For years now, I have been doing battle with a Montmorency cherry tree in my front yard. It’s major plan of attack has been to produce 100 000 000 000 000 cherries that much of humanity considers inedible, and then fling them onto the sidewalk in front of the house. Then the tree invites 100 000 birds over to it’s branches to peck juicy holes in the cherries and defecate a truly remarkable and astonishing amount of bird crap onto my sterling lilies, then the juicy holes in the cherries attract 100 000 000 000 wasps and fruit flies to terrorize me and invade my home. When the tree is in top fighting form, the cherries which it throws on the sidewalk are tracked into the house, down the street, into the backyard, are thrown around the entire street by hoodlums in training local children, and the tree attracts the attention of every single resident of my neighbourhood, who either try to steal cherries (Note to cherry thieves: I can hear you. You are right outside my living room window and you are fighting very loudly in Lithuanian. This is not a subtle crime. There is no point in running off like that when I come out to offer you a chair to stand on.) discuss cherries, or taste the cherries, discover they are sour and discuss this loudly, complete with spitting noises, four feet away from where I am spinning and watching “House”.
The cherry tree is a formidable enemy. Also in it’s arsenal is the way it sends up sucker trees all over my garden. It is a slow felony, but after 10 years I am certain that only the cherry tree and it’s minions will occupy the front garden.
Two years ago, in an attempt to fight back, I picked cherries. They are a huge pain in the arse to get out of the tree, and an even bigger pain in the arse to de-pit. (It is faster now that I use a dpn.) I spent days picking, pitting, freezing and baking and despite dedicating all of this time to cherry battle, the tree still threw millions on the ground and threw a wildlife cherry orgy in my front garden. That summer though, somewhere, in a desperate attempt to use up all of the cherries, I had discovered the bright, shining, glorious true light of joy that is the Sour Cherry Upside Down Cake, and the tree had me in it’s grips. I started to look forward to cherry time.
The next year, the as soon as the tree realized it had brought me some happiness, and knowing that it had failed to bring only foul expressions and work to my life, the tree managed to arrange a horrible heat wave, where the cherries literally steamed and rotted on the tree before they could ripen, and then, taunting me with a whole summer of cake-less-ness….
Then it threw 100 000 000 000 000 rotten cherries on the ground.
This year I have watched the cherry tree like a hawk, determined that at the first possible cherry picking moment, I shall descend upon the tree like a plague of locusts. Every cherry will be picked, none will fall on the sidewalk and a years worth of cake will me mine. For the last few days, the tree has been close and this morning I the hour was upon me. I took my cherry picking bowl outside and I walked up to the tree and I started to pick.
It was then that I realized that the tree has a new trick.
The perverse rat-sucking-bark-arse has placed 90% of the cherries at the top of the tree. It mocks me with it’s unreachable fruit.
(There’s a cherry sky for Sandy.)
Now I am not easily defeated (I want the cake) and our bedroom window is near the cherry tree, and there’s a little roof there.
I took down the screen, opened the window and squeezed myself out onto the little roof. I waved to my incredulous neighbours (who are all about 5 seconds away from offering to buy me some stinking cherries if I will only please, please stop being so freaking odd) plunked myself down on the roof and picked what I could reach.
Since the neighbours already thought I was as crazy as a soup sandwich, I took the opportunity to show the travelling sock the top of a cherry tree.
Two cakes worth of cherries are mine. (I am developing a plan to get the rest. Thus far, it involves two chairs, a rope, and all of the courage I learned playing D&D as a teenager.) I shall prevail.
While I formulated a battle plan yesterday, I spun some really neat new fibre. This is “Hot Mama” (I think. The cherry war has me so discombobulated that I can’t find the label) from Farm witch.
A rustic batt that’s a really neat combination of Cotswold and recycled sari silk… I found it interesting to spin. I had to let go of the idea of a perfectly smooth single. This batt has lot’s of personality and I had to just. Let. Go (Really, my best thing) and let the fibre be itself.
The resulting single is completely charming, and I’m debating whether or not it even needs to be plied. (Can you do that? How do people spin a single for spinning? What about the twist? Do you have to plan to spin a single?)
Then I spun this one.
“Lady Starlight” (also from Farm Witch). 70% Cotswold, 29% silk, 1% “Glitz”. Again, I surprised myself by having a really good time with the unexpected nature of the spining. I usually like a really smoothly prepared, well blended fibre, but these batts are a lot of fun. My usual fibre is to this fibre, as vanilla ice cream is to Rocky Road. I loved coming across the little nuggets of neat things, and I’ll be darned…
If it doesn’t really look like the night sky. I was thinking that it would make pretty neat mittens for someone who owned a navy coat. I’ll think about it more while I make cake, pick cherries and win wars.
(Anybody have a really good way to get the high ones too far from the window?)
Eeeee, am I still first??
I want cake! If you go through all that trouble, it must be delicious! 🙂
We have the inedible tiny black wild cherry tree that drops hard pits all over my patio. Sigh.
The sour cherries are beautiful, and I’m guessing the cake must be awesome to go through so much effort.
How goes the teenage summer battle?
Gather the Lithuanians together and have them form a human tower? I’ve found that a garden hose is a more efficient means, but it’s nowhere near as potentially entertaining as the former idea.
Hmmmmm…since you’re going to all that trouble and risking life and limb to pick the cherries, you might want to consider investing in a Norpro Cherry Pitter (it screws to the tabletop, much like a ball winder).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005EBH0/104-9227930-7832747?v=glance&n=284507
Hmmm. Generally when I want to reach high things that aren’t conveniently located next to a second-story roof or balcony, I use a ladder. Just a thought . . .
Ladders and nimble fearless children. To make thier parents happy maybe a net too.
Actually what we used to do is to dig out some really old sheets lay them down on the ground and use a broom to knock the mini apples off the tree. This way we didn’t have to get the really tall ladder.
The cherry tree is a much more wily arch-villan but for sheer distructiveness the mini apple tree wins hands down. It has bees. My dog likes to chase bees. Too bad she catches them, and is allergic.
What beautiful fiber, what beautiful yarn, what beautiful cherries! I envy you– Cherry trees only live two or three years in LA, and almost never bear fruit.
Don’t worry if birds get most of your cherries. You’re habitat gardening; it’s all the rage.
This is the third summer that we have lived in our house, and I have not managed to eat even one of the cherries from our two cherry trees. It always seems like there are going to be tons of them, and then the next day there are none.
Thanks for making me snort tea up my nose!
“crazy as a soup sandwich…” tee hee!
And good job on the spinning – looks great!
Having been daunted by the uppermost cherries myself, I generally used a ladder or a chair and an extentable pruning hook/cutter thing. I would get up as high as I could, then use the pruner to hook the branch (but NOT cut it) and then pull the branch farther down where I could reach it. Good luck! Kick the tree’s ass!
Stephanie,
You’ve given such great advice in the past, and now, I find myself with the opportunity to return the favor! (-:
What you need is a fruit picker. It can be found at: http://smallfarmproducts.com/pro448850.html
Happy picking!
Terry
Barring finding in your Village a tool-rental store with ladders, there is always the left coast blackberrying trick which involves old ironing boards and rakes. And one could prune the tree down to “manageable” over a couple of years. Or see if The Ladies of Summer – no forget I was even going there…..
The fibre and yarn are gorgeous, of course, but the main thing I get from this post is: Damn, I want me some cherry cake!
(Hope the cakes turn out yummy. Please post pics.)
For a few moments I thought I might be the first to reply, but not even close. As for getting the cherries at the top, well just stop the next “cherrypicker” truck that goes by (surely you have these in Canada…the local electric company workers); bribe them with offers of cherry cake or socks (LOL). I’m loving you Hot Mama spun fiber and night sky does look pretty darn perfect1
“(Anybody have a really good way to get the high ones too far from the window?)”
Carefully, Stephanie. Very, very carefully. Do not leave us Harlotless…
Maybe you could “arrange” for a power outage and then when Ontario Hydro sends the bucket truck to fix the lines you could hijack it. Or maybe a laddertruck with firefighters all shiny and buff (picture the Toronto Firefighter’s Calendar) to help the odd woman who happened to get stuck in her tree and if you were really good they’d help you pick the cherries.
Love the rustic spinning. I’ve been playing with “rustic” alpaca batts and it’s really neat and fun and imperfect but I think it would make wonderful mittens, which is fine by me.
Can you use a garden/leaf rake to “comb” them out of the tree? That is sort of how olives are harvested.
Love the new Knitty Article!
Ummm….climb the tree? (along w/nimble 12 year old who can shimmy out onto branches)
Um, in parts of New England, there is such a thing as a chicken soup sandwich, so some of us yankees might not get that turn of phrase. We also have a chop suey sandwich on the menu at some older cafes. Also, I think that you need to chop down that cherry tree, because clearly it is distracting you from knitting! 😉
Fabu spinning, lady. They say an artist can ruin a painting by not letting it be. If you paint and walk away for a few days, you can better use a critical eye. Otherwise, you’ll just work your oils around until you’ve created a proper monstrosity.
Let’s see now…you have a lot of cherries and a lot of pent-up teenage energy. I say get ladders and send said teenagers up them to pick. Reward the one who brings in the most cherries with something hitherto unattainable, like TV in the middle of the day or whatever will make them swarm outside to pick the tree clean.
Scrumptious post. Is it worrying that I find the wool scrummier than the cherries?!
If you find out the answer to the spinning singles question, I’d like to know too.
I fought a similar battle for years.
For the tall cherries: rakes, hoes, ladders, long-limbed ‘volunteers’ (summer-break children work relatively well too), and sheets underneath it all.
For the cherries themselves: Sour cherry jam.
It’s easy, indescribably good, and best of all? – you don’t have to individually pit the damned cherries by hand.
