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I was supposed to get a little work done today, as the last two days have been writeoffs in that department, but the 'morning job' of cherry harvesting turned into a whole-day thing. Turns out that picking, pitting, cooking, and bottling 2L of sour cherries, and then cleaning up, takes more than a couple of hours. By the time that batch was squared away it was nearly dinnertime, so I gave up on work and harvested another colander-full to get a headstart on the next batch. Sharpening my knife in preparation for pitting I sliced my left index finger open; it'll hurt while it knits but I think it'll be OK. There are still at least two batches left on the tree, so I will need to budget time for this enterprise rather than doing it on the fly. Next time I won't have to clean and soak the labels off a dozen old jars, or scour out the rust from the big pot used to sterilise them, so hopefully it will go faster.
When I moved here, I carefully packed a great big box full of glass jars, which I'd compulsively collected over the years for food storage purposes. They're transparent and don't hold on to smells like plastic does, so I prefer using them, plus they will seal airtight to keep preserves should the need arise. I had always had far more than I needed, but when a good bottle came along it was hard to pass up. Then I took custody of a garden with four fruit trees and was very grateful for the surplus. Imagine, then, my amusement when I started digging out the shed and found that my predecessors had also kept quite a large jar collection. If today's efforts are anything to go by, I may be making use of quite a few of them.
It is a big investment of time for what amounts to about three pies' worth of cherries. They are hardly going to keep me fed through the winter. But the cooked-down fruit, and the surprising amount of sugar necessary just to bring them to 'tart', smells exactly like a jelly doughnut, and somehow that made the whole day worthwhile.
When I moved here, I carefully packed a great big box full of glass jars, which I'd compulsively collected over the years for food storage purposes. They're transparent and don't hold on to smells like plastic does, so I prefer using them, plus they will seal airtight to keep preserves should the need arise. I had always had far more than I needed, but when a good bottle came along it was hard to pass up. Then I took custody of a garden with four fruit trees and was very grateful for the surplus. Imagine, then, my amusement when I started digging out the shed and found that my predecessors had also kept quite a large jar collection. If today's efforts are anything to go by, I may be making use of quite a few of them.
It is a big investment of time for what amounts to about three pies' worth of cherries. They are hardly going to keep me fed through the winter. But the cooked-down fruit, and the surprising amount of sugar necessary just to bring them to 'tart', smells exactly like a jelly doughnut, and somehow that made the whole day worthwhile.
