Wednesday 8 June 2011

Cherry Picking the Best

People always look at me incredulously, when I tell them that we picked 5 Kgs of ripe cherries in St. Deny’s (close to where we live in the heart of Southampton city).
Pick Me, Pick Me...
However, it is true and here is the proof...
Over 5 Kilos of Cherries
We walked round the corner with our pickers and boxes and set siege to a tree we spotted earlier in the week. It only took us about half an hour on this one tree and there are plenty more left where they came from. 
They Look Just About Ready To Me
We probably picked more that 5 Kgs, but rather a lot got consumed (largely by my daughter) before we even got them home and weighed them.
Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff
We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of competition, although having the Phantom Limb and a telescopic picker does give you something of an advantage over any potential opposition.
The Phantom Limb Fruit Picker in Action
My son prefers his cherries dried, which converts them into large raisins as far as he’s concerned. He helped me stone them beforehand, using the very handy cherry pitting tool that we invested in last year.
Chief Cherry Pitter
There is a potential down side to this abundance though... My daughter had tummy ache today, probably from gobbling down too many in one go!
More Than Enough to Go Around
Perhaps it’s time to get baking...

5 comments:

  1. The Phantom Limb is a great name for the fruit picker! The hand on the end is really cool. Fortunately, we have a cherry tree right outside our back gate. Cherries are on of my favourite fruits. That tree will soon be stripped by me!

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  2. I used to pick (eat) buckets of cherries in my childhood, sour, sweet, bitter, red, yellow, black, you name it. The cherries in your photoes should be picked when they are quite dark otherwise they could cause a stomach ache.

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  3. My sister and I went on a foraging expedition today in southampton. We found apples, plums, Logan berries, blackberries and a small, cherry looking fruit that tasted like plums. We simply called them cherry~plums but we were wondering they're real name. Please help : )

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  4. Hi Thomas,
    Good work Sir!
    They were probably "Cherry Plums"! They are an actual thing, as young people say these days ;-) You can see some varieties we found on the entry, "A Real Plum Spot (June 2011). Or just pop plums in the blog search box.
    Where did you find Logan berries? Very tasty...

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    Replies
    1. The Logan berry tree is near the university library.

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