Oh, and the ‘volunteers’? They usually stop complaining once you give them a small jar of the jam for their efforts.
sticks…very long sticks.
I wonder how many hit points of damage you will do to the tree? 🙂 where are my dice?
har.
soup sandwich. heehee
I second the fruit picker comment; my dad has one, and it clears his two cherry trees of fruit in an afternoon. Good luck!
Oh Stehanie – Once youfigyre out how you can get the renaindr of those lovely cherries- Check out the Cherry pitter at Williams Sonoma. Goes for abot $12. Handy little devil it is – worth every cent – The Icturas shawl is lovely!!
A clafoutis is another brilliant (and easy!) use for your cherries. Julia Child’s recipe is among the best, of course:
http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/2004/06/julia-childs-clafoutirecipe.html
I use Montmorencies from a jar, so maybe just a little extra sugar?
Isn’t cherry picking something that teenagers could do to keep themselves out of trouble?
I love that the sock came with you to battle the tree.
How ’bout circular needles? loop them around recalcitrant branches & pull ’em towards you.
I like the cherry picker idea too – bribing them with the cake and socks. Teenagers on ladders works for me too.
This is the second time in as many days as I’ve seen yarn made with recycles sari silk. Where does it come from? (Seriously, where does one find such a thing. I am intrigued and my needles are itching for a new challenge)
Ahrg, your blog stubbornly refuses to remember my personal info, therby robbing me of the coveted ‘first’ spot. Oy.
Anywho, devils advocate here…cut the tree down…plant something you like in it’s place. Sure it may take a few years to get established and start shading your house, but then…no more almost useless pain in the ass cherry tree.
Also, you played D&D? I knew there was a reason I liked you so much!
Ah, the cherry tree has you in its thrall!
I recommend sending some of your agile children (Hank might do if your daughters are not inclined to climb trees anymore). Tell them that whoever picks the most gets your side in all arguments for a week. Should bribery fail to convince them to join you, a very tall, sturdy ladder might help you out immensely. Or, get a tall sturdy ladder and advertise a “U-Pick”. Then use the money that the cherries earn for yarn.
As for the cherry pitter, did you know that there are machines that you just pour the cherries in, turn a crank, and then the cherries come out one side and the pits spit out another?
As for the yarn, I love the products of your Tuesdays are for Spinning day this week. On the U.S. Independence day, you spun. I, an estadounidense (Spanish for US citizen), spent the day cleaning under the bed, where I “discovered” part of my stash. My husband helpfully pointed out that it was “like going to the yarn store, but this time, it’s all yarn that you know you’ll like”. I had to explain to him that “sometimes things end up under the bed for a reason” and that “I don’t knit with non-natural fibers anymore.” I wonder if he’s catching on… or if he’s secretly a member of TAKE and just trying to confuse me.
Spread a big tarp (or several) on the ground. (this has the added bonus of covering up the ones that have fallen and are rotting, so you wouldn’t need to separate them out.) Take a sledgehammer or other big hammer and just whack the trunk (probably start out on the gentle side). That’s how my friend said they harvest almonds on his mom’s farm. They also have a machine you drive up to the tree that reaches out and shakes the trunk for you!
Enjoy. And think about getting the tree topped next year.
Hah- I fought the same battle with a fig tree when I was a child.
When I was a little kid, my father planted a mediterranian fig tree in the back yard. Well it took well to the California climate, and started producing huge, honking purple figs (I am not talking wussy supermarket figs here- I am talking figs the size of large oranges). It was more figs then we could ever eat, and the hummingirds, blue jays, and japenese beetles fought us for them.
For years my mom would collect all the figs and make jars and jars of fig jam and homemade fig newtons (there is nothing like a fresh homemade fig newton out of the oven.) We would give the leftover figs to family, neighbors and strangers on the street…. we had more figs then one could ever dream of every August. Lots and lots of figs.
Finally as my mom and dad aged, and I moved out of the house (I was the main fig collector) they just let the fig tree be, and allowed the local animals and birds enjoy the large rotting figs on the tree. My beloved cat R.C. was buried under the tree (it was a favorite spot of hers) and it just grew larger and larger.
Now its a behemoth fig tree and our neighbors reach over the fence to steal our figs. Its okay, because we take the avocados that hang over on our side from their tree.
Anyway, enjoy the cherries… they will be well worth your efforts.
If I had been drinking milk, it would have come out my nose at the point where you showed the travelling sock on the cherry tree… gawd 🙂
No cherry advice, but if you’ve spun a single that has enough twist to not pull apart easily, you can just set the twist by wetting the skein and hanging it with a weight on the bottom end to hold the stretch, and it should then be ready to knit without any excess energy/twist to kink up your knitting! Good luck!
I would have to say – teenagers. TV in the middle of the day should be award enough. Either that or the continued priviledge of living under your roof. Kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.
A chainsaw will bring those uppermost branches right down to the ground, where you can pick the cherries off easily. Next year, you won’t have 100 trillion cherries, but there will still be lots, even if you prune more or less willy-nilly, like we did when we lived in Vancouver, WA, many long years ago.
I love the Cotswold/silk singles. I’m more of a beginner spinner, but I may have to find some of that fiber.
Hah! I love it that you watch “House”, one of the *very* few shows I’ll watch (I spend more time with the science,nature,history stuff). I’m with Jinxsa on gathering the cherries,and they are so very pretty and the blue sky was fabulous. I would love to be your neighbor, ‘crazy as a soup sandwich’, my neighbors think I’m odd, really, there’s only one elderly neighbor who will visit with me…… At my ‘old’ house,(daughter lives there now) we had a mulberry tree and when that sucker dropped it’s load….we had a litter of pups during one summer and ended up looking tie-dyed, great fun, fortunately the berries didn’t sprout but the tree was relentless in sending up babies from its roots.
The cake recipe sounds good, will have to give it a go. The spinning is absolutely so drool worthy, had to get up and fetch a ‘mouthtowel’.
61 days. (I’m also counting…21 days to go,OKC)
I am jealous! My three sour cherry trees have about 2 cups of cherries this year…. Well! Did you know that you should prune a sour cherry tree after the harvest? This way you would ensure to have fruit closer to the bottom next year.
Gorgeous spinning!
We’re eating cherries here, too. I love the sour ones!
whoops, I’m a ditz, your cherry tree sends up suckers also. I *am* a ditz.
I love hearing about your cherry tree battle. I suppose thatr if it was me I might regale my impressionable offspring with tales of the joys of climbing trees in my youth. Once they were up there I’d hand them a bowl. That’s just me though. (I really did climb to the tops of trees when I was younger and about 100 lbs lighter.)
I say you become Canada’s George Washington and cut that sucker down. As for the spinning, you would LOVE the fiber from Crosspatch Designs or Three Bags Full if you like “interesting”. And the singles can, of course, stay singles. I just think you have to set the twist with steam. I would try a little sample plied, though…it might surprise you.
How funny… I was just wondering where to find some more glitzy stuff to spin. Ask and ye shall receive! I’m looking forward to hearing about the singles.
I cannot get fresh Montmorency cherries in San Francisco and sour cherry anything is my favorite treat! If you have extras, I’ll pay for shipping and dry ice.
Awww, cherries. Krimeny I love summer. We’ve got squash, cucumbers, and zuchini coming in right now with tomatoes coming pretty soon. Our strawberry is blooming, so we’ll have strawberries soon.
As for picking the cherries, I suggest a trained squirrel.
The spun fiber is beautimous! It makes me want to go spin. In fact, I think I will.
I have been away for a few days, doing my best to keep my children from blowing each other up with Indian Reservation fireworks…..BTW, that includes my biggest kid…..hubby. But I missed the Harlot’s adventures and everyone’s response.
Your cherry tree reminds me of my constant quest to find uses for rhubarb and zucchini. The Rhubarb problem is solved (rhubarb crumble and rhubarb shortbread take care of that). With zucchini, well there is always bread and zucchini chocolate cake. But last year I discovered “Zapple Muffins,” a zucchini muffin recipe that combines diced zucchini with lemon juice, brown sugar and nutmeg to produce something very like applesauce that is just yummy in muffins. And what a diabolical way to sneak veggies into your kids!!! I have yellow squash gingerbread and chocolat beet bread recipes. Any way to get vegetables into your kids is fair, I say!
Oh, gorgeous fiber. Good luck with the cherry battle!
I grew up on a fruit farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake. May I offer some pointers. First, pick this type of cherry without the stems. (i.e. hold onto the cherry and pull from the tree. This method has the advantage of also leaving some pits attached to stems on the tree and therefore you do not need to remove it from the cherry. Since you are going to pit and process the cherry in a short time you do not need the stems. Stems are left on sweet cherries since they will be shipped, stored then eaten. The stem prevents germs and fungus from entering the cherry and rotting it. Get a giant safety pin. The old diaper pins (if you can still find them) are the best. The pit of the sour cherry has a little indentation the pin fits into nicely and you then use the pin to pop out the pit. The indentation is at the top where the stem used to meet the cherry. The last point. If you are only getting cherries at the top of the tree chances are you are not properly pruning the tree for fruit production. If you want fruit production, find an old farmer to give you pointers on proper pruning.
Suggestions: Teenagers and ladders, brooms and dropcloths, and tall men put to work.
Love your spinning results!
Isn’t that the sort of thing you keep bored teenagers busy with?
As for the lovely texture-y (?) fibre: It’s gorgeous
Only, isn’t “rustic” a term we reserve for goats?
Ahem
Send which ever teen of yours is driving you the most insane up the tree and make them pick cherries until they beg for mercy. It might even have the added bonus of turning them so off of cherries that you could have the whole cake to yourself.
Of course I’m doing this from work on lunch and don’t have reference books handy, but for spinning knit-able singles, try looking in either PGR’s “High Whorling” (recently re-issued under another name — google it) or in Deb Menz’s “Color in Spinning”.
