It's cracked and chipped, but still does a good enough job holding material in a heap. The pros- it was inexpensive. We bought it through a community program, paying about $10. It's great for bulky items like complete plants at the end of the gardening season. I pile whole tomato plants into the bin. Because it's open at the bottom, worms quickly get to work. Cons-also because it is open at the bottom, critters can dig into it from underneath. Also, as the material only gets turned after a year, it takes longer for it all to decompose. All in all, we're pretty happy with this composter.

Before we bought this one, we had an open heap behind an evergreen tree away from the house or boundary with our neighbors. The heap did work, but we had problems with critters digging in there and making a mess.

Our other compost bin is a tumbling one. I'll tell you more about that one, and what we think another time.

Do you compost? What type of bin do you use? Does your material breakdown faster than it does for me?