Canning Tart Cherries

 

With all the cherries we see throughout the summer, cherry pie is not a big favorite at our house. However, I cannot resist canning a bucket each year. I get about 13-14 quarts to have on my shelf. They are so easy to do and are nice to have for pies to take to friends and family later in the year.

Place the cherries and sugar into a large kettle.
Heat on medium heat, stir.
Heat to near boiling, ladle into hot, sterilized jars.
Wash tops of jars, place hot caps and lids onto jars and process in a boiling water bath.
I process mine for 35 minutes. (That is our altitude recommendations.)
Watch for recipes in the future where I will use these beautiful cherries.

Tart Cherry Harvest

 

We have been in our tart cherry harvest for the last few weeks. The cherries are very nice this year. They have good size and color. Our cherries are sold to be dried like raisins or craisins, and they are also sold for pie filling.

 

We use machanical harvesters for tart cherries. There are two parts to these harvesters. The shaker, that is just that it shakes the cherries off the tree. It has a large clamp the attaches to the tree trunk and shakes the tree. The cherries fall off and are deflected on to a conveyor that has driven opposite the shaker. The shaker is on the right and the conveyor on the left.

 

The conveyor has a bin of fresh water that the cherries move along the conveyor belt and into the water. When the bin is full, it is dropped and a tractor with forks on the back picks it up and takes it to the cooling pad.

 

A new bin of water is then placed on the conveyor.

 

There are between 900-1000 lbs of cherries in each bin.

 

The cherries are then placed on a cooling pad where "spiders" that are made out of PVC pipe run and circulate cold water through them for 2-4 hours before going into the plant to be pitted and sorted.

Buckets of Cherries

 

I love this picture of the cherries cooling before going into the plant to be processed. While here on the pad they are graded and each bin weighed.

 

From the cooling pad they are taken by forklift and dumped into the blue tank. Here they are washed and leaves that are still in the cherry bin removed.

 

They now move through a maze of conveyor belts. They are sized, all the small ones go through an eliminator and are saved for juice. And then through machines that remove the pits. They are also sorted and all cherries that have marks or blemishes are removed.

 

The cherries are then ready to be placed into buckets.

 

Each bucket is weighed to the exact amount of cherries.

 

Sugar is then added to the top of the cherries. This batch was a 4 plus 1. Meaning there was 25 lbs of cherries and 5 lbs of sugar.

 

This is the sugar in a 2200 lb tote. It is placed above the huge funnel that delivers it to the buckets. Occasionaly a tote developes a leak. That is extremely messy and expensive.

 

On an average day we can use up to 50,000 lbs of sugar and 10,000 buckets. We are many of the local youth’s summer jobs.
The lids are tapped on tightly and the buckets are stacked onto pallets and sent to the cold storage where they are stored at below O degrees.

Elderberry Blossoms

 

The fragrance in the garden right now is unbelievable. It makes weeding much more enjoyable. The elderberry bushes are in full bloom, I wish there was a way to share the sweet fragrance that they put off. Between the smell and buzz of the busy bees it is very relaxing place to spend an early morning or late evening.
Last fall I was going to move these bushes as they had grown too big for their location and I am adding a greenhouse that borders where they are. I really pruned them back in preparation to move them, then spring was busy and they didn’t get moved. Now they are loaded with blossoms, more than in years past. I learned a few lessons this year about elderberries. That is why I love gardening; there are always lessons to learn.

The Raspberry Patch

 

A favorite harvest from around the farm is the raspberries from my garden raspberry patch. About 20 years ago when I was planting my yard and planning my garden spot, my grandma had a raspberry patch. She showed me how to take starts from hers, and so I did. She is now gone, but around my yard are those simple special reminders of her. This time of year that is usually crazy, busy and stressful as we are usually harvesting, I love to see the raspberries on. It means a few quick, quiet moments picking berries that we love and those memories of a great lady that meant so much to me.

I shared this post on Farm Photo Friday. Be sure to link over to see more photos from those that love their farming way of life.

4th of July

How blessed I feel to live in such a beautiful country. Our family was able to spend a great 4th of July weekend with extended family in the beautiful mountains. Spending the 4th of July anywhere but in Sweet Cherry harvest is very rare. In fact in 25 years of marriage this is only the 3rd year we have not been harvesting. I had mixed feelings as I happily prepared for our trip to the mountains. I was feeling extremely guilty about being happy that we would be able to go on this rare trip since we had no Sweet Cherry crop. Sweet Cherries are one of our main crops and really need a great harvest every year to sustain the farm. In the early spring however Mother Nature was ruff on our area. Many crops were lost or extremely damaged by very cold temperatures. And so we will do our best with the crops we have and will remember with fond memories the 4th spent in the mountains.