Menz does a lot of work with singles. I think the trick is to keep the twist angle under 17 degrees. A lot of yarns that we think of as singles — Noro, lopi — are actually 2 ply with low twist.
The cotswold and silk is really, really nice; should be fine as a single, but the real test will be to knit a swatch and see how it handles pilling and abrasion.
If I might suggest a recipe for Lithuanian Cherry Liquor to help you use your treasure of sour cherries.
Take an old-fashioned 3 gallon crock and fill it 1/3 of the way with slightly mashed, clean cherries. Then add 2 pounds of sugar. Fill it another third of the way with cherries, then another 2 pounds of sugar. And again. Cover well and place in a cool dark place…I put it in a cool closet. Allow this to ferment for several weeks — 8 is usually enough. Strain the resulting liquor into another large container and add 3 bottles of Everclear (190 proof grain alcohol). Decant into bottles and allow to mature for 8 weeks minimum. These mature best in a cool cellar or the fridge.
This stuff really, really packs a whollup. And it will definitely keep you warm, even in your cold Canadian winters.
When we go pincherry picking, we bring rakes and hoes to pull the branches down so we can pick them. Of course you have to have two people to do this since one person holds the branch and one person picks. Your tree looks a bit tall to try that, so your best bet would be to see if you can rent some scaffolding from a hardware store and tell teenagers that they have to climb up on it and pick cherries or you’re going to wake them up at 6:00 am every morning blasting Prince for a week.
Gorgeous yarns.
Your cherry tree post was hilarious! We used to have a cherry tree at my parents’ house (before they moved to their current house) and I remember there was always a battle between us and the birds – whoever could get there first. Since the tree produced a very limited amount of fruit (like a bowlful,) there would be one day when the cherries would be perfect… and then the next day they’d be either gone (us) or ruined (birds). We’re doing landscaping here and I’m debating whether or not to plant a cherry tree.
As for the spinning, that fiber looks like fun. I’m knitting with some recycled silk right now that does not look like it was plied. It’s beautiful and looks very much like the single you have photographed (only with much more random coloring.) The somewhat annoying thing about it is that it loves to twist up on itself, and I have to keep the knitting fairly close to the skein to prevent it from knotting. Because it’s not plied, it’s not balanced so there’s a definite overtwist. With a wool/silk blend though, you might be able to put less twist in it while spinning a single – I think if you did this with just the recycled silk it would unravel and separate too easily.
I’m sorry. How many cherries? Don’t know about the zeros, but that’s a lot of triple yarn overs…
Commiseration, here – my cherry tree, devious brute that it is, has walked away from the house and is out of range from the windows and rooflets…
That said, when I get at them, I make the cherry jam with various wines. Merlot-cherry jam, anyone?
A really tall a-frame ladder and a patient Joe to hold the base.
NOw you know why they call that big firetruck with the basket a cherry picker. Oh, how I feel your cherry-induced pain. Some years mildew envelops every single cherry on our tree & then they all drop to the ground. Other years they have been beset by plum curlicues, some sort of critter that scratches the surface & deposits its larva into each cherry. They still look great, but you get a surprise with every bite. Then there is the bird situation…we have taken to putting net over the entire tree, using this elaborate sytem of poles my husband has rigged up (with neighbors staring). Of course, the tree is getting rather big for this solution. With what we got this season I made one cherry-peach crumble, made cherry pancakes, dipped them in dark chocolate & generally ate ourselves sick on sweet cherries, all in one weekend. Salutations from suburban NY!
My Northern Star (sour) cherry is about 6 years old (at least its been in my yard about 6 years). This year I picked enough for 14 pies and froze them. So no the tree isn’t really too large yet. But I notice that it is getting tall enough that I’m thinking about a larger stepladder.
On the other hand my dear neighbor until last year had a Montmorency in the back yard, overhanging both my fence and his garage. It was actually large enough to climb. Usually though I would just take a ladder over and climb on his garage roof to pick them. We had a deal, I could pick all the cherries I wanted, I just had to bake him a tart. Last spring it died and dad and I cut it down for him, but I did stop at my favorite nursery and get him a new one.
And talk about a cool neighbor to have, he just sold me his old spinning wheel. Seems that he used to spin in the late 60’s and 70’s to relax after a hard day at work. He gave the yarn to the women in the office as his wife didn’t knit.
Love the Cotswold/sari silk singles, just gorgeous.
I want to be your neighbour. I would even give up TV and just watch the antics from your house – woman crawling out windows to pick cherries, librarians throwing books from the corner, kids trying to sneak TV during the day, woman taking pictures of knitting on her plants…
You can try bribing the kids to pick them, but really, do you think that will work? I remember being a teenager – it never worked on me. Prune the tree for next year, maybe that will help.
Love, love, LOVE the spinning – it really does look like a night sky.
MMMmmm… sour cherries! those are the best kind! who cares about nasty stignin wasps and “hoodlums in training”?;) here is how to get the good ones at the top!
– Catch a squirril in the act of stealing those marvelous, red bunches of yumminess.
– take it to a profecional hipnatist.
– tell it to pick every last cherrie on the tree.
-then tell it to clean up the pigion poop.
– and go to the doller store to buy a pair of fly swatters and to go around with a swatter in each hand killing each and every one of the wasps.
-put the dead wasps in cherries without pits and put them back on the tree for the hoodlums to find.
– tell the little squirrel to make 80 cherry pies and 100 upside down cherry cakes.
-with the stems prehaps he could be put to work inventing a new kind of “cherry stem fibre”
the yarn is beuatiful! (maybe you could get some stretchy stuff and make a sling-shot?)
Keep up the good work!
show us a pic of the cake when its done!
hi stephanie!
about the singles…this will break most spinners’ brains, but it’s a fact that in the middle ages people very rarely plied any of the yarn they spun. their attitude was, why cut my production in half? admittedly they didn’t knit all that much, but i think it should be fine. set it and see how much it still twists, would be my suggestion. you could weigh it down so the twist dies while its drying. i’ve spun quite a few singles recently and if you let them sit for a while the twist seems to reduce.
um – that yarn you spun doesn’t look like it’s for Joe’s sweater….
The cherry blitzkreg
Get all the family,
arm with tarps or second best sheets,
have the shortest stand under the tree with
tarps/sheets spread wide,
have the strongest grab the tree and
SHAKE LIKE MAD.
It really works, you’ll end up with your billion cherries.
Cheers
How to get the cherries down? How ’bout a cherry picker? 🙂
I’m wondering if you couldn’t swing a rope with a (LIght) weight on it around the tip and pull it right into your bedroom window and pick at your own ease? anything’s possible
Oh, Emily is right – I like to spin these ‘funky’ style batts kinda like the Paula Simmons method of ‘soft’ spinning which is a single ply. IF you’re worried about the cosmos smashing you for it, just set the twist as you would for a plied yarn and you’re all set. Thanks for the very flattering compliments – most of which were seeing how this fiber spun in your hand looks, but I’m wierd like that.
Depending on how long cherry season lasts (given how long our mulberry tree kept the backyard unusable before the top of it got completely removed I suspect it woudl be a while) I have a partial solution… I have a couple of knitting friends coming to TO in a week and a half. They both climb trees. And are tall. And relatively skinny… We will come & pick any cherries you might wish us to pick, just for the adventure.
(What, us look for a way to meet you without having to be unCanadian & actually try to attract your attention? ummm… *shifty eyes*)
We always made our own cherry pickers. It’s a can on a pole with a fork to do the grabbing and picking.
Take a long pole and a tin can and an old fork and a leather thong, length of baling twine, or other heavy string/cord (or duct tape). Bend the tines of the fork (usually the two center ones to the back and the two side ones to the front, depending on the size of the cherry — you want the tines as far apart as possible to make it easier to snare the stems, but close enough to pop the cherry off its stem). Punch a few holes down one side of the can and lash it to the end of the pole. Lash the fork inside the tin so the widely space tines are over the can, a few inches above it. Lengths and angles might need a little adjustment for perfection.
Stick the pole up in a clump and rake sideways with the fork, popping cherries into the can. Position a bucket the length of the pole away from you, arc down and pour the cherries in the bucket, arc back up and pick some more. I was fast as Canbe and picked cherries by the bucketfull in high school.
How about a long stick with a hook at the end to pull the branches toward you (while you are safely *inside* your bedroom, so if the tree chooses to fight you you don’t fall off your roof ledge)?
Man I wish I could duplicate your cherry tree. Forget about pitting the cherries I just love to eat ’em raw as it were. I planted my cherry tree 8 years ago and thus far have had 3 cherries from the thing. I get blooms every spring but nary a cherry. If you get sick of the cake or fall out of the tree I’ll send you the gremlins that have eaten 8 years worth of my cherries.
I assume you must have them in Canada somewhere, but here in NYC all of the teeny stores with shelves too tall for people to reach onto have one of those things with a handle that you squeeze, and a pincer at the top (sort of like those kids toys with a dinosaur head at one end that you squeeze and it bites you…). You could try one of those, it might give you another 5-6 feet. You could grab the branch with it and shake it really really hard.
A SlingShot will work great for those high cherries :o) Here in Alberta we pay big-Alberta-bucks for Cherries – even cherries from Ontario -wink-
Shelley in Alberta where it is +33C and humid – what the heck is with the humidity – we are suppose to have a ‘dry heat’~
We had sour cherry cobbler to celebrate midsommar (http://blog.designedlykristi.com/?p=103) and we’re going to pick more. The trees aren’t ours (though we will be taking a few suckers off of their hands), but we are enjoying the fruit!
I was reading the Festival Survival Guide but didn’t pay attention to the author when I started. When I came across this line “a case of Yellow Tail Shiraz. (That last one may just be me.) ” I thought, you know, this sounds like Harlot. Hahaha.
