What's that you're eating?

no idea how he did that to himself, but he was a professional chef and cooks all the time still so I expect it's some kind of burn. As for the cheese? It's almost half gone already lol! Some kind of smoked butter cheese, can't remember what he said it was. Italian sausage went into tonight's pasta and it was unbelievably good
 
Last night's dinner - Swiss Pasta. Not the best knife for the purpose ... I'm just happy to have it again :)

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Lunch today w/the GF in the back patio at Slo Hand BBQ in Martinez, CA.

The GF had the roasted 1/2 chicken & dinner rolls. I had a corned beef "Reuben." We shared the cole slaw, potato salad, a double order of sweet potato "tots and a couple of pints of Pliny the Elder IPA.

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The Amazing Virginian said:
Those look delicious.

How many trees and how much space do you need to grow that many cherries?
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Part of the fun of picking your own cherries is wandering from tree to tree, eating and picking cherries as you go. Also, depending on the variety, you look for a certain color in the cherries which indicate they are "ripe" and ready to eat.

In the case these cherries -- Brooks -- you look for a deep maroon instead of a bright red color in the cherries, which is not evenly distributed on a particular tree or between trees. So, there is a bit of a "hunt" involved. The pic of the small bunch of cherries above is the "color" that I look for.

One tree can easily provide more than the 6# of cherries that I picked. If you're trying to grow them in your backyard, you need at least 2 cherry trees so that the bees can cross-fertilize them. I've got 1 cherry tree in my backyard (that a prior owner planted) that never yields anything.

The trees are planted about 10-12 feet apart and grow to about 12-15 ft high. They are puned back pretty severely at the end of each season.

The cherry orchards/farms vary in size but even the smallest easily have hundred of trees and the largest thousands; some even in the 10's of thousands. Here are examples of a single branch and a single tree filled w/cherries:

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Of course, productivity varies year to year but this year the cherries were very early and very abundant. Actually a bumper crop year but prices are as high as they've ever been -- $4/# for U-pick and $5/# for pre-picked -- at the farm/orchard.

BTW, cherries are so early and abundant this year that even toddlers can pick them off of branches at ground level (as in the pic above) which is pretty rare BUT, in lean years (or late in the season), you have to use 10# ladders to climb up to the top of the trees (which can be dangerous) to grab what few cherries are left.

Memorial Day Weekend is the typical start of the cherry season and it's a "family event" that draws people from all around the Bay Area (and beyond) to come to pick cherries around here each year.
 
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Finished pitting all of the cherries today -- a tedious and messy job:

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And experimented by making Cherry Hand Pies (store bought puff pastry w/a cherry filling) for the 1st time today.

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They won't win any "baking" prizes but they came out looking/tasting ok. :)

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Going to use the rest of the cherries to make cherry jam and cherry topping, which have to be canned and which I've done many times before.
 
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Breakfast this morning. Toasted English muffin topped w/butter and some of the cherry jam that I canned yesterday.

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Made 1qt (4 pt jars) of jam w/2.5# of the cherries and used the same amount making the hand pies. Making the jam was a better use of the cherries because they'll last for over a year on the shelf, as opposed to the hand pies which were all eaten w/in a few days.

So, I don't think I'll make the hand pies again. I just wanted to try making them for the 1st time to see if it was worth the effort. It wasn't.

Just have #1 of cherries left which I'll probably use to make some cherry topping (a thick whole cherry glaze that you and use in yogurt or w/ice cream) that I'll can as well which should yield at least a pint or 2. Still have 3/4 of a jar of the topping that I made a year ago in the frig.

Cherry season should last thru the end of May. Have no plans to pick/buy anymore, except maybe a # or 2 just for eating, not canning/baking.
 
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The Amazing Virginian said:
That is so beautiful that I should not be allowed to call what I make "bread." 😞
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Thank you, that is very kind of you to say. I am, however, of the opinion that fresh home made bread, no matter what it looks like, and butter are one of the better things in life. I have been at this some time and have a library filled with cook books, and I can unequivocally recommend “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast” by Ken Forkish. If you want to make your own, or if you are like me and don’t live in a city with a particularly good bakery, the methods outlined in this book are really outstanding.
 
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