Cherry Cannons

Due to our cool June and July weather, the cherry harvest has extended into August in our valley. As the last of the year's crop is harvested, our late summer days are filled with the distant muffled pop and poof of cherry cannons. They go off throughout the day to deter birds from swooping in to feast on the red fleshy fruit.

It's a soft subtle sound that you don't notice so much after a while. But every now and then, during a quiet pause, you hear them and think...cherries.

Red
Ripe
Sweet
Cherries

I'm sure the cherry cannons subliminally led me to stop in at the local organic farm down the road from us.

It's not your standard farm stand catering to drive up customers. There are no displays of fruit or a counter to walk up to. It's just a big, old packing house. My visit went something like this:

What do you have for fruit right now? Are peaches in?

No, we'll be picking peaches next week. We just have cherries right now.


Yes, of course, cherries. What's the smallest quantity of cherries I can buy?

20 pounds.

I thought, 'no, too much', but said, 'yes, I'll take twenty pounds of cherries.' 

They've just been picked, so they're still warm and may have some leaves mixed in...is that okay?

Just picked is good, sun warmed is perfect. 

cherries on pancakes
cherries for snack
cherries for lunch
cherries for dessert

We cleaned, pitted and froze about 15 pounds.

Perhaps we'll have cherries for Christmas like our Australian friends.