This year we had very late snow storms. There has been alot of flooding as all the snow melted in the mountains. While on a 4-wheeler ride at one of the trail overlooks a rare 4th of July snowball fight took place.

The snow that was still piled under trees and where it had drifted was unbelievable. This drift was close to 8 feet deep in the middle. The view from this trail is fantastic, that is Thousand Lake Mountain in the back ground.

With all the spring moisture the wild flowers are blooming like we haven't ever seen. The weather was beautiful. Nice afternoon rain showers and cool evenings.

Blooming Geraniums

A few months ago when winter was still hanging on, I got a call from a good friend. She had taken cuttings of her geraniums last fall and they were doing very well in her greenhouse. They were doing so well that they had started putting on blossom buds and really needed to be cut back again. She didn’t want them getting too big as spring was still a ways off. My dear friend knew of my love of growing, learning and playing in the dirt and wondered if I would like to learn to split geraniums and get some starts going for my flower pots. So early one Saturday morning in February I headed to her home with a bag of potting soil and as many 4” pots I could find in my stash. It was cold, grey and very dreary. It was still very much winter.
We played in the dirt and she taught me to take cutting, it was one of those days that the time sped by way too fast and we were done too soon. All day would not have been long enough. She kept the cutting in her greenhouse and took care of them.
In May I picked them up. I had planted 18 starts. All had taken but 1, so she had taken anothor cutting to replace it.

It has now been 3 weeks since I planted my pots with those geraniums I started in February and other plants bought from our local nursery. Imagine my excitement when I spotted the first flower. I did it and it worked.
Every time I look at my pots I think of my wonderful friend that is such a great example to me. And I remember that day that was dark, grey and dreary and the warmth and friendship we shared doing something that we both so much love.



Fresh Strawberries

Every spring our local market makes a special purchase of flats of California strawberries. They must have a great supplier because every year they are beautiful berries. Very seldom do I have to throw any away. This year I was nervous I had missed them, I had been busy and not made it in to check when they would be coming. I was so excited to find out I had not missed them. I was going to buy one flat and do a couple batches of jam and then we would eat the rest fresh. They are a favorite that we can never get enough of. I ended up buying two flats; they were so nice I couldn’t buy just one.

I made 4 batches of jam and froze a gallon size bag for smoothies, the rest we have been enjoying. We love fresh spring strawberries. The jam tastes fresh and seems to keep well in the freezer.

 I use the recipe for the freezer jam  from the box of MCP Pectin.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Wash and remove stems from strawberries. Then crush or blend them depending on the texture you like for your jam. (I started blending mine when my kids were little because they didn’t like big chunks.)
Measure:
 3 ¼ c. crushed berries into a 5 qt. pan
Add-
- ¼ c. lemon juice
-1 pkg. MCP Premium Fruit Pectin ( This is my favorite brand)
Stir occasionally for ½ hr.
While the pectin is setting, measure into seperate containers:
- 4 ½ c. of sugar
- 1 c. Karo syrup
When pectin has dissolved, I put my berry mixture over low heat and gently stir to warm it to baby bottle temperature. I then add the syrup and sugar and continue stirring until sugar dissolves. Pour the warm jam into clean freezer container ( it will be runny but will set up as it cools) let cool on the cupboard for 1-2 hrs make sure lids are on tight and place in the freezer. Enjoy fresh jam all year long.

Signs of Spring

 The Beekeeper has brought in his hives to help with the pollination of our fruit. They are traveling bees; they are taken to California in January to help with pollinating the almonds. They are then brought to our orchards to wait for the fruit blossoms. From our orchards they are taken to where they spend their summers, some hives go to Canada and some to North Dakota. In the late summer the beekeeper will bring them home to his plant where he will extract the honey and prepare the hives for winter. Then in January they will start their travels again.

A Taste of Spring

While out looking at the Spring pruning and blossoms I came upon one of my favorite tastes of Spring. Fresh young asparagus, the spears are just out of the ground. We have had a cool, wet Spring and so it is a little later than usual. But it should be a great crop of asparagus because of all the moisture. We will be hunting our favorite patches for the next month, as we enjoy this  Spring treat.

Happy Valentine's Day

A favorite cookie in our home is this yummy, soft sugar cookie. We love holidays that are celebrated with a good cookie and a glass of cold milk.


Sugar Cookie
2 cups margarine
2 cups sugar
6 eggs 
4 tsp. vanilla
Cream together.
7 cups flour (sift before measuring)
2 Tbl. baking powder
Stir baking powder into flour and slowly add to creamed mixture.
Cool dough for 30 minute. Roll out on a lightly floured board to desired thickness.
We like ours about 1/2". Cut and place on parchment covered pan.
Bake 8 minutes in 350 degree preheated oven. Cool and frost.
ENJOY!