Cherries, oh those pretty cherries.

Well have you ever had one of those experience where at the end you thought "What was I thinking." I was at my Farm Chicks meeting and we were talking about canning safety. I live in Eastern Washington where we grow a ton of food. Well, it is cherry season. We have had a lot of rain, it does not rain here very much (we are in the dessert), which is not good for cherries. They swell and split, not so good! One of our farm chicks, mentioned that her family has an orchard and they were not picking their cherries because they were not pretty enough for our store so they are leaving them on the trees, it is not worth it to pick. I could not believe it. What a waste, well she said we could go pick all we want. Rweally, I said that too, can u stand it? I was having a Scooby Do moment.

We the next day, we hopped in the van and headed to Mattawa. I took 4 buckets and two people to help. We got there finding the trees we started picking and picking and picking. Then greed set in, greed in the respect that the cherries were right there there were lots and lots. I could hardly stand it. It took us about and hour and a half to pick all the buckets, did I mention they were 5 gallon buckets. THAT IS ALOT OF CHERRIES, ALOT!

Don't worry it they all go used. I froze some for my dad to make wine with, we took some to work a whole bucket they were gone by noon. I canned the rest. I am ready to open a jar. Did I mention they were Rainier Cherries. Nope I don't think so. I won't eat eat too many, oops too late.