Sunday, June 10, 2007

cherry's jubilee


farm fresh

It's cherry and strawberry picking time again. This year I made it out to Jucker Farm to pick some myself. I know it's been said millions of times, but just-picked fruit has no comparison. It tastes like food. While the strawberry picking was quite labor intensive (especially bending over with my 8mo. pregnant belly), I couldn't have been happier picking the cherries. It was cool and relaxing under the cherry trees, perfect for fantasizing about that mythical romantic farm life, full of lovely moments like this - eating juicy cherries right off the tree with my son, cherry juice dripping down our faces and fingers.


we picked 4.3 kilos (9.5 pounds) at only 6sfr/kilo

I wasn't quite sure what I'd do with all these cherries but I just couldn't stop picking. My two kilos of strawberries were fading fast (the next day some were already moldy), so I had to start working that night to make the effort worth it. I didn't have a cherry pitting machine so I spent almost 2 hours manually pitting them with a pastry tip (a very effective tool, albeit slow). I have my stained fingers and clothes to prove it.


after one hour of pitting cherries

I used 16 cups worth to make cherry preserves (yielding about 8 cups). I used another 2 cups to make cherry sorbet, which I liked, but my husband thinks tastes vaguely of fish (?). Of course, I also had to make tarts with my favorite fraisage pastry dough. Instead of one big tart, I made four small ones, which is much cuter and easier to serve. The cherry one was fine but the strawberry one was divine! The trick is: use way more sugar than you think you need. I'm always worried it will overpower the fruit, but it never does.


strawberry tart, before and after


cherry tart, before & after


an American breakfast
best strawberries & cream waffle ever

2 comments:

Astrid said...

Oh yum! What a tantalizing post! Inga told me you went strawberry picking with your big belly, how on earth did you do it? I couldn't even pick up my kids' shoes off the floor!

Anonymous said...

Yum, those fresh cherries look heavenly! The strawberry tarts look scrumptious, too, although the cherry ones... well, I'm sure they taste good, at least! LOL.

And you are looking quite domestic in the apron and with your hair up in a bun. In fact, are you sure that's you? :-)

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