The world's nicest people come into our shed!!

A wonderful mixture of people come to our little apple shed. I want so much to remember their stories. Here are a few from today...
< First came our friend, Eleanor with her friend Nettie. She's been coming to the orchard for several years and now lives in a retirement place. Mostly we deliver her fruit to her; but sometimes she gets brave and drives up herself. Today she was after more of those sweet bing cherries I had taken her earlier in the week. We were pretty much picked out of the sweet cherries but grandson Alek and I did some serious searching and found about 3 lbs. for the two of them to share. Alek helped carry their purchases to the car and for that he was given his first tip money. I told him kindness does have its reward; but we never do a kind deed for that reason. May Eleanor live to eat our bing cherries many more years! (She'll be back in the fall, I'm sure. She loves the Italian prunes, too.)
Next came a return customer who wanted pickling cukes. He settled for gathering some fresh grape leaves to add to his pickles he was preparing to can as soon as he found some cukes. He claims to make dill pickles like his mother used to make using grape leaves and not much vinegar. Sets the jars in the sun for a few days to cure. Don't try this at home until I can get the exact method from him. He promised to bring me a sample.
Then came my long time friends, Mary and Bill--looking for sweet cherries. Mary is a retired elementary school librarian. She had a great conversation with Alek who now attends that school. Mary is a cancer survivor...always upbeat and positive. We need a whole lot more people like Mary and Bill!!
Lastly a family: mama, daughter and husband, and younger son. These people know how to find the good stuff when they go picking. They are from the Ukraine and are extremely appreciative and knowledgeable when it comes to things that come from the earth. The mama and daughter picked at least a gallon of red and black currants. The son-in-law found a beautiful bucket of Rainier cherries (long after we thought they had all been picked), and the young son brought in a beautiful box of perfectly ripened raspberries. The mama told me she uses the currants to make a medicinal mixture that they freeze and administer during flu and cold season. It goes like this: 2 c. currants and several leaves thrown in, 2 c. honey, 2 liter bottle of vodka. Mix it together and freeze in small (1/4 c.) containers. Again, don't try this at home until I've tried it first!
Well, lots more wonderful people came through the shed today. But I must sign off for now. More later...

Another windy day

Seems to be the measure of the season - wind. 22JULY2010 windy all day again. All the sweet cherries have been harvested and we're working on finishing the Montmorency Pie cherries. Again had a customer ask if the cherries had pits?? REALLY Unfortunate we are so removed from our food sources that not only do we fail to realize cherries come from trees but that they contain pits. Raspberries have been wonderful the last 10 days. The predicted high temperatures make it imperative to pick them daily.

Cherry season

It seems that the cherry crop is extremely late this year however I was going over my notes from 2009 and discovered last year we starting picking cherries on 13July - only three days earlier than this season. The Bing, Van, and Rainier cherries will be ready this Friday. The Montmorency pie cherries will be ready by middle of next week. Our Lapins cherries are still a full 10 days away at least.

Luckily the high winds on Monday, 12JULY2010, didn't damage the trees - we placed props throughout the cherry trees to prevent broken limbs.