It’s cherry season, and I am so thankful to be living in the middle of an orchard. Over the past couple of weeks, I have made a morning ritual of going out just after sunrise with my bucket and picking cherries for my breakfast and some to munch on during the day. I love fresh cherries so dearly, and am such an avid food gatherer that I have often imagined what it would be like to go out and pick all the cherries I could ever want. When I imagined this, it was always my very own cherry trees I was envisioning on my own homestead, but when I look down the orchard rows on these mornings, the matter of whether or not I own the trees or land seems to get blown away on the breeze.
Walking down the grassy road in the cool morning, with the sun peeking up over Mt. Pisgah, I feel like I’ve arrived somewhere I always wanted to be. When I pop those sweet juicy cherries in my mouth, I’m not just tasting one of the benefits of renting a cottage on a farm, but I realize I’m tasting a dream realized. There are cherries in abundance. It takes me a moment to let it sink in and realize it’s real.
My son and I managed to get a few quarts pitted and frozen with the help of our friend’s cast iron cherry pitter. It made quick work of them, and he had a grand time turning the crank while I fed handfuls through. This made for quite the fun and productive afternoon. I am aspiring to freeze a few more, and maybe dry some as well, but I know that the cherries won’t wait on the tree perfectly ripe forever until my busy schedule permits. I will just enjoy the little bits of homesteading life I still get to squeeze in, and hope these are some of the bits my kids remember from being ten years old.
So, while life may not always be exactly what we pictured, and at times a far cry from a bowl of cherries, sometimes we have moments where we can stop and realize we have something we’ve always dreamed of.
Remember to savor these moments, for they are delicious.
Leave a Reply