modom wrote:
>
> On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 16:12:10 -0400, Kate Connally >
> wrote:
>
> >Well, it used to be a farm. My best friend lives
> >on what was once the family farm. It's smaller now,
> >but there's a neat old farm house and a cherry tree
> >out back and and grape vines and a rhubarb patch that's
> >about 30 years old.
> >
> >I went to visit on Sat. We picked cherries. Due to
> >circumstances to involved to go into out of the equivalent
> >of at least 6 quarts only end up with about 4 cups of
> >pitted cherries.
>
> Would one of those circumstances involve stuffing so many into your
> mouth that you lost consciousness for a moment?

Actually, no. They were sour cherries. My friend actually
eats them right from the tree, but she likes really sour
stuff. I tried one and ew! Too sour for me.

What happened is that the ones she picked were stemless.
She didn't know to pick them with the stems on. Picking
without stems would be okay if you were going to use them
immediately, but they had to wait until the next day to
be cleaned and pitted so many of them had just gotten too
brown (oxidized) to use. I did use the ones that had
minimal oxidation just around the stem area. Also, she
picked indiscriminately and many more of the ones she
picked were defective - totally brown inside or dark brown
layer next to the pit, little brown spots where a worm ate
its way into the cherry, etc. You can see this sort of thing
when you're picking. I passed those by, but she picked
everything indiscriminately. When I mentioned it to her,
she told me that her family was not "picky" and her mom
always made the pies as soon as the cherried were picked.
I guess it's picky not to want half rotten cherries and
worms in your pie. ;-)

> Ain't summer grand? I'm already planning on what to do with my figs.

Figgy pudding? ;-)

Kate