Good luck with the cherries.
When I was little we had this apple tree that only grew fruit at the tippy top of the tree – too high even for a ladder. We made an “apple picker” out of a small canvas sack, a wire coat hanger and a long pole. It worked really well from the second story window. I don’t know if it would work for cherries but…I don’t see why not.
Why not stack those teenagers on top of one another? I presume they will eat the cake. The least they can do is pick some cherries.
maybe if you put a really big tarp under the tree and shook it…
or you could try a ladder…
You played D&D? That is too awesome — I still play whenever I get the chance. Nice to know I’m not the only weirdo in the world who enjoys RPGs and knitting needles at the same time.
As for the cherries, there’s a reason why settling for the “low-hanging fruit” or self-selecting a desired result is called “cherry picking.” But maybe a really sturdy step ladder, a partner to hold it, and a bucket slung over your back? Or the shaking trick works, if the tree is shake-able.
The first thought that came to mind involved Hank, a safety harness and a winch of some sort…
I found sour cherries this weekend at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market in San Francisco and baked 2 pounds of them into a pie. Best dessert I have ever made – pie dough from scratch, washed/pitted cherries, a couple of Tbs cornstarch and a cup of sugar. Sadly, that was the last of the crop from this particular farm, and I have no idea whether I’ll be able to find them again this season, but living vicariously through your blog is almost as good. Also, funnier.
Have you enough wool for Joe’s gansey sweater though? 😉
Even if you don’t get the cherries picked, sweeping the cherries off the sidewalk and collecting them for the compost bin seems like it would keep three teenagers from snapping each others’ wrists off fighting for the use of the phone. To get maximum effect, they would have to sweep and collect on a rotating schedule every day. Since the tree would be dropping cherries all the time, this would mean that at least one teenager was outside and out of the screaming/sulking/pestering/eating/talking on the phone mix at all times.
You watch House? I love that show? (it’s a bit tricky to watch it and knit at the same time, though. Unless you are fluent in Diagnostician, then you need to devote your entire attention to it. Sigh.)
When I was growing up, we had two cherry trees alongside our driveway. Washing the cars during cherry season was always SUCH a chore!
I LOVE that purple yarn! If I saw that in a store, I’d snatch it up in a heartbeat.
I currently have 26 episodes of House saved up on my Tivo. I think I need to come up with a knitting project to devote entire to House-watching…I’m not sure what would be the most appropriate thing, though. A blood-red sweater? Something tweedy and English-inspired, in honor of the marvelous Hugh Laurie? A bunch of slipper socks (or, as we call them around here, house socks — ha!)? The possibilities are many…
I’m tall and I can reach. Really.
An earlier Spin-Off article (sometime in 1998, I think) addressed the issue of working with energized singles. They suggested to either crochet the item or use a knit/purl pattern. Always on the lookout for shortcuts, I usually spin a fleece in the grease and knit or crochet right off the bobbin. Your skein looks great. BTW, what do you do with all that wool?
You could make a cherry picker sort of like the blackberry picker my mom made when I was small. Each summer she would do battle with 15′ blackberry brambles that grew along the edge of our property. Most of the fruit wasn’t along the outer and lower edge of the thickets–it was up high or back between 1.5″ canes studded with 1/2″ thorns. (Hmmmm . . . aren’t you glad your tree isn’t barbed?)
Anyway, she took an old meat fork, wired a tuna can on the end, and fashioned a few narrow & curved tines on the end to pull the blackberries from the brambles, which would then fall into the tuna can. You could arrange something similar with a broomstick or pole, a wide-mouth can, and some wire. (Or an old fork with the tines bent over might work, too.) Basically, something that will pull the cherries from the tree, and catch them.
A contraption like this would allow you to pick cherries while staying on the ground. I think your neighbors might like it, too. ;o)
I hate to be the sterotypical nit picking librarian [that’s a like, I LOVE nit picking], but ‘it’s’ is a contraction for ‘it is’ and ‘its’ is the possessive of ‘it’. Anyway, my particular useage error aside, I have friends in Olympia who also had the cherry problem. It’s sadly solving itself by the fact that the tree is slowly dying.
Get a long armed prunner, it is about 8 feet long, and cut off the branch with a lot of cherries. Put a sheet underneath where you expect it to fall. We harvested quite a few this way.
I am tempted to spin everytime I see your pictures but so far I have resisted. Beautiful yarn.
Now I have to nit pick against myself for typing ‘like’ instead of ‘lie’! If only I took the time to preview before posting!
Yellow Pages – Tree Surgeon – Get an estimate for going George Washington on it. I’m not saying TO chop it down, just make it think you’re going to do it. Maybe next year it’ll shape up for you. If not, well you’ve got an estimate, plant a really nice money tree or something, you have teenagers eh?
“Crazy as a soup sandwich”?? Did you just make that up, or have I been leading a sheltered life? In any case, I love it, and plan to use it at every opportunity without crediting you.
Lynn has hit on the one error (actually a spelling rather than usage error, just to prove myself pickier than thou, or than Lynn) that is more common than rotten cherries on a sidewalk and drives me up a tree, so to speak.
I see someone else has suggested a “power outage”, Stephanie induced, so that Toronto Hydro would come…but perhaps stalking your local firestation and telling them your cat is up a tree, and batting your baby blues, might help, would get them to come and help??? Ach..who knows. get the Teens up the tree and let them know ONE HOUR of tv is theirs if they co-operate. It all sounds like a zany moment to me, once again brought to us by the wonderful Yarn Harlot!!
I spin singles quite frequently, and they handle well for knitting. I soak my singles in HOTHOTHOT water for a while (OK, until I remember to go back and get them out), snap the skein and thwack it on the tub wall a time or 2 to show it who’s boss, then hang to dry WITHOUT a weight. If, when it’s dry, the twist on the skein is less than 360 degrees, you’re good to go. I used to steam them, but the soaking-and-forgetting method is more my style. I was told that spinning the yarn with an approximately 17 degree twist ( I think that’s the right number) would yield good yarn, but my eyes aren’t that good, so I spin and hope for the best. Your yarn looks yummy. Happy knitting!
You could rent a “cherry picker”–these things are so cool you could probably knit and pick cherries at the same time.
We used to have a mulberry tree–all the birds would enjoy and then shit purple all over my white car–and the sidewalk–and even the white siding because they could shit on the fly, so to speak.
I also know about those incredible suckers which sprout from the lawn. A neighbour brought some kind of silver maple from the bush up north, and planted it in her front yard. It grew quickly and soon there were boughs hanging down over the sidewalk, hitting even the short people in the head as they walked by. Another neighbour pruned it one dark night, and this, apparently stressed the tree and it went into survival mode and started throwing out these suckers in the lawns up and down the street. They grew faster than grass and had big stumps erupting from the lawn. The tree lover finally cut it down the mother tree(probably didn’t like all the nasty looks and muttering which were sent her way)and we dug up all the roots and stumps and reseeded, and voila–no more suckers this year. But it was ALODDA WORK!!!!
It might be cheaper and safer for you to get some cherry cheesecake taxied to you from Fifth Avenue in Manhattan!! Please take care–knitting and writing require both hands/ arms and one undamaged brain.
You played D&D??? I thought you were cool before; but now, you are WAY cool.
Please make friends with a lovely Fireman Stephanie you are far too precious to fall .I have a huge apple tree ( a rare variety ) and the apples taste like wall-paper paste .The one and only consolation is seeing the birds eat them ,they are welcome.
I think you’re an adrenaline junkie that just hasn’t come clean yet. I suspected as much when you wrote about how many children you have at home. Then that they were mostly pre-teen and teenagers AND that you knit beautiful lace shawls…while under the stairs at 4 am on Christmas Day. This cherry picking business confirms my suspicions of your need of the adrenaline rush/high.
Oh and plying? I never have – I only spin singles. Yak. Cotton. Silk. Merino. Cotswold. Romney. And on a drop spindle. {Back away slowly if you feel the overwhelming need to convert me to a spinning wheel. I. Will. Hurt. You.} It’s always turned out just fine.
For singles you can either set the twist using something heavy to pull the twist down; or even ply the yarn with sewing thread or fine yarn.
Hey, Stephanie. Kids climb trees. They could harvest the cherries. Two (three maybe) birds with one stone (cherry stone that is).
Try cutting the upper limbs off the tree – there is a tool for that & you can do it from the ground. The cherries that survive the fall can be harvested, and the tree should put out fewer cherries next year when it’s concentrating on growing more branches. I use a similar strategy on my mulberry trees – if you remove four fifths of the leaves to feed your voracious silk worms, it doesn’t put out too many mulberries.
I want your cherries. We had sour cherry trees when I was a child. Often, the only way to get cherries from the top of the tree was for me to climb out my bedroom window onto the roof of the back porch.
When I bought my house, I planted a Montmorency cherry tree. It’s providing a reasonable amount of fruit–to the local birds. I have exactly 4 cherries in a bowl in my refrigerator. That’s not enough for anything!
invest in a fruit picker… spread out sheets, or plastic sheeting underneath the tree and let them fall to the sheets with the picker… easy harvest! 🙂
I say call the Toronto Raptors to come for cake and coffee.. but they’ll have to pick first.
I got dizzy trying to read all of the comments so I apologize if someone’s already suggested it…
But what about an apple picker? http://www.homesteadhelpers.com/fruitpicker.htm It might take some leaves along with the cherries but since you don’t seem to fond of the tree that might be okay. 😉
Good luck!
Oh-my-freaking-goodness today’s story was Just Too Funny! I am truly sorry for your battles with this cherry tree, but it surely does make for wonderful reading. And by the way, I loved your Canada Day post immensely. So much so, that after 37 years of being apathetic towards Canada (it’s that big white space above my map, right?) I would actually like to visit and maybe even live there. Definitely food for thought. Good luck with the cherries!
I totally relate to the cherry thing! Reminds me of the summers I spent up on our (asphalt paper!) roof doing exactly the same thing. We had 4 trees, 2 queen annes and 2 of those fabulouse dark-almost-black cherry trees. I’d stand on the very edge of the roof, reach out as far as I possible could and grab a branch. Then I’d bend the tree carefully towards me, plop down on the (hot!) roof and pick away. We canned a lot of cherries. I never ended up hanging off the roof by my fingers, but I did come close a few times. But darned if those birds were going to get anyhing that I could manage to reach. Why I never figured out that there were better things than shorts to wear while doing this lovely chore is probably what keeps your girls trying to turn on the TV 😉
This is my first comment but I’ve been reading for months, have all your books, love your stuff completely and I keep checking to see if you’ve added any dates in So Cal!! to no avail (sigh)
*gasp*
You played D&D?
As if I wasn’t before, please excuse me while I become totally and completely smitten with you.
My only fruit-picking experience has been with plums (Have you ever had plums fresh off the trees? Divine.) and if I remember correctly the fruit-acquisition technique involved shaking the bejeezus out of the tree until all the ripe fruit fell off. Alas, I suspect your cherry tree is far too sturdy to succumb to such brazen techniques.
The $30 fruit picker should do the trick if you can’t get your teenagers up on ladders. Your request might clear the house pretty quick tho if you were looking for some peace & quiet. The birds get our cherries, but the tree is happily in the backyard & not at the front walk. Happy knitting while you smell the baking cherrie pies!
Some people knit with singles all the time. (I was interested by the comment that our foremothers hardly ever plied their yarn….)
Whether or not your knitted project will skew (due to twist in your yarn, single or unbalanced plied yarn) depends on your stitch pattern as much as on the twist in your yarn. Stockinette skews, garter stitch doesn’t……
Skew,like anything else, can be a design element rather than a flaw. Some people deliberately spin heavily twisted singles, and then weave or knit with them, to get the crepey stretchy fabric that results.
Once upon a time, when I was a beginning spinner, I thought the purpose of plying was to reduce twist in the original yarn. I plied a skein of yarn (spun from varigated roving) with a strand of sewing thread…. That worked. And the baby sweater I knit from it isn’t skewed……
When my grandparents bought their house, each grandchild got to pick a fruit bearing plant to grow in the new yard. I got a cherry tree. And we too get 100000000000000000000000 cherries every year. So- how about posting that cherry upsidedown cake recipe? And whats a dpn? If there is an easier way to pit cherries, I’d love to learn it! (Funny- you are going to go from being my yarn hero to my cherry hero!)
The Cotswold and sari – drop-dead stunning!! I’m in serious lust over it. The suggestions re setting the twist usually work with all but really over-twisted singles. Or if you still run into major biasing, maybe using it in a module-type knit, where it might not matter so much? Or a slip-stitch pattern. Really, unless you spin with super-twist, singles aren’t *that* much of a problem to knit with. Or you could take up weaving and use it for weft. ::looks innocent:: Emergency method, run it thru again, spin Z-twist, to ‘unspin’ somewhat. Faster than holding a ball in the air and letting any overtwist spin out… Usual test for making a balanced single is to fold it back on itself, like testing a 2-ply. If it *doesn’t* auto-ply, Bob’s yer uncle.
And “perverse rat-sucking-bark-arse” – oh, lordy! ::falls down in hysterics for a good 5 minutes:: Oh, oh, that is one of *the* best original curses I’ve ever heard.
My husband has a pear tree that he goes to war with every fall. The pears drop, he has to pick them up before he can mow the lawn. He goes out there to fight bees and wasps buzzing around dropped fruit. I can’t help because I’m allergic to the stings. I won’t let him spray because a cute gofer comes and feeds off the pears too. My husband isn’t crazy enough to climb out of high windows though. Good luck.
Here’s an idea: Open your umbrella, hang it from the branches, and shake the tree.
(maybe use more than one umbrella)
I think cherry tree also mocks you while you’re sleeping, brushing its branches laden with cherries against your bedroom window.
Time to call the handyman and see if he’ll lend you a nice tall ladder in return for a cake.
It may be a sign of my very troubling addiction to House, M.D. (and Hugh Laurie himself) that I was so excited to find yet another House that I had to reread the post for the fiber content, having missed it the first time through. 😉
Good luck with The Great Cherry War!
Ah, cherries! I once had to enslave 5 children to help pit cherries. After finding that they were not very dexterious with a hairpin for pitting the little treasures, we invested in cherry pitters. Yes, they worked great! We did have a few pits in a quart of cherries-we prewarned any non family diners to beware of the cherries pitted by children. If you don’t mind some airborne missles (that the one male child loved to launch at my white Battenburg lace curtains-I think he was doing it on purpose so that I would get mad at him and insist that he stop helping. Yes, but I was on to his deviousness and later soaked the curtains back to their lovely creaminess! I wasn’t born yesterday and have 3 younger brothers worth of experience)then enslave the teens this summer. It will give them something constructive to do! Entice then with promises of cake every week if necessary.
You go girl!
Dude, you need one of these http://www.homesteadhelpers.com/fruitpicker.htm
Hi! I actually love sour cherry jam! My mom always made it when we were kids. My Dad kept the trees fairly well trimmed, so we could use a 6 foot ladder to reach most of them. My younger brothers climbed the trees for the rest! We also had to pick them to sell to local grocery stores. I hated that part! A wide ended hairpin (Not a tight bobby pin)works well to pit them! Good luck!
Any chance cherries stain wool into a lovely color?
How about this product for help reaching the cherries? You could use it to pull some of the branches closer to you.
And when you’re at a Sheep and Wool Festival, you could use it to reach over the throng to grab other yarns/fibres which would otherwise be gone by the time you reached the front of the display.
I love multi-purpose items!
http://www.productsforseniors.com/proddetail.asp?prod=HEA394
Never mind the website name…
It comes in different lengths in case you don’t agree with the “bigger is better” mentality. 😉
I’m sure that somewhere in the previous 120 comments someone know how to get the cherries. I just wanted to say I think it’s hysterical that you climbed out of your window to get them. Isn’t this a chore for the chilluns?
To pick the cherries, just climb the tree! You can freeze sour cherries, and they also make wicked pie and jam. Yes, I do have recipies!
When our cherry tree got too tall to pick with a ladder I sawed off the tallest branches and then picked the cherries off those and then peeled the bark and made a basket – that seemed to mitigate my guilt about taking the main trunk off halfway up. You may also find that cherry branches are quite pliable and if you throw a rope over them you can pull them much lower than you’d ever imagine. Besides, you don’t like the tree anyway so if something breaks where’s the harm (unless it’s part of your anatomy that breaks).
Thanks for the laughs. When I was in the hospital last summer someone gave me your KnitWit book and it inserted humor and enjoyment into my recovery from a knee replacement. It’s what I remember the most from the whole experience.
P.S. Nice singles.
YAY! another D&D alum.
Oh, hilarious cherry tree post! Sounds like you should get that tree pruned…I’ll bet you have more reachable fruit next year. As I was dogsitting (fireworks going off early and all) at my parents on Friday, I was ogling the cherries on their (unpruned) tree. They were all about 2 1/2 stories away. Soooo sad.
Hmmm… A roof rake?
When I was a teenager, we lived across the street from my grandparents. They had a tasty cherry tree in their yard and we’d used my grandmother’s old iron pitter and crank out pies like there was no tomorrow. But inevitably, cherries would remain on the tree. According to my dad, they fermented and the birds who ate them got drunk. I don’t know how true that was, but birds were always smacking into our big picture window and expiring on our front porch.
Do you have any drunk and disorderly birds stumbling around your yard?
I came to a screeching halt at the mention of the dreaded FRUIT FLYS arghhhh! All of the wonderful summer fruits & veggies from the Farmers Market & the Fresh Produce market seems to come with FREE FRUIT FLYS arghhhh! If ya did’nt know already just put out a small bowl of cider vinegar on the counter (yes must be cider vinegar, the brownish stuff), add just a drop of dish soap. The soap breaks the surface tension and the little suckers drown when the stop in for a drink of their fav brew.
Mmmmmmm…Cherry Recipes swimming through my head. I want to try that Liquor recipe up there, and I gotta say: The Lithuanians probably know something. Maybe trade them all the cherries they want for whatever it is they are making?
Cherry pitters rock. They spatter cherry juice like crazy (so no wearing of handknits).
Spinning looks beautiful!
Re: Cherry Tree. Is it possible to reduce your overall cherry load by picking the blossoms in the spring? I remember something about wind-knocked blossoms reducing cherry yeilds and raising prices…
The only solution is to make very good friends with giants. You may proceed to start bribing Juno and I accordingly.
Also, once you have the ones you want, put a little sign out on the tree that says, “Sour Cherries, please help yourself to a harvest.”
I think what you need is a child (to climb the tree and shake) and 4 people on the ground holding the corners of a sheet so that it is quite taut. The cherries fall in the sheet and don’t squoosh everywhere. Perhaps Sam would do the climbing and shaking. Or one of those hoodlums in training.
If you have the teenagers pick the cherries for phone time, you’ll have gotten them Out Of The House, gotten cherries, and made them work for something they want. You cannnot lose. They would be on the phone anyway.
I LOVE sour cherries. And my mom loves them more than I do..and we eat them fresh (whenever we can find them).
I guess you’ll need a ladder to get the ones on the top.
It’s the first time I’m commenting here becasue I was intimidated by the amount of comments you get…and I wonder if you read them all. But you have a great blog and you always make me laugh.
Enjoy your cherries 🙂
Get the sling shot out and let the young ‘uns have at it. Those cherries will go away. You may see more of your neighbors though.
Hey guess what? It’s raining in Alabama. Love you all.
This would be why they coined the term “cherry picker”. Here is an example of what you need: http://www.cherrypicker.ie/product/category_view.asp?JSID=65
The cost could be off set by charging the neighbourhood kids for a chance to go up in it.
that yarn will be fine as a single. i do a lot of spinning batts w/recycled silk sari & the fibers are strong and forgiving.
i set my twists by shocking. especially with the sair, it tends to be stinky, no matter what.
BTW, loved your article today!
Oh my! Please don’t injure yourself before I get to see you on the book tour! Don’t injure yourself after I get to see you either!
Have you tried tying a net to the lower branches and shaking the tree, so that the cherries are caught in the net. Or for the high ones take a butterfly or birding net, throw it over the branches so the net hangs down and shake so that the cherries fall into the butterfly net. By the way, your description of all these cherries makes me want to rush out and buy some cherry colored yarn. Everytime I read your blog, I realize you are like the pied piper of yarn-you have the hoodoo voodoo to make people spontaneously want to run out and buy more yarn! I hope you are getting kick backs from the yarn companies!
If you’re desparate…throw a rock. Don’t trust me.
Steph: Go to your local equipment rental place with two words. Orchard. Ladder. You stick the pole end of the ladder through the tree. Strap a bucket around your neck. Climb up and sit on the top. You’ll have those cherries picked in 5 minutes, plus you will have beaten that tree at its own game. Then, to get even, prune it down a few feet (check with the nursery for instructions) so you can reach those suckers next year. That’ll teach it to mess with the Yarn Harlot! TMK
I’m happy to come into town with my climbing gear to scale the heights and wage war on the cherries with you… when’s good for you? 🙂
Love the Farm Witch stuff!!
In one of those horribly ironic moments, I am eating cherries, reading your blog. But I did not pick them. I only picked them out at the market.
Please, for all that is good and holy, do NOT spin in the cherry tree.
~Thanks for the cherry sky!
~nod
I think that I would give Lee Valley’s fruit picker a try.
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=1&p=10165&cat=2,2120,33277
Can’t wait to bake that cake; if you want a really quick cherry dessert this one takes a handful of minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to bake.
Melt 1 stick butter in 9×13 baking dish in 350 F degree oven while heating 2 cups pitted, sour cherries & 1/2 cup water in small pan on stove top.
Mix together in bowl:
*1 cup flour
*1 cup sugar
*1 cup milk
*1 tablespoon baking powder
Remove baking dish from oven, pour in flour/milk mixture and then top with heated cherries.
Bake about 25 minutes or until brown around edges and set. Serve warm with/without ice cream or cream.
Not very fancy but delicious and quick. Makes a great breakfast too…or so I’ve heard…
BTW, there are contraptions one can purchase for picking cherries in the higher branches. Check Lehman’s in OH, USA.
Stephanie, please do not lean out the window again. You are too important to too many people to be taking risks like that. Get one of those long fruit tree picky pole things. I’m sure you can find them on the web. And for craps sake stay indoors. I know from whence I speak.
I just spent the weekend cleaning out gutters. I’m just 3 inches taller than you and live in a two story house. Nasty, smelly, utterly hilarious job. Especially since I had quite the garden going on in there. This is really wicked stepmother evil but I kept tossing the crud down below and sometimes my beautiful stepson wasn’t quick enough with the bag. I was laughing so hard it would’ve served me right if I fell right off the ladder. If I landed on my butt I’d be fine. But my hands! My knitting hands!
You are making me want to spin! I have been battling the urge to learn how to spin fiber. I keep telling myself that i don’t have the time and people on the 3 train in NYC might not like the room a wheel will take up.
oh, and House rules.
If I didn’t live so far away, I’d lend you my apple ladder. The sides* meet at the top so it can be placed in the crook of a tree. But, alas, my ladder is here in Nova Scotia (pretending to be a quilt rack) and your cherry tree is plotting its attack in Ontario.
*ok, if the steps are “rungs” then what are the sides of the ladder called? GAH! Are they stiles?
Hi! I don’t watch much TV but can usually be tempted by an episode of “House”. I spent six years on an ambulance crew and love to try and guess what will happen and what the “disease du jour” is. I am seldom even close, but it is fun.
As for the cherry tree, once you prune it like some others have suggested you can put a net over it to keep the birds away. My brother in law has a tree that the birds will clean off in a day if he doesn’t put a net over it. A quilter friend of mine had two trees that I used to help her pick – I still remember the sour cherry soup and the kippered cherries I made. Now i just have to make due with dried cherries from Trader Joe’s (at least the price is not too awful).
Good luck with the cherries and the teenagers and the lovely spinning. My kids drive me crazy asking “what’s for dinner” every couple of hours all day. I’m counting the days with you!
15-foot ladder + tall teenaged neighbor boys = picked cherries
This may not be the most “friendly” way, but I say you get a big stick and beat the hell out of it! You may not get many cherries but it might be good for getting out your pent up frustrations with it and the kids. 😉
I hope your cakes turn out delicious.
I was an adult before I got into D&D. It’s great finding others who have or do play.
Lovely spinning as well.
🙂
Ladders are good for reaching tall things (try a rent-a-center if you don’t have one tall enough). You can also use a rope (tie something heavy to the end- or make a monkeyfist knot if you have ever had lifeguard training- to facilitate throwing) or a long hooked stick to pull the branch within reach. Just remember that falling off the roof and breaking an arm will put a serious crimp in your knitting, writing and biking (and possibly also baking and spending quality time with Mr Washie!).
I don’t know if this will work for your cherry tree, but my grandmother had a mulberry tree (same kind of mess) and she would spread an old sheet on the ground and shake the branches. The mulberries would mostly land on the sheet and we’d empty the sheet into a roasting pan.
Good luck!
I think I would go for the ladder idea, but get your young ladies to do the picking, whilst you stay serenely, with your sanity intact, in the kitchen, ready to whip up the cake. When we lived in British Columbia we had a huge sweet cherry tree in our backyard, right next to the garden shed. When my son was quite small, he would climb the ladder and then scramble over onto the shed roof, where he would sit happily, stuffing his face with luscious cherries. My dad warned me that something awful, of a digestive nature, would surely befall him, but nothing ever happened.
You used to play D&D? Stephanie, every time I read your blog you just give me reasons to love you more and more! What with my twin boys (and knitting – oooh, the knitting!) I don’t have much time for gaming anymore, but I travel in many nerdly gamer circles to this day (it happens when one’s spouse is trying to become a professional game designer).
Good luck with your cherries – that cake sounds fantastic! But do be careful, remember the cake will not be nearly so luscious if you break your knitting arm trying to achieve it.
Well, if you had a paddle, you could use it to knock the cherries out of the tree… Otherwise I suggest arming the teenage types with brooms or rakes and sending them out to harvest.
In Italy, to harvest certain types of olives, they have a machine that shakes the tree really, really hard. So my advice? Grasp the bloody tree by its’ throat, err trunk, and shake the hell out of it. Not only might you get cherries, but you will feel relaxed afterward.
I’ve loved Montmorency cherries ever since I spent a summer in the Montmorency area in France many years ago. Cherry trees were everywhere, and I was treated to many a delicious cherry tart. I admit my enjoyment was somewhat dulled by the fact that no one in France apparently believed it was worth the effort to pit the cherries first!
Agile small children. That’s what my grandmother used . . . of course, we ate a large share of her harvest in the process.
I agree — prune the tree. You usually get better fruit production, and you can reach the fruit.
How to pick cherries from a annoying tree!
You need:
1 ladder
1 saw
a bucket to pick in (a bowl will be too small)
You climb the ladder, then you use the saw to remove the parts of the tree you can’t reach. You now have branches on the ground, which is a lot easier to handle and pick!
We’ve done this the past 3 years, our cherrytrees are getting out of hand!
I now have a plum tree in my back yard. I mean, it’s a new back yard for me as of last summer. The plum trees–okay, so there are three full trees and probably 100 000 000 (etc) little baby trees trying to ruin my whole summer with attempts to chop them down, prune them back, keep them at bay… and then there’s Seth with the lawn mower nearly demolishing the flowers I manage to put in there after all that effort. Ah, the life of a semi-gardener!
36–44pints of cherries !!!! and NO POILINATOR !! Can she bake a cherry pie Billy boy Billy boy? OMG I’m laughing so hard I can’t see the keys. I’ve got a notion for you tho, get the girls to pick them bake the cakes and sell them for their spending money. oh oh Now they are going to hate me for that LMBO
I was laughing so hard at your cherry story that my 18-month-old son walked into the room and started laughing. He thought he was the entertainment, and was somewhat, as he found my niddy noddy and was using it as a ‘banger’ to hit everything in reach.
Thanks for the great story!
Hi Stephanie, Only my second foray out of lurkerdom, but I have to say that your spinning is beautiful, and THANK YOU for the fibre samples you provided to the drop spindle class at Lettuce Knit last night. AND… to pass on a smidge of what I think I learned… singles should have a twist angle under 15%, and can ply back on itself, but only in a soft and fluffy manner (i.e., not twisted within an inch of its life, like what is currently wound on my NEW drop spindle!). Thanks again for all the fibres!!
With regard to the spinning – there are some great scarves made with singles in the Spring 2006 Spin Off, which all take advantage of the ‘energized’ nature of the singles. Also you could check out Kathryn Alexander’s site for ideas to use with the singles, too.
I can empathize with the cherry thing, too. We have a similar inedible plum tree in the backyard which self-seeded and annually leaves us with squished bitter fruit and bird poop.
