A Surplus of Cherries

The days go by and I pick cherries twice a day, but still there are cherries on the tree, although now more of them are at the top, where it is harder to reach. So today I had to get the old pool ladder for my cherry picking.

Perched atop the pool ladder, I can reach the very highest cherries.

I wash them and put them in the refrigerator, but not everybody at my place is as excited about having cherries for dessert as they were the first couple of days. So what do you do when people are tired of cherries? I asked my Facebook friends and got these suggestions:

• hide them in ice cream or make sorbet
• bake a cherry cheesecake or a cherry pie
• can them
• pit and freeze them

But today I happened to have a jello mix on hand, so I hid them in jello in tiny plastic shot glasses.

The teen among us thought that was kind of weird, but Bow had a great time trying to figure out how to eat it.

Cherries and Cherry Pits

Yesterday was my day off. I spent some of it at Orchard House, where we also have a small orchard, and the fruit is ripening.

Orchard House was a property I purchased to help house the interns who work with Bow. It has 4.6 acres and is beautifully landscaped. Here are the red roses at Orchard House. If you want to see the pink roses that bloomed there earlier, try my other blog. 

At Orchard House, there is a wooden deck where people can sit outside and survey the property from a high vantage point.

The Orchard House Orchard orchard is smaller than the one I have at my house, but it still impresses me every time I go to take a look. Nobody is tending these trees, and yet they bear fruit.

This is the Orchard House apple tree. This year it looks to be very fruitful

There are also two small pear trees.

Very small trees, but pretty large fruit.

There are amazingly two grape vines, as well.

Nobody has tended them, so they look pretty wild.

 But if you look closely enough, you can see that they are trying to bear fruit.

Back at my house, some of the cherries are ready for picking. So Teyman and I went for a walk last night and I picked them.

Sword and I had some of these cherries last night for a snack.

 This morning, Bow partook of them also. I don't like for Bow to swallow the pits, so I made a deal with him. I give him the next cherry when he gives me the last  pit.

 This system seems to work pretty well.

Anticipating the Feast to Come

The feast before us is not just about eating. There is the feast for the eyes and the mind and the heart. And the greatest feast of all is having something to look forward to.

 From his perch on top of the bench in the outer pens, Bow surveys our property. He sees when the neighbors are mowing or when the cattle are grazing in an adjoining field. And he can smell the honeysuckle in the air and the blossoms on the trees, as flowers turn to fruit.

This spring has been full of strange weather, with snow that would not seem to leave, and torrential rain that flooded our ditches. But it has led to gigantic, unusually potent blossoms on all our fruit trees, and now the trees are laden with unripe yet ripening fruit.

We don't usually have this many pears

We have two different kinds of pear trees that bear two different kinds of pears.

the first pear tree is small and bent and bears purple pears

they are not ripe yet, but we anticipate the abundance

The second pear tree is taller and has greener fruit

We have two different types of cherry trees that bear two different kinds of cherries.

Some of the cherries are ripe already, though most have not yet ripened. You can compare and contrast the two types of cherries in the photos below:

The cherries on the left are from the larger cherry tree, but the small cherries on the right are from a tree that gives more fruit. Bit types of cherry are tart.

We also have several peach trees. Last year, there were no peaches on the trees, and a few peach trees died. There had been an unusually dry season. But this year the peach trees that remain are giving plenty of fruit.

In addition to these cultivated trees, which were planted in our orchard long before I bought the property, we are also anticipating the enjoyment of wild berries. The mulberry tree that sprang up in our ditch is giving fruit this year.

And, of course, there are always blackberries in our unmown pasture.

All flowers are beautiful, even the wild ones that spring up unbidden.

But the best flowers of all are those that become fruit. And when the fruit is free for the picking, then we are  living in a paradise meant just for us. Money may or may not grow on trees, but some of the best things in life definitely do. They grow on trees and vines and bushes.  And the less you have to work to make it grow, the sweeter the harvest.

Munching on Cauliflower

Last night, we had steamed cauliflower with dinner, instead of sweet potatoes, our usual fare. But before dinner was ready, Bow and I munched on the raw stems of the cauliflower, the parts that I didn't throw into the pot. Cauliflower stems are a tradition in our family. My parents used to say that it tasted just like kohlrabi.

I took two of the stems into the pen to share with Bow -- one for him and one for me.

Bow enjoys eating together.

The sound of our combined munching was a friendly duet.

When the steamed cauliflower was ready, that was good, too.

Bow and the Dandelion

The nice thing about spring, when it finally comes, are the blossoms and the flowers. This is a feast for all the senses, the eyes, the touch, the scent of flowers in bloom.

No, I'm not much of a gardener. Everything around here grows on its own, or it does not grow. But whether the flower is a domesticated one or wild, there is still a feast for the eyes.

Teyman and I go for walks three times a day. I show the pictures of what I see to Bow.

Today, I decided to let Bow feast on some of the flowers himself. I picked some dandelions and brought them to him in the pens.

Bow decided that dandelions were a feast for the mouth as well as the eyes.

However, since his belly was full, he decided to take a nap rather than finish off all the flowers.  I should take a nap, too. Tomorrow I'm going to Jefferson City to attend the senate hearing on some anti-primate legislation. I should rest today and smell the flowers.