Hi, y'all.

This is a little story from me, for your amusement, diversion, and I hope enjoyment.

CHOKECHERRIES


To escape the summer doldrums (and someone gave me the excellent advice to go do something else -- you know who you are!!!!), I sallied forth this morning with my 80 year old neighbor to pick CHOKECHERRIES.

This will DEFINITELY get your mind off the summer doldrums and on to more interesting subjects like rattlesnakes, various biting & stinging insects (some of which carry diseases for which there is no known cure), spiders and their concurrent webs...not to mention, if you have an 80 year old neighbor with you, you'll get the entire spectra of local gossip: who's in the hospital, who got home from the hospital, who's dying, who just died.....

We picked for HOURS. I think I picked 22,832 berries. Or cherries.

Any of you conversant with chokecherries already know that 22,832 is just about enough to
cover the bottom of a 5 gallon pail.

Since I have never done this before, being a complete tyro, my neighbor was far, far ahead of me -- she had about l,000,000. Which means she had 2 inches of berries in the bottom of HER bucket.

And at just that moment, as I'm admiring her harvest, she KICKS THE BUCKET!!!

Oh, excuse me. I meant to say, she spilled her bucket. All over. And if there's anything worse than PICKING l,000,000 chokecherries, it's picking that same number up off the ground, one at a time.

Evelyn went home with my 22,832 cherries.

I hope she invites me over for the pie.

Great story, Cease. I know what you mean. We used to have some huckleberry bushes and you'd pick forever and get nowhere.

My wife went somewhere to pick grapes once and took the weimaraner with her. The next day all the tomatoes were on the ground. I told my wife "Don't blame the dog. You're the one who taught her to pick grapes."

Chokecherries must mean something else where you are. Ours do not ripen until September and would never be used for pie, due to the stones.

We juice them and use for wine, syrup and jelly.

Have you ever picked currants. Talk about labor intensive and time-consuming!

They are truly labor intensive.

Yes, definitely pie.

Of course, removing the stones is why it's labor intensive.

Evelyn uses a machine (over 100 years old) that separates the stones from the berries. Frankly, not much berry left after removing the stone!

I don't know how many varieties there are of chokecherries. Ours are quite respectable trees, between 15-25 feet high.



Chokecherry jelly or jam is awesome!

@prince wrote:

Chokecherries must mean something else where you are. Ours do not ripen until September and would never be used for pie, due to the stones.

We juice them and use for wine, syrup and jelly.