When I was young (and actually, during high school when we cut class) I’d go to Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa. This is the same Hershey of Hershey’s Chocolate fame. So Chocolate World was a free “ride” that took you through the process of making chocolate starting from the cocoa seed or nut or whatever it is. To get the nut (or seed) out of the tree they’d strap this huge band to it’s trunk and the machine would shake the band causing all of the little whatevertheyares to fall from the tree. I’m assuming that these machines are semi-common any place that has nuts, so maybe there are nuts around you and you could rent one of these machines? Then you would be faced with the problem of picking up all of the cherries. Best I can suggest is to cover your yard with lots of tarps.
Just went to “Kitty” and read what you said about Fiber Fesivals and laughed some more . thank you for having such a marvelous scence of humour and letting us have a GOOD chuckle. Where was the festival and are there any more of them coming up in Ontario ?
sorry about the spelling it should be sense, laughing so much my brain can’t think straight
“so maybe there are nuts around you…”
Lord, give me strength…
If your angels are anything like mine simply tell them they do NOT under ANY circumstances have your permission to pick the remaining cherries. Odds are they will be picked within the 1/2 hour.
Wow, memories are brought back…
We had a cherry tree full of sour cherries when I was a girl. My mother made cherry pie with them, a delicious pie with a ton of sugar that took it from puckerinly sour to delightfully tart. As much as I love cherry pie, I have never been able to find a pie I love as much as the pies Mom made with those horribly sour cherries.
Wish I could think of a good way to get the top ones – maybe hire a middle-school aged boy to climb up the tree and pick them for you?
This may seem a little extreme, but I see from your willingness to climb on the roof that your really REALLY like the cake. We always called those trucks that the phone company drives around to fix the lines “cherry pickers”. Maybe you could rent/purchase/borrow/steal one of these? Another thought, my aunt used to have a citrus picker for her oranges in southern california. It was a long pole with little teeth to pull the orange without damaging it, and then a basket to catch them. Do they make a similar item for cherries? I dunno. Good luck!
Sour cherry jelly is excellent stuff. IJS.
I see that several people have written in about knitting with singles so I may as well add in my two cents worth. The problem with knitting with a single ply yarn is, of course, that if it was spun with too many twists per inch, it will always slant in the direction of the twist. You can block it like crazy but the slant will come back. Now obviously some things are knit out of singles so there are ways around the problem. First is, don’t twist more than necessary to hold the yarn together. Those lovely Lopi sweaters are knit from yarn that’s almost not twisted at all. A small diameter yarn needs more twist per inch to hold it together than a larger diameter yarn does, so if you want to knit with a single, spin a bulkier yarn. A longer staple fiber also needs less twist than a short fiber, so pick a longer stapled fiber when you want a single. A fiber with a lot of crimp wants to be spun fine with a lot of twist, so avoid those. Be aware that weighting a skein to dry is only a temporary fix. That doesn’t permanently set the twist and it will slant again when you wash it next time. If you want to use a yarn but don’t want to ply it because you don’t want it to be any bulkier, ply it with sewing thread. This balances the twist without adding bulk. If you are determined to use a too twisted single without plying, crochet with it. Crochet doesn’t slant like knitting does. (I’m sorry for saying that word.) So, basically, choose the right fiber, spin a not too fine yarn, and put in the minimum twist needed to hold together. The exception to this is that with planning, you can get some interesting effects if you knit or weave with an overtwisted single. Hope this was of some help.
By the way, I personally, never put a weight on my knitting yarns. If they’re fairly balanced they don’t need it and a weight can stretch the yarn. If you knit up a stretched yarn and make a garment that fits great, the yarn can snap back into place when you wash it making your garment suddenly too small. I also never wind my yarn into a ball until I’m ready to knit it for the same reason and I make sure not to stretch it as I wind. This, like everything else in spinning, is personal preference. There is nothing truly wrong as long as you get a finished product that pleases you.
we have one of those cherry trees in the backyard 🙂 my savior this season was a long thumbnail for pitting and a great recipe for cobbler – best ever and perfect for the sour cherries.
6 cups sour cherries, washed and pitted
1 and 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 pinch salt (kosher if you’ve got it)
1 stick unsalted butter, cold, diced
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
heat your oven to 375 farenheit. put 2/3rds (or to taste) of a cup of the sugar in with the cherries in a big bowl and shoosh it all around. mix all the dry ingredients (including the rest of the sugar) in another bowl and then add in the butter. shoosh it with your fingers until the butter is all smooshed up and covered with the dry ingredientsso you’ll get crumble crust – i sometimes add in a 1/2 cup or so of rolled oats if i’ve got it handy for extra chewiness). add in the egg and the vanilla, stirring to mix. put the cherries in a round cake pan (i use a 9 inch), then drop in the crumbly-egged topping with a spoon – don’t worry about spreading it out, just drop it like drop bisuits. 35 minutes-ish or till top is golden brown.
i do solemnly swear that this is the best cobbler ever for those pesky sour cherries. i’ve made 3 so far – one i replaced 2 cups of cherries with peaches for fun – and they disappear faster than you can say “damned birds and your damned leaving of damned half-eaten cherries in my damned yard.”
cheers 🙂
Gosh, is it cherry season already?
Prune the tree severely; the shock will make it
produce even more next year, on the lower branches. Be sure to make the cuts next to branches that point down rather than up. If you wait until after the leaves fall to prune, the wood can be used to make cherry-wood knitting needles (but get your whittler to take the bark off right away).
Virtually every surviving piece of medieval knitting is two-ply. Guild regulations often required three-ply for the better items.
I thought I was outsmarting nature by buying a tree grafted on dwarf stock. However, my one-year-old cherry tree seems to have died. Have to make a trip to Rhinebeck this weekend to raid the farmer’s market.
House! That’s the show that got me through my recent bout of shingles (shingles = ew). It’s also getting me through lonely Tuesday nights since FHBF is in Egypt on a field school.
Cheers to being odd, how wonderful!! My neighbors are oft quoted mumbling “What’s that crazy woman up to now?” lol
Enjoy the well earned pie and the zen spinning – both are quite beautiful I might add 🙂
I don’t suppose that there will be any cherries left next week?
My neighbor’s Mom used to send up the black cherry tree with a basket. We weren’t to come back down again until it was full.
Oh, Dear. Were’nt Hubbies invented for the purpose of fetching down fruit from tall trees? Don’t they have an affinity for ladders that we, as women who would prefer to spin fiber while on the ground, would rather not experience? Especially if enticed by the thought of Sour Cherry Upside Down Cake?
I used to have an away message that said “House + knitting = OTP, once you get the hang of it.” There are few things more interesting than attempting to pay attention to the dialogue and knit a blanket at the same time…
And both those fibers are so gorgeous. 🙂 I wish I had the time (and space) to spin!
I see someone(s) already beat me to the cherry stoner rec. I already made a batch of cherry jam using that thing, and it’s just about the coolest kitchen device I own. I am making brandied cherry preserves today or tomorrow and want to hug my stoner and knit it a sock or something. Totally the best investment yet! 😀
Give it up. The cherry tree will win as long as you have other things growing that you fertilize. I know this from experience. My mother had a 20 foot ornamental plum tree in the back yard. I had the task of picking up the plums and washing down the patio and the driveway. One summer, I did the patio, then the driveway. By the time I was done with the driveway, the patio looked like it had never been worked over. I went in and told my mother I was not picking one more plum from that cursed tree. Sure enough, by the end of the summer, it was firewood.
Cherry is such a nice wood. Have some knitting needles and a few spindles made from it. They will give you infinitely more pleasure.
Funny, funny post. I read it to my just-turned-teenaged daughter and she laughed along with me.
Good luck and be careful picking those cherries.
Regarding your neighbors,and what they think.
I love the idea of a realtor showing the house across the street to perspective buyers as you shimmy up the cherry tree holding a camera and a half-knitted sock.
Has anybody spoken to you about a local dip in property values?
Don’t ply it… it’s beautiful! If you give the Lithuanians the recipe, they may pick them for you.
Great yarn and tree! I wonder can you DYE WOOL with the left over cherries?
I think you can dye wool with cheeries.
Sour cherries????
I don’t dare tell my Romanian mother that you have such a tree or I will be dispatched to become your personal cherry picker!
I loved the Knitty piece…
I’ll be at the Santa Monica fiber show and was wondering…do you think that an Alpaca would be impractical in a Hollywood apartment?
Do they get along with cats?
I read this to Chris and he said “I can see her putting down the bowl full of cherries, crawling in the window, getting the sock, and crawling back out to take the picture.” I can too.
Let us know when the houses in your neighborhood start going up for sale. We’ll have to start like a gypsy camp of knitters in Toronto.
Great article in the new Knitty, BTW. 😉
Ericka and Chris
I love the broom idea that Jinxsa has! If the cherries are really stubborn and won’t come off, you can always use the ladder, but the broom and sheet thing is much safer and seems so much more efficient. I’ve booked my hotel for Austin, TX, buy the way, and I’ve made my hubby cancel work for a few days as well, so don’t cancel on us. 🙂 Not that you would, of course, but I’m trying to teach him to knit and appreciate knitting. I think the huge knitty gathering with a famous and wonderful knitter will help.
I love the broom idea that Jinxsa has! If the cherries are really stubborn and won’t come off, you can always use the ladder, but the broom and sheet thing is much safer and seems so much more efficient. I’ve booked my hotel for Austin, TX, by the way, and I’ve made my hubby cancel work for a few days as well, so don’t cancel on us. 🙂 Not that you would, of course, but I’m trying to teach him to knit and appreciate knitting. I think the huge knitty gathering with a famous and wonderful knitter will help.
Have you considered casting level 12 Cherry Picking and seeing what happens?
Lovely, lovely yarn. I wants me some of those batts!
I feel your pain – while there are some cherries to be reached on my trees, there are tons out of reach! But, we’re also trying to come up with ideas to reach them.
