Cherry Pie

I would have posted sooner, but I was busy making a cherry pie from scratch. Yes, scratch. You remember “scratch”, it’s the method that pilgrims used until Mrs. Smith was born. It involves LOTS of ingredients. The recipe should start “In the beginning there was flour”. The biblical reference is appropriate here because my baking a pie from scratch happens about as often as plagues of locust or the parting of the red sea.

Why the culinary interest? We have 2 beautiful cherry trees in our yard that have just started producing volumes of fruit. The trees are two different varieties. I don’t know what they are; I just know that they aren’t the same as the Bing Cherries that you buy in the store. I refer to the first one as the sacrificial tree. It ripens first and the birds get 90% of the cherries. I have decided that the purpose of tree #1 is to guilt me into doing something with the fruit of tree #2. Watching all of those beautiful bright red cherries go to waste just outside my kitchen window starts me thinking that I really should DO something with those tart cherries. Something. But what? Pie is the only thing that comes to mind, and who has the time? About the same time I run out of excuses, the second tree is ripe and ready for picking.

I arrived home from work to find that Lindsay and a friend had spent the afternoon picking huge bowls of cherries and had deposited them on my kitchen counter. I’m talking HUGE bowls of cherries. When I am at my best I can conjure up the energy for ONE pie. There were enough cherries in my kitchen for multiple pies. I claimed ownership of more than enough cherries for one pie and did the only other thing I could think of. I sent the rest of the cherries to work with Lindsay.

Lindsay works at a wonderful small restaurant, The Hartwood, with a very creative kitchen staff. Allison, the pastry chef was thrilled with the impromptu gift (she feeds the masses and vats of just picked cherries are not intimidating to her). She was also gracious enough to send home a sampling of her finished product. THAT would be my favorite method of baking!

I was just beginning to think that if I played my cards right I could supply volumes of produce to the restaurant all summer in turn for enough finished product to feed our family of three when my husband walked in, fork in hand, to announce that I had just made the best cherry pie he had every tasted….. drat. Now I am going to have to do it AGAIN.

I better hurry and make that next pie, the blossoms on the zucchini plants are multiplying like rabbits and I will be up to my ears in zucchini any day. We have FAR TO MANY zucchini plants and they seem to be very happy with our recent hot days and evening showers. I counted 56 blossoms and several small zucchini the other evening. Free zucchini days can’t be far off!

Karen