Cherry Season
Several years ago one of the Sisters got permission to plant 2 Carmine Jewel Cherry bushes. For many years we had had cherry trees but they had to be cut down. Besides, usually the birds got the cherries!
We were supposed to get our first harvest about 3 years after planting but due to the weather, the birds, the lawn tractor ripping the netting, the netting being the WRONG netting, we never got the promised fruit. Some sisters had decided we would NEVER get fruit but enjoyed the flowering bushes in the spring.
This year Sr. Mary Catharine and the postulants were determined that we would get fruit! We got better netting and told the workmen to keep their mowing distance. (This is not without reason. Last year they mowed over our baby 3rd bush!)
The bushes groaned under the fruit. The birds were mad and it rained so much and the tractor broke down so many times the men couldn't get near them anyway! Yesterday the sisters harvested our first picking! Four quarts of red, juicy, TART cherries! There are many more cherries on those bushes!
The obvious next step was to make pies which they offered to the Sisters at dinner today! Fresh cherry pie is labor intensive! All those pits have to come out first! But the results were well worth all the efforts! Thank you, Sisters!
Sr. Maria and Sr. Danielle removes the netting before picking.
Pick, pick, pick, pick.
The darker the cherry the better. The key is PATIENCE!
This is not a retouched photo! The lettuce is from the garden.
We found our old cherry stoner. To be honest, it doesn't work very well!
The sisters show off their fresh out of the oven Cherry Crumble Pies! Good job, Sisters!