Cherry Surprise! — Bok's Cocks

When we decided to start our homesteading adventure the Web Mistress and I started hashing out what we wanted to grow, where we would plant it, and even what should come first. We now have a blooming vegetable garden and a couple of fruit plots with future projects planned. But the one thing we didn’t get to discuss or even decide on has amazed us with the harvest it dumped on us.

The previous owner of our house planted a cherry tree 20 feet off the back door. We moved into the house in the middle of the summer last year and had not gotten to enjoy it in the spring. The color of the blooms was amazing. A month later those blooms had turned into cherries!

This hadn’t been part of the original plan, but who am I to complain. Over the last week or so, we have been busy harvesting and preserving cherries. I will update the final numbers but we have pulled in at least 15 pounds so far. And yes by “we”, I mostly mean the Web Mistress. But since this is my blog we will go with “we”. Everyone on the homestead gets to enjoy them as ground cherries wind up in the chicken run and the girls race to see who gets the snack.

There is a second cherry tree on the property and our neighbors tell us they fruit every other year. I am hopeful they are off cycle and we will get a harvest off the other tree next year. Either way, once I try the jams, vodka cherries, and pie fillings we made I will let you know how it all turned out. Perhaps the best is when the Web Mistress pawns some of the preserved cherries off on unsuspecting friends as gifts before we have even tried them. We might not be getting as many Christmas cards this year.

Have you done any canning yet this summer?

Andy