Food and Fiber Friday - Cherries!

Earlier this week, 25 plus pounds of cherries 'followed me' home from work. Unfortunately, they don't have the manpower or the time to sort though bags of cherries at work and if there are ones which are over-ripe and/or starting to 'turn', they can't just pull them out. They get thrown out. 

However, the guys have learned if there is a large amount to throw away, check with me first.

So while Lady K was playing on her Switch and watching her YouTube videos, I set up a pitting station. 

While I am so grateful to have access to this bounty, after hours of sorting and pitting, my poor thumbs are a bit sore from removing the pit. Yes, I could invest in a pitter, but since I don't often have this much to pit, it's not worth it.

At the end of the day, with stops for a trip to the library for a program, I now have 16 pounds of pitted cherries in the freezer. 

My plans are at least 3 pounds of the cherries for 'Viking Blood Mead'. And of course, a cherry pie or cobbler. I had thought about cherry jam, but not really feeling it. Mead, yes - jam, no.

Also bubbling on in the kitchen is a batch of sourdough starter.

Lady K wants to make sourdough bread with me while she is here this summer, so a nice batch of starter is bubbling away. Unfortunately, day 2 of the starter hasn't been repeated with the subsequent days. It's bubbling, but not with this much energy.  I think it might be because I try and keep the house at least semi-cool and it's not as warm as it wants to be. But it is activating slowly.

I am also finishing off the last of the peach cobbler with the frozen vanilla yogurt I made. 

I can't wait until the free-stone peaches are in season. I have plans for a couple of batches of peach preserves for ME! No sharing. And I would also like to make some peach wine and mead. 

Otherwise, I have been having a small glass of my Hard Apple Cider in the evenings before bed. It's not bad. Probably not the best Apple Cider ever made, but it's drinkable and I am enjoying the ritual of pouring a small glass and settling down and unwinding.

There is a bucket with some Blackberry Wine bubbling away on the table in the kitchen. And I mean BUBBLING! It is very energetic once it started fermenting. I had 5 pounds of berries in the freezer left over from a haul last summer at the store and I didn't want to make jam out of it, but needed it out of the freezer. 

Lady K and I didn't get into the bread making this week, but will make some next week when she comes back for a few days. However, we did make some brownies. She is a brownie girl! When she went back to Texter yesterday, she carried off half a 9x13 pan of brownies. If Texter and Mr. Cobra are lucky, she'll share.

Based on the garden, it won't be long before I will be eating out of my garden! I can't wait. Beans, corn and fresh tomatoes - yummy!