Cherry Harvest

This is our fourth summer at River Ford Farm. Even though we have three cherry trees in our orchard we have never had a harvest. In previous years, each tree had no more than 20 or so cherries, and the birds always beat us to that measly crop. For some reason, this year one of the trees has finally produced a crop.

We had a wicked hot 4th of July weekend, but by Sunday evening the temperature had dropped somewhat. Relishing the nice weather, we decided to head out and harvest with help from some of our visitors, Uncle Jim & Julia. It turned out that Uncle Jim was expert help; back in his hippie days, he had picked cherries professionaly in the Flathead Valley of Montana.

We picked about 6 lbs of cherries. We're not sure what variety they are, since the orchard map that the previous owner left just says "Cherry". They have a sweet white flesh like Rainiers but turn completely red unlike Rainiers. They are quite tasty, although we do prefer darker cherries such as Vans.

As luck would have it Phyllis, the previous owner, stopped by a few days later so we were able to ask her about the variety. She couldn't quite remember but mentioned Queen Anne as a possibility. Comparing our cherries with photos on the internet confirms that they are Queen Annes, the variety used to make maraschino cherries. By this point we had already turned the cherries into jam, which is too bad. The next time we get a harvest, it would be fun to try making our own maraschinos. (Did you know that maraschino cherries are actually pickled!)

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket