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06/30/2009: "Cherry Season!"

Cherry season is finally here! Thanks to Lou's tireless intimidation of the starlings, this has been a bumper year for cherries. I picked some last week when I was down at the farm, and thought that they were pretty good; I came down again this weekend (gotta hoe them beans, you know) hoping that there would be some left still, and there were still many on the trees, perfectly ripe. Note to self: even when you think they're ripe enough to eat, come back in about a week.

Here is a look at the last tree to ripen, third in the rank:



Picking, as you might guess, was easy. I had gotten the tall ladder and the medium ladder out, but the kids were able to pick cherries using a step-ladder, too. Lou's daughter had a friend over, and then there were my two girls, so we had four kids aged 8 to 10 picking in the orchard. At least this week they weren't throwing fruit at each other.

We also had a pretty full complement of chickens and roosters hanging around the orchard, looking for hand-outs and cherries knocked loose by humans or birds. The larger chickens and the roosters swallow cherries in a single gulp; the smaller ones have to tear into cherries to get them small enough to eat. It's probably good for the trees to have the chickens hanging around, fertilizing the orchard. At one point, one of the girls knocked a bucket with cherries off the step-ladder, and the chickens had a field day then! Notice that every chicken in the photo below is holding a little red prize.



Some of the chickens are pretty tame, and will put up with being held by children. It amazes me that even the rooster seems to put up with this; I thought roosters had more dignity than that! This is my daughter holding Timothy, the Buff Orpington rooster.



Elsewhere in the orchard, one of the plum trees that has never borne a crop in my memory is just bursting with fruit. Lou had to put some poles under its branches to keep it from falling apart. I guess it's a pollination thing - maybe this year we had a good window of sunshine when pollen when was available for bees. It also looks to be a good year for pears.



Looks to be kind of an off-year for apples, unfortunately. The most reliable producers in the apple department seem to be sitting out this year. Good thing I've still got one five gallon carboy of cider in the basement!