It’s cherry season at my house. Both of my trees are producing cherries right now, and it’s raining every day this week. I picked a bowl full last night. I had to stop when I’d picked all that I could reach because it was too muddy to use the step ladder.
I’m going to try to get more tonight if the weather cooperates. It’s supposed to rain, but this is Missouri, so I will believe it when I see it. We are the Show Me State, after all.
I’ve written about my cherry trees before, but the story behind them still makes me smile, so I’m going to share it again.
There is a large tree in our back yard just outside our bedroom window. It was there when we bought the house, and the previous owner told my husband it was a pink dogwood. Jim took him at his word, and I didn’t care to take a good look for a long time. All I cared about was there was a tree next to the window, which gave me some shade.
The tree had beautiful pink blooms every year that turned white before they covered my deck like a wedding aisle. I took a picture one spring and posted it on Facebook saying something about my pretty dogwood tree. It didn’t take long before I had several comments informing me that my tree was cherry, not dogwood.
It piqued my interest, so I did a little research. You may be wondering why I didn’t know it was a fruit tree in the first place. The reason is simple. It had never produced any cherries. Since I only had the one, there was nothing with which it could cross pollinate.
I decided I was going to do something about that. I dragged my husband to our local home store where we bought three trees for our front yard. We bought a pear tree, a Japanese Maple tree, and a cherry tree.
I was certain that planting another cherry tree would make that big beautiful tree outside my window bear fruit. At that point, my husband was still arguing that it was a dogwood tree.
Well, I was right. Two years later, I noticed cherries on our new tree in the front. I went running out to check the status of the big tree in the back. I wasn’t disappointed.
That big tree, which had never borne fruit before, was loaded with tiny black cherries. I dashed inside holding the evidence in my hand and informed my husband we had a cherry tree. He denied it.
I took him by the hand, led him outside, and showed him the cherries growing on the tree. He still denied it was a cherry tree. He said they must be dogwood berries and were probably poisonous.
In frustration, I snagged one from the tree and bit into it. I showed him the inside of the cherry with the pit. I said, “Cherries don’t grow on dogwood trees. This tree is undeniably a cherry tree.”
If the rain doesn’t stop me and I can beat the birds to the harvest, I should have enough cherries to make jam this weekend. I combine the bright red cherries from my front yard with the black cherries from my back yard to make yummy cherry jam.
If I run short of fruit for a batch, I’m not shy about adding cherries from the grocery store. My cherry jam is among the best creations to ever come from my kitchen.
If you want to make your own cherry jam, be sure to use Sure-Jell. I learned this the hard way. I used another brand to make jam one year, and I ended up with 16 pints of cherry ice cream topping because it would not set up. Sure-Jell has never let me down.
Our world is slowly opening back up. Enjoy life and stay safe, my friends!
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