Cherry Red

During my lunchtime wander two weeks ago, I spotted RED CHERRIES in the nearby trees. Not all of the trees, and not a lot in those where I did find them, but they are definitely on the way.

Nearly Ripe Cherries in a Local Tree

What this means, is that from this time it is a straight race between us foragers and those feathered fiends our feathered friends, who are also partial to a juicy cherry or two. Of course, every cherry eaten by a bird may grow into a new tree elswhere, which is probably why there are so many of them.



The First Cherry of the Season is Always Special (and probably not quite ripe too).



The trick is to keep a close eye on your chosen trees and not pick them too early, wait until most of the fruit is ready (red or black depending on the type)  - then pick them quickly, before the birds realise what’s going on (maybe distract them with a worm or something).



Cherry Picking



We spent the half-term in Devon and on our return we scoped out the local trees. One small tree by the railway looked ripe. The cherries were large and they tasted good – so we grabbed as many as we could.

Life is Like a Bowl of Cherries - Apparently

YUMMY! Sorry, there's none left. We are hopefully picking again next Sunday though.

National Cherry Day is on Sat July 16^th apparently (although this seems a tad late in my experience). According to Cherry Aid, in the last 50 years we’ve lost 90% of our Cherry orchards and now import around 95% of the Cherries we eat. A couple of weeks ago I bought a reduced punnet of Cherries for £2.00, but I won’t be buying any for the next month, not while the wild trees are bursting with juicy goodness.




Ripe Cherries - Yum, Yum, Yum!

 

You can cook them, freeze them, boil them, preserve them, dry them, turn them into wine, probably even pickle them or even just eat them straight off the tree. The good thing about all these options, is that the sour/bitter tasting fruits are better for cooking and of course the sweet delicious ones are best for simply scoffing!

Assorted Cherry Recipes can be found here...

Click on the recipe name and the detals should appear below.