Sour pin cherries

I was determined this summer to try to use all the edible plants possible during my stay.  So we picked pin cherries to make a nice sour cherry syrup.

These were picked off a sour cherry tree you can see from Arta's bedroom.  It is growing on the cliff, so I as I reached out (often just a little farther than was smart) to pick the cherries I had many flashes of me falling and rolling down the hill.  I'm happy to report that I managed to keep my footing.  Onto the stove the cherries went, with just a little water, to steam the juice out of them.

And here's what they looked like after steaming.

I mashed and strained them, then put the juice back onto the stove with some sugar to boil up into syrup.  My multi-tasking took me just a little too far from the kitchen and when I returned, my syrup had turned more to jelly.  Thank you natural pectin.  Drat.  But it was delicious on toast. I named it my unintentional jelly.

So for try number two, I picked pin cherries from the trees along the road to the beach.  I brought a ladder and Alice was my helper.  Surprisingly, I found a couple of snail high, high on the branches of the trees.  I passed them down to  Alice who took care of them while I picked.  We had also had some good rain the day before, so Alice took off her sandals and played in the puddles.  We both agreed that mud squishing between your toes is an awesome feeling.

And here are photos of round two cherries.  Notice that they seem to be much riper.  I only  managed to get them on the stove to juice them.  Arta mashed and strained them for me and the juice went in the fridge.  I brought it back home to Lethbridge with me and it is now in my freezer waiting to be made into syrup.