We watch for this time of year every year. Last year it was WAY early (like the last week in May!).
This year since we've moved, the orchard (a whole 12 trees or something like that) is a WHOLE lot closer. It's only like a 20 minute drive.
I was so pumped!! After about 3 years with a kid, you know what to pack.
Here are my cherry pickin' essentials:
- lots of pans or a large container.
- small buckets (sand buckets from the Dollar store work GREAT!)
- Wet Cloth in a bag (your hands will get really sticky!)
- Snacks and drinks for the kids (water for the grown-ups)
- small step ladders (preferably one for you one for the kid.)
Macey is still just a little too young to go. I'm serious about cherry pickin' when I'm there. It's like the world series of cherry pickin' and by golly-I'M GUNNA WIN!
Last year I think I picked close to 30 pounds of cherries. That's not a typo. 3-0 pounds of cherries. I think I had enough for a pie a month for the entire year.
I'm wild about cherry pie. It is by far my favorite. And as my mom always told me, tart pie cherries make the best pie. And that's just what these are.
Josh remembers it from last year and was excited to go to!
Last year, there were so many of them, you could just randomly reach up into the tree and grab a handful.
This year wasn't as plentiful, but still, not bad pickin'!
I was trying to get a picture of Josh, but in the picture above he said, "No Mom. I've gotta go pick cherries!"
Well, far be it for me to stand in his way!
Just make sure you dump them in Mommy's stash, not Mimi's!
Well, I wasn't giving up that easy.
He still wouldn't stop for me!
But do you see what I mean about needing a ladder for the kid, too!
Somehow, mine always got used....
Ah! There it is. My sweet little cherry pickin' boy!
He did spend most of the time pickin' with Mimi. Which made me go a whole lot faster.
I wasn't having to worry about him falling off a ladder, tripping in the ruts between trees, or getting hit by a car. (There's a road right beside the farm that the speed limit must say "How Ever Fast You Wanna Go" because everyone hauls butt. Even the semis.)
Every farm has a dog. It's like an unspoken rule. You can't be a real farm without a dog.
This dog was so friendly. It must've been some type of cattle dog. It was a puppy, that's for sure! He was so rambunctious!
After Josh started to poop out, he took a break with Mimi in the car. They talked, told stories, had a drink and some snacks, and then came back pickin'. They did this 2 or 3 times. It kept Josh happy and I think Mimi liked the break.
Cherry pickin' is hard work!
Here's the final weigh in.......in 2013 I picked 27.75 pounds of cherries!
To be real honest, I didn't think I'd picked that much. I just knew that I wanted a TON because I L-0-V-E cherry pie!
Yep, that's right. The entire time I was pickin' I kept saying to myself, "just a little more. think of the yummy cherry pie!"
Food is always my motivation!
And here's how we paid. It was $1.25 a pound. The lady left a notebook, pen, and calculator on the scale and it's just the honor system.
You write down how much you picked and leave the cash under the scale.
How cool is that!
I spent about 3 hours picking, but pitting. Oh yuck.
Don't you just look at the cherries and feel happy? I mean, look how bright red and cheery they are?
But, then you realize you have to pit all of them. That's why God made them cheery looking. If they looked like blueberries, no one would spend the time to pit them.
I spent AT LEAST 6 hours pitting.
But I would pit in shifts. I'd only pit about 2 hours or so at a time, which was long enough to usually make 2 pies.
Here's a close up of the weird cherries.
There were lots of them!
At first they looked like something else, but then the more I looked at them, the more I heard Sir MixALot's "I like big butts and I cannot lie" song in my head.
Don't they look like Bubble Butts?
I love cherry pie, which is the ONLY reason I do this. 28 pounds of cherries and 9 hours later, I'm a tired but happy girl.
Cherry pie anyone????
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