The earliest of the cherries are ready. We planted 2 cherry trees last spring and only one leafed out this spring. For pollination, we will plant a new one this fall. Regardless, our cherry trees would not have born fruit this season. The first of the cherries were available this past week at the farmer’s market and I purchased about 10 pounds of sour pie cherries. In the past, I have pit cherries by hand (ugh) and used a handheld one at a time pitter. I decided this was the year to get a real pitter. I am very happy with the one I got. It pits one at a time, but moves quickly. I pitted them all in about 45 minutes. About half of the pits come out neatly and half have to be pulled away from the cherry, but I think I got a great pitter at a great price. I give it 4 stars! Here is the one I got:
Leifheit Cherrymat Cherry Stoner
I worked at the dining table after dinner. Sunlight streamed in filtered by mulberry leaves and danced over the cherries. They looked like glowing embers in the bowl. A lovely small wonder. The next day I combined them with sugar and rum and canned them into a nice “drunk cherry” syrup. Great for waffles, ice cream, etc.
