Cherry Season

One of the reasons I love living where I do is that any time a fruit is in season I can go and pick it fresh from an orchard that is growing it.  Fresh and Local is what it is all about these days right?  I love supporting our local farmers and orchards.

Around this time of the year the cherries are in season and growing in abundance on the trees! This is the first time I have ever gotten to go to a cherry orchard that literally has hundreds of trees and pick fresh cherries off the trees.  Each tree was either loaded with sweet red cherries, Bing cherries or pie cherries.  Before now I didn't even know there were pie cherries!

I love picking fresh produce right from the plant because it helps my kiddos to know that food actually grows and doesn't just appear in a store!  It also helps them to understand that there is a lot of hard work and time that goes into harvesting fruits and vegetables.

We went with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins and they brought one of their college friends too. Cody really enjoyed picking cherries with Johnny.

Corbin has a cherry in his mouth here.  They were so good looking it was hard to not taste a few!

Brother "love" time or wrestle time.

Our first bounty.

The whole crew.  Steve had to work that day as well as the second time we went :-(  He was missed. My parents were out of town the first time too. We took them when they got back into town though.  The pie cherries were more ripe then too.

The first time we went I picked 5 pounds of cherries and the second time I picked 7 pounds of cherries.  Another thing about local and fresh is the price!  They were only $1.00 a pound. 

I have had so much fun with these.  I bought a cherry pitter and pitted all of them.  I froze some for smoothies and to use later for cherry crisp and cobbler (Gluten free of course).  We also ate some of them for lunches. Then I made some Vanilla Dark Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream.  Oh my goodness was it good.  Click here for the recipe.  I didn't use alcohol or bittersweet chocolate. I used dark chocolate. I also added some vanilla.

This was divine.

With the second batch of cherries I made these Cherry Almond Muffins.  I used agave instead of honey and coconut oil instead of olive or grapeseed.  They turned out great.  I couldn't have a bunch of cherries and not make some cherry pie filling.  I made multiple batches of the filling.  The pie cherries really do make a difference.  They give the pie filling that little bit of tartness, that zing. Up next for the cherries, canning with my Mom and Aunt this week making Cherry Jam.  Yummers!

The next fruit in season that I can't wait for is peaches.  These are my all time favorite fruit.  I will be picking a lot of these!

Do you have any cherry recipes that you make every year?  How about family traditions with cherries or fruits that are in season?  I would love to hear about it.

~Blessings~