Cherries, Revisited

When I started this blog, it was more for me. To remember what it was like to be the wife and mom in a busy, young family. Today my blogging paid off when I needed to look up how I preserved cherries. I didn't can any last year, because we had enough from 2009. My ultimate goal is to can cherries, peaches, applesauce & tomatoes on an every-other-year rotation.

We went to Well's Orchard this year for our cherries. Last year we picked at Robinette's and we used Moelker Orchards in 2009. After visiting 3 different orchards, Well's and Moelker have lower-hanging trees and more easily maneuvered aluminum ladders. This is highly valuable when one a) is rather pregnant and b) brings along a 15 month old to join the fray. My neighbor picked at Robinette's today and shared a few sweet cherries with me - they are darker, softer and sweeter than the ones I picked last week, but it may also be a different variety. She noted that the tart cherries were easily picked from the ground.

This year I paid $1.50/pound for u-pick and took home 22 lbs.
Some we ate fresh (not too many... the kids had their fill at the orchard)
6.5 pints canned (1 quart jar didn't seal)
12-ish quarts frozen

The next adventure will be blueberries. My favorite website for checking out farms and orchards also has nice info on preserving the produce.