June 27, 2016

  • Cherries Cherries Cherries

    Saturday morning, Étienne and dad drove to Yakima for cherries. Every year we try to preserve twelve quarts of pie cherries. That gets us one cherry pie per month. Sometimes this is hard because the rhubarb is quite prolific. When I get into my pie crust mode, we may hit a pie a week!

    To keep the cost down we used to frequent the U-Pick orchards. Three years ago the pickings were pittiful. I gave the cashier my long sad face and commented that our seven pounds would not satisfy the annual pie needs of the Redpath family. She pointed to a cooler with several twenty pound boxes of mechanically picked organic pie cherries...at the same price! I was sold. Ever since I make this annual pilgrimage to Barrett Orchard to pick up my 40 pounds.

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    I pride myself on being as eco/cost effective as practical. After 287 miles of driving, Judy's car showed a cumulative fuel consumption of 40 miles per gallon. After driving the remaining way through city traffic, I pulled up to the house with 39.6 mpg and 308 miles. Gotta love that 2006 E320 CDI!

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    By noon, we got to work pitting the cherries. Bria helped along with Linda and Quincy. Would you believe we had fourteen quart processed and cooling by 5 PM? Judy did a great hot pack with less than a cup of cherries to spare. Each jar contains about two and a half pounds of cherries with their juice and a scant two tablespoons of light sugar syrup to keep the color. That is it. Nothing else. Cherry Pie, Here We Come!!