Cherries cherries everywhere!

Someone gave us over 200 pounds of cherries from a truck that overturned. Do you know what this means? It means 2 days later, we are nearly at the point of putting them on the neighbor’s porches, ringing the bell, and running! It also means I should be pitting instead of typing.

We have frozen, flash frozen, dehydrated and canned….all double pitted. Double pitted means that our pitter only pits them about half the time, so we have someone checking them again.

Ah…the cherry pitter…this is a story! We pulled out our two cherry pitters. One was broken off where you attach it to the table and the other was missing a part, so we put the two together to make one pitter. I was elated at the prospect of opening a jar of cherries in the middle of the winter and only having to pay for the cost of canning lids. I asked son to tighten the pitter to the counter and *POP* It broke! Now we know how the other one broke.

I began calling all around town for a replacement pitter. Several places said that they had just sold the last one moments before. I finally found one place and decided to add it to my errand list. At the last moment, I decided to go their FIRST.

My oldest daughter (18) and I walked up and down the aisles and finally settled on asking someone where the cherry pitters were to be found. She stood up to take me to it. I noticed another woman, who was on the other side of the woman followed us. The woman looked up high and brought down the LAST pitter and handed it to me. The other woman said, “the last one?” Then she went on to say how she had looked all over town. I didn’t know what to do! Should I give it to her? Finally she said, begrudgedly that she had *2* cases of cherries to pit. I said, “I have 9.” ~blush~

When I got up to the register, the woman, who had helped me locate the pitter, said, “Boy! For a minute there, I thought she was going to grab that out of your hands!”

Tags: canning, cherries, kitchen cares