The Race Against Gangsta Birdies for Cherry Preserves.... Me 1 Gangta Birdies 0

Tart cherry tree

Cardinals. Blue Jays. Robins. Grackles. Song birds and birds of beauty. I welcome them every spring and during the growing season since they eat the bugs that also eat my garden. However, they too like fruit. Right now they have earned the title of Gangsta Birdies.

I could had sworn today that I was supposed to rest. As I was doing my walk-about this morning I kept seeing cherry pits scattered throughout the mini orchard through the crop circles that my oldest son had cut into the grass. They thought they were being slick and hopped on a higher branch in the tart cherry tree as if I was not going to see them. They flew off once I got within stick throwing range. Then they sat and chirped on the electrical lines that traverse through the back of my property over the mini-orchard. I know they were talking about me...I just know it. They were watching me too. I was just waiting for bird crap to come flying my way.



Now these tart cherries are about 95% ripe. However if I do not pick them NOW they will not be here 2 days from now. That was a very hard and painful lesson I learned 2 years ago. The birds will get at these at 0-dark-thirty, leaving me with nothing to make perseveres out of and making sure that I hear them enjoy every last moment of their thieving. Last year this tart cherry tree had all of it's production cut short when early in the growing season after the last frost date 3 consecutive nights of freezing took out the cherries at fruit-set. Needless to say I had no cherry preserves last year or for this past winter. So, considering that this year is it's bumper crop year, you would figure that we could share, me and the gangsta birdies....WRONG!!! those F******s do not care about my plans for preserves. They are making up for lost time too.

So it is on! My assistant, Head of Cheap child labor and I was off to the co-op to pick up a few more things for the preserves, came home, ate lunch and prepared for what was to be a very labor intensive afternoon.

Two hours later 10 pounds of cherries were picked. I did most of the picking. Tart cherries are wonderful for pies and preserves but eating them fresh off the tree is not advisable. They are rather tart. Needless to say that left me by myself after picking the first batch, since my help could not eat as they picked. I kept going back to the tree to get more when needed and kept seeing the birds scatter like loud flapping squawking roaches as I approached.

From the 10 pounds that was picked I got 6 pounds after taking the pits out and the stems off.

Now, this is them in a pot before I began processing. I kinda forgot how much more room I was going to need once I added the sugar so they went into a bigger pot than this one.

When I first started canning jams and preserves I made sure I found recipes that used the smallest amount of sugar possible and still taste great. You would be amazed at how little sugar you actually need to make a batch. In fact, I have not bought preserves or jelly in almost 3 years. My sons have learned quick that if they eat all of what I make during the growing season then that is it. No jams for the winter time pretty much sucks for them.

I also found that you really have to watch the recipes that you do find, because people somehow are mathematically deficient when it comes to the summation of volume when you combine ingredients. In other words, unless you are burning the crap out of it or want a totally unspreadable batch of preserves (I've done both by the way) 6 pounds of cherries with 5 cups of sugar does not fit into 6 eight ounce jars no matter how much you try to reduce the volume through evaporation. Try 10 eight ounce jars.



This is one of the jars of the finished preserves. I took the spoonful to "taste test" it and then somehow found myself and my assistant on our way to the store to get some croissants and creme cheese to go with this for dinner. Got to thank those gangsta birdies. In fact I think I will thank them when I go back out to pick another 10 pounds of cherries for the next batch later this week.

Because I don't see much of this batch making it to winter. Gotta love the growing season!