Cherries Galore

I've said very often, I didn't truly appreciate where I live in the world until kind of recently, where I've posted some of these things online for my friends on Hive. This has made me realize that I'm really lucky to live near some of these things, especially the farms that we have relatively nearby!

Spending time at the farm is our past-time for sure! I think it's so important that we spend time and money at places that are THE MOST important part of any healthy region and society. The more that we can get people to appreciate and respect areas like farms, the better we can be as a whole. Going to a farm and picking fresh food is such a great activity for everyone, especially children. There are a lot of people that clearly have not been exposed to this type of stuff and it shows.

I think my favorite photos are the ones with the cherries dripping with rain water! We had some great weather recently where it was pretty hot and sunny for about a week, and that really ripened up the fruits especially the cherries. This made them grow quite nicely, and then we had a few days of rain. Yin and Yang! With the few days of rain, that meant it was a perfect opportunity to get out into the fields and pick some delicious cherries!

We also recently learned that there was another farm in the area that has cherries, so we made sure to check that one out as well! It's funny to think of something as popular as cherries, but not a lot of places have the trees. I guess it's specialization; we all need to do it but I would think that there would be more places that would do cherries.

The great part about these farms is that they both had Rainier cherries. I don't know if they are called that because they were originally found, or originated near Mount Rainier in Washington or what, but they are definitely a different and distinct cherry. They are also my wife's favorite, which I am really excited that we get to pick them!

The Rainier variety is not as sweet as the dark red ones that most people associate cherries with. They are a little on the tart side, but have just enough sweet to be a really good eat. I am personally fond of both of them equally, but the Rainier ones have a great bite to them, even so because they are a lot harder to find than others. We enjoyed quite a few while we were roaming around the field!

The key to the Rainier cherries is that they have to be more red/yellow than yellow. The ones that are the youngest and least ripe are the ones that are fully yellow, and as they get more to the red side, they get better. It was great to see that the trees had lots of options; some of them were far more ripe than others and some were not. This meant that picking them would last a few weeks, as it was enough to last for a bit, while the younger ones ripened up! Sadly this is the last week that the cherries are able to pick, but that's okay.

We ended up picking 5 pounds of cherries in the one trip that I took my son on! It was amazing! What we've been doing the last few years which is so important is picking this fresh, delicious fruit and taking them home to enjoy for a day or two for sure, but most importantly freezing the rest!

We've stocked our freezer with bags full of wonderfully fresh, in-season fruit and that's been the best habit that we've gotten into. With how poor the food quality has become in the last few years, with focus being on transporting the goods as far as possible means that they get picked when they are not at all ripe and then transported. The fruit then ripens on the trucks or planes in preparation for being packaged and put on the shelf in the stores. It helps move a lot of food to areas that need it, but at the same time the taste and nutritional quality suffers quite a bit.

By supporting the farms that are near our homes, and picking the fruits fresh, we get to enjoy far better health benefits from these foods than many others do. I hope that we can expand this type of stuff to other parts of the world! That requires quite a bit of mentality shift though, and I don't think is something we could do short term.

We've got enough frozen cherries in the freezer to last a few weeks when we get to it! It's a delicious and healthy snack for the little man to enjoy at night after dinner, and has been one of the best things we've done for his health, keeping him away from cookies and shit. Plus my wife and I both enjoy a few of them ourselves! We try to save the bulk of them for the little dude though so that he gets to enjoy it as much as he wants.