Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Cherries and Berries.

I'm posting from the office so will keep it brief...and it's during my break anyway.

This last weekend I went huckleberry picking and got almost enough for a batch of jam. I supplemented with some frozen berries from last year and I must say...it is some jesus jam!
Several jars didn't seal right so I'm eating one and distributed the others. I don't want it to go bad. Gotta eat it up.

Later that day, I went cherry picking at a patch spotted by a friend's son. They were lovely pie cherries. I got them home and was going to jam them and freeze them the next day. Well, first, I felt the need to pour them all over the floor. Being frugal, I picked them up and washed all but the ones so covered with hair that it looked like they were wearing wigs. Then I left them to soak while I pee'd or showered or something.
When I got back, there was a WORM poking out of almost EVERY freaking cherry. Bastards. If I hadn't seen them, they would have disappeared in the canning process and no one would have ever known. But as it was, I did now and I got grossed out. All cherries are now on the compost pile (the pile, not in the worm bed...I don't have enough worms to eat 30 pounds of cherries).

Fortunately, it was only 9:30am by then so I got myself together and went down to another friend's house to pick bing cherries. The picking was great. He needed to prune the tree anyway so he would cut off a branch and you just sat and pulled the cherries off it. I got a ton in a short time. I took Monday off of work to deal with the cherries.
They made 20 jars of jam, 3 trays are dehydrating as cherries, 4 trays are dehydrating as fruit leather (with added protein powder...great for camping) and 2 quarts are frozen. I only picked for about an hour. It was great.

Then it was off to errands and the radio show.

I almost bought a buttload of blueberris to make into jam yesterday but though better of it. I'd rather pick all the fruit myself if possible. It's so much better when the stuff goes right fromt the plant to the jar, skipping the 2000 mile trip in a truck.

Sorry there are no photos.
And it could be while before I can post again. Haven't made any progress on getting the home 'puter fixed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jill -- We missed you. This latest entry sounded so delicious, outside of the worm part. I don't know if Yvonne reads your blog, but that girl has a singular talent of telling you something hideously gross about the food you are just ready to ingest because she just read it in Harper's Bizarre. I won't share some of her offerings in case you are just sitting down to a Velveeta and fig sandwich.

Quick question: What is Jesus Jam? Is that like Jesus Juice (the stuff Michael Jackson supposedly gave little kids before he allegedly got exter exter friendly with them)? Seriously, I don't know. But with a name like Jesus, it has to be God (sorry -- I couldn't resist a Smuckers pun).

Pamela said...

Angela,

(I'll answer since Jill is currently technologically challenged.)

Saying something is 'jesus _____' is a reference to the film Smoke Signals. They refer to 'jesus frybread', meaning they frybread was especially good. Or if you remember the lovable cartoon The Smurfs, it's somewhat like saying something is 'Smurfy'.

Fly Right said...

I'm still wondering why Jill didn't separate the cherry worms from the cherries and add them to the vermicomposter. Maybe the worms aren't cannibals. . . But cherry worm poop is probably just as rich in nutrients as fancy compost worms'. I call a cage match!

Jill said...

Cherry worms are not the same as compost worms but the thought crossed my mind. And compost worms won't eat live things so the composter would have been a worm version of the killing fields before the new worms ever got eaten.