It's Cherry Time!

We were happy to discover that there are a variety of fruit trees and bushes on our property. The first of them from which we have benefited are some cherry trees. See if you can tell by this picture what type of cherry trees they are:
(I know, it was mean of me to totally set him up for this picture. The poor kid had no idea what he was in for!)

I happened to be commenting to my father that we were able to pick a nice bag full of the small, tart cherries off the two small trees, but that I was at a loss as to how to pit them. I figured it would require some hunting around to find a cherry pitter and then hope it worked without destroying the small cherries.

Fortunately my uncle was within earshot when we were having this conversation so he told me about my grandmother's secret way to get pits out of cherries - a hair pin. Not a bobby pin, mind you, but a good, old-fashioned hair pin. Finally having all these girls and their long hair had paid off - we had a ton of hair pins lying around (literally :)

After washing them thoroughly (the hairpins and the cherries), all you need to do is to stick the rounded end into the indentation where the stem was, get it around the seed and pop it out.

I couldn't believe how easy it was. No mess, no frustration! We had that bag of cherries pitted in no time and were on our way to making our first of three cherry desserts.

The first dessert we decided on was a cherry bar similar to a lemon bar - very good. Next, we made a cherry pie - a bit tart, but tasty none-the-less. The last dessert on the list, which we haven't made yet, is called Cherry Pudding.

No matter what you make, when you get to use things that you've grown and/or harvested yourself, they always taste so much better! I just discovered today that we have black raspberries that are ready to be picked...I bet they'll make a great pie or crumble, too!