Cherries

When we bought this place we were lucky enough to inherit three cherry trees. They ripened the week we moved here, and we snacked on a few and donated the rest to the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks.

This year we watched the ripening cherries closely. We lost a lot to wildlife and picked what we could. We learned we had to pick them before they were fully ripe, because the second they begin to sweeten the birds and chipmunks will take one bite out of them before moving on to the next one. Pesky.

Cherries don't continue to ripen once picked, so we picked them and immediately pitted them and made cherry pie filling, which we froze. We followed the cherry pie filling recipe in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

We had to reduce the quantities, and we ended up with two pints of pie filling with a little left over. We plan to make amaretto-cherry-vanilla ice cream milkshakes with the "little left over."


Cherry Pie Filling

• 8 cups tart cherries
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 5 Tbsp cornstarch

Wash cherries; drain. Pit cherries. Combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in cherries; let stand until juices begin to flow, about 30 minutes. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken. Ladle pie filling into can-or-freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Cool at room temperature, not to exceed 2 hours. Seal, label and freeze.