With all of the leftover cherry stones, you can make hand- and neck-warmers that you heat up in the microwave, the same as those buckwheat ones that are so popular in the wintertime. Good to use up all those stones, and a quick present if you want to knit the covers.
I found a sheep one: http://tinyurl.com/r53w6
I feel for you! I’m five feet tall, and can’t even reach the top of the fridge without getting on my tippy-toes. People somehow think this is a funny thing, when in fact, it is quite upsetting.
That cherry tree is just like the kite-eating tree that Charlie Brown faced. You must not falter, keep strong in your attack! You’ve already won this year’s cherry battle- now for the war!
Maybe sending dear little Hank up there with a safety harness to do the picking is your answer. By the way, how is he? Not heard you post about him in a while.
I’m thinking about that basket on a stick thing similar to an apple picker used in some sport… Lacrosse, that’s it! Add a broom stick or long PVC pipe, a bent fork and some duct tape… maybe.
Down here where I live (in sweltering Eastern Virginia) we grow pecans. We have this wild contraption for picking them up off the ground saving many a back from pain.
I would probably go through all of this and then burn the cake while I was too busy knitting to hear the oven timer buzz! Do you ever get the feeling Mother Nature and her friends are practical jokers? She’s probably watching and high fiving, saying things like “We got her out on the roof this time!”
Your nemesis cherry tree, like your spinning, is dangerously beautiful. Great photos, thanks!
I second (or third, maybe) Aidan’s cherry Liquor recipe! I use a similar recipe and we call it Cherry Cordial. We just use vodka, though, not Everclear. There’s also a family recipe for Wild Cherry Bounce–I think it involves whiskey–but it’s not closeby right now. Just to clarify, we are not Lithuianian, just Irish & German. And the Cordial works with blackberries, peaches, plums–most any summertime surplus fruit!
Methinks pruning might be key to reaching the cherries… and buckets and rakes.
My bad. If I decide I like a single as it is rather than plying it, if it is too tight as a single, I actually unspin it a little. Yep, you read a-right. I take the bobbin of yarn and go slow and unspin it a little going in the opposite direction to that which I spun the yarn. But you have to be careful cos it sometimes unspins too much!
my father in law has a cherry tree. every summer he pick cherries and freezes them for me. with the pits still in them. bless his heart.
I say you prune the uppermost branches from the tree. As you lower the branches to the ground, pick off all the cherries. This accomplishes a number of things:
1. You get your cherries
2. Pruning is not bad for the tree, even the longest hair needs a trim now and again (as my grandma used to say
3. You get more sunshine in your window
4. Ultimate retaliation on the tree short of cutting it down might make it behave with only the slightest bit of mischieviousness
There you go! 😀
That is the funniest post I’ve ever read. We have a mulberry tree and can completely relate. Most mulberry recipes are bland (or overly sugared) unless mixed with other fruit, and I’m in year 2 of waiting to see how the wine turns out.
I’m with all those who said invest in a cherry pitter. It doesn’t even need to be one that screws to the table top…you can grab one at any kitchenware store. Also handy for pitting olives. And besides…what better way to torture the children than to give them a bowl of cherries and a pitter and say HERE, DO SOMETHING.
(You can also, if you wish, lay the cherries out on a cutting board — plastic or wood, although the wood will stain from the juice — and then smash the cherries with the side of a butcher’s or chef’s knife, much like you smash garlic to get it out of the skin. Much messier, but then you’re halfway to crushing if your recipe calls for crushed cherries. Also see http://www.nwcherries.com/recipes.php?catid=1
(Apparently Montmorency cherry juice is also good for gout. Who knew?)
Have fun!
Um, I do not mean to rain on the parade, but how about trimming the tree down a bit so you can reach all the fruit next year? It probably would love a good pruning. Then you can attack the fruit with wild abandon. Just a thought.
Ann in MD
D&D as a teenager. YAY! i am not the only one.
Okay…so i’m 20, thus regardless of the number, still a teenager. But either way i sit and play now, While knitting. Who knew killing orcs could be so productive?
Anybody have a really good way to get the high ones too far from the window?)
You do have teen age girls right? Well, find a couple teen age boys who like your girls and tell them how very impressed said girls would be if they could climb the tree and pick the cherries because cherry cake is the girls most favorite!
Divious? Yes, but sometimes we must do what we must do!
I’m staying at parents’ for the summer. I’ve come two days ago along with my cat. Not that I needed Mommy and Daddy so much but my appartment is getting remodelled, well, basically the floors tiled or varnished and i got a summer job in the town so anyways. So I’m in a middle of a cultural clash hundred times a day.
Oddly enough, it’s mom who distracts me from relatively serious things like translating a book from Italian, writing my thesis or making jams because I MUST watch this soap opera because it’s sooo cool.
As for trees, we have an apricot tree in our backyard. Disaster coming in a month.
I think you… uh… er… need a “cherry picker” for those ones. Or, just accept the fact that cherries will fall to the ground, and shake it until they all come out… put a tarp down first to catch them, of course. (This is only a good idea in theory – your neighbors won’t like it much, I can tell you that).
Did you really spin both those batts in one day? You’re crazy!
OMG! Those sound like my favorite cheeries to make pies. I haven’t seen such a lovely pie cherry tree that produced such lovely cherries in years. I use to pick cherries as a teenager to earn money for school clothes every year. Needless to say, my sister and co-pickers were the biggest chickens ever when it came to picking the cherries in the top of the trees., so guess who picked them? :o)
I think you need to send the children out to do the picking 🙂
Thanks for the recipe!
Here’s an even BETTER way to enjoy the cherries:
Pick and pit them. Put 3 cups cherries, 2 cups sugar and 1 cup vodka in a large mason jar (muliply as needed if you have a lot of cherries).
Shake every once in a while until the sugar is dissolved. Put in a dark cupboard and wait until the first snow of winter.
Decant and enjoy the most amazing nectar of cherry you will ever have. I thought it would taste like cough syrup when I first did this, but it tastes like 100 000 000 000 000 cherries in a glass. And it makes you feel all warm inside.
BTW, I am mourning the loss of our neighbor’s cherries, which were devoured by birds before we could get to them. But I also planted two Montmorency trees this spring myself…I just need to be patient for the next few years…
Mark
I think the perfect cherry picking plan should include three teenage girls. They’ve got lots of energy and are probably complaining every two seconds that they’re bored, right? Anyway, happy cherry picking. I have a similar problem only it involves copious amounts of spinach. Trust me, cherries are better.
Thank you Librarian Lynn for commenting on the only part of the Harlot’s writing that makes me crazy!
“…it’s is a contraction for ‘it is’ and its is the possessive of ‘it’.” No need for all those apostrophes!
Beautiful yarn, beautiful cherries, and a whole lot of great suggestions in the posts. Hand-crafted cherry pickers are brilliant! Lithuanian pickers and Lithuanian cherry liqueur, inspirational! Sour cherry jam — no prior pitting! But the tree would LOVE to be pruned, you know.
I just have to say that House is one of the best things to knit too, as there are so many excuses to look away and concentrate on your knitting!
Maybe someone already suggested this (okay, I was lazy and didn’t read everyone elses suggestions which at last count was 221.)but since the branches are too high could you lop off the prize winners (with very long handled loppers!) thereby getting your cherries to the ground and pruning the tree so that next year it wouldn’t be so tall? Does that hurt the cherry tree? I’m trying to multi task for you….
A good way to get the fruit down is to send your teenager up the tree to pick what they can, then after they descend (if you so wish to wait) then shake the tree with your entire mite, or your teenagers mite. This will bring some of them down, I know that is what you are trying to avoid, but in some cases we must sacrifice our sidewalks and lawns for cake.
Have you tried blocking the single? I find that if I get it sopping wet and wrap it pretty tightly around a blocker the overtwist comes out reasonably well.
I don’t suppose you have any interest in selling the beauteous products of your wheel in my soon-to-open spinning/handspun yarn shop?
Don’t listen to all those folks who say to chop the tree! Ayieee! I second the idea of putting up a sign and letting people pick the extras. Also, get a good pitter, it makes things go lickety split. You can freeze the cherries for a taste of summer in the winter (or pack them in jars with a cinnamon stick and some brandy for later use). I’m drooling!
Oh yeah, as you’ve already figured out, people from Eastern Europe will come running for those cherries!
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve been dealing with the Cherry wars myself! After pitting 6.5 cups of the little buggers on Sunday I had a pot explode on the stove full of cherry pie filling!
WHAT a mess!!!! Just as I was done cleaning that fiasco a freak storm started with a huge unexpected gust which pulled my umbrella out of the glass table on my deck, cracking that into millions of pieces.
I gave up and picked up my knitting…that made me feel better.
PLEASE email me when you have a minute to spare!
Here’s what we do in the South for mulberries (also notorious for very high fruit): place a couple of old sheets under the branches. Shake the tree like hell, and if a sour cherry tree is anything like a mulberry, you’ll have piles of fruit in your sheets. (Sounds nasty, huh?)
There actually is a large machine that does this same thing to pecan trees—it has an arm with a 2-piece metal cuff, kinda like a cuff bracelet. The cuff goes around the trunk and shakes the bejesus out of the poor tree until all the pecans are on the ground. How the trees survive this I don’t know.
You gotta shake, shake, shake that cherry tree! On my blog front page, there is a picture of our flowering cherry tree that first drops 1,000,000 flower petals on the lawn every spring, then 1,000,000,000 inedible cherries. I don’t really know why someone would plant a tree that bears poisonous fruit….it was there when we bought the place. 🙂
Remember to make your use rope and climb checks, Stephanie! Courage!
Very interesting articles.
I have really enjoyed you writing about knitting and the book “At Knits End”. But I thought I read the recipe for your upside down cherry cake but don’t see it now. Have you printed it in your column. Looking forward to more knitting stories, from an experienced crocheter and fairly new knitter.
Lita