Cherry on Top

Our dwarf cherry tree is three years old and this year it paid for itself with the great crop we harvested! Getting those five pounds required care. First, I kept watch to keep squirrels from eating the blossoms—yes, that’s something they do. Then, to keep squirrels and birds from eating the fruit as it ripened, we covered the tree in garden netting.

So, what to do with all those delicious cherries? Out came the recipes and the next two weeks I was busy in the kitchen making cherry cake, cherry cobbler, cherry crisp, and, after a suggestion from my sister, dried cherries.

Cherry cake

First, I made the cherry cake, which was delicious. But the cherry cobbler was our favorite, so much so that a “mouse” got into it before I could take a photo. 🤤 We enjoyed both with vanilla ice cream.  

Cherry cobbler. Recipe

 

 

Finding a cherry cobbler that used fresh, not canned cherries, took a bit of Googling. I was surprised by how well sprinkling the fruit on top turned out with this recipe. 

 

 

Cherry crisp turned out just as good, and was even better with ice cream or frozen whipped topping.

Dried cherries

 

I was delighted by how well the dried cherries turned out, and they are yummy in oatmeal and granola. Drying the cherries did take ten hours in a dehydrator, but I’m glad I tried it.

I’m now trying to propagate the cherry tree so that in a few years we can get more fruit. While our yard isn’t large, the tree should thrive several years in a ten-gallon pot. Life is more than a bowl (or two) of cherries—it’s a whole ‘nother tree.