Cherries and other seasonal treats

I love this time of year: cherries are in abundance. I read recently that 25 cherries is a daily target. I like a few more in this short, perhaps 5 or 6 week domestic season. I believe they are a good antidote to gout … although I rely on allopurinol.

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That’s interesting. Unfortunately not very keen on cherries and did have some in the garden, a little sour. I think they were the morello type and only good for jam. Like you, I am also on allopurinol for my Chron’s.

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And crumble, and cherry vodka etc

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Bumper crop of cherries on the poorly cherry tree this year, waited and waited but they were literally stripped overnight by birds once they were good enough to pick. :slightly_frowning_face:

On a different note from a dietary viewpoint they fit in extremely well with a ‘rainbow coloured plate’ of foodstuffs in terms of antioxidants etc.

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We have a cherry tree, which is very disappointing, never many cherries and the birds always get those there are (We originally planted two, but one didn’t even flower!)

When we were visiting family in NE England 14 or 15 years ago (a few weeks later in the season than this), we noticed the cherry trees in at the roadside absolutely laden with fruit, so ripe they had started dropping. We returned with a stepladder, and with a combination of that, climbing and reaching we managed to pick something like 30kg - and still a lot more on the trees! Delicious, sweet, dark cherries. one thing we did with them was make cherry brandy, though added less sugar than common sweet to it so it is not sickly. And the pitted fruit at the bottom made delicious boozy cherries and ice cream or cherry trifle! This reminds me I still have a jar somewhere, now very well matured!! Such a bumper crop has not been seen since.

When I was a young kid my parents had a pair of cherry rtrees, and regularly had large crops. They cut one down for more light in the garden, and whilst there were trees every year, apparently it was less than a quarter of the amount from the original pair. (The cutting down predated my memory.)

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The wild cherries near me have not fruited this year. The Herefordshire farm where the cherries I buy come from had a problem spring so there won’t be as many this year as normal. However, they are bigger and juicier, but not sweeter this year.

I eat them, although my companion made jam and chutney this year.

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I planted a cherry tree in my garden maybe 15 or 20 years ago and it did nothing beyond give my chickens some shade. I planted another in a small ‘orchard’ that I’ve been planting (about ten trees) and suddenly the older tree sprung into life, put on a growth spurt and started cropping heavily.

Strange, it had been sold as a ‘self pollinator’ but clearly it reacted well to the other tree being in the vicinity.

However, sadly (for me), because I’ve been too lazy to net the trees a combination of crows/magpies/squirrels are generally the only ones that benefit from the trees’ fruit.

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Interesting, we planted a fan trained morello about 40 years ago because we wanted to fill a space on a north facing fence. It was never really productive, then about 15 years ago it showed signs of decline, some branches died back. It coincided with a family of sparrow hawks moving into a line of trees along the road and the back gardens of the terrace became their dining table. We decided to cut back the dead branches, allow the remains to grow as it wished to spoil the feeding flight path to our bird table.
The regrown tree is now as tall as the gutters of the house, new neighbours are happy because they keep fancy pigeons. The growth, with warmer winters have seen crops of tens of pounds, the blackbirds and starlings get the higher ones and we share the rest with our neighbour.

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I hated cherries as a child but grew to love them. Of course, a Japanese cherry, a red cherry, and a black cherry taste so different, they might as well not even be the same fruit.

Given my location I am supposed to prefer Japanese cherries but I have to admit, nothing beats American red cherry pie with a lattice top and a hot cuppa.

Melons are in season now and am enjoying them each evening. I really don’t see the need to be able to buy something year round. Aside from being bad for the environment with all the logistics, there is something comforting in ticking off the seasons by what treats are on the table.

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