..and the cherry saga continues

Further to the cherry story - I spotted our neighbours near their huge cherry trees and we started to chat. Before I could pluck up the courage to ask them if I could buy the cherries that were hanging over our garden, they said a some friends were coming to pick them all at the weekend - and would it put me out if they pulled the branches over the fence to pick them. So what could I say?

However, the good news is that at the other end of our garden stands a massively overgrown orchard of 500 abandoned cherry trees. The owner, who sold us our land, said we'd be welcome to hack our way and pick any we found. So today, armed with a stepladder, a pile of chairs (to help me get over the fence), a rake, a pair of loppers, a brush cutter, thick gloves and a snag-proof jacket, I spent two hours hacking through thick brambles. I was scared witless that some beefy wild boar would come rushing at me, but I made a lot of noise to deter them. It was exceedingly hard work and several time I thought of giving up.

Eventually I found myself in something of a clearing with a couple of beautiful cherry trees relatively free of brambles, and covered in fruit. Most of the trees are white cherries - the ones on the right, but there was one with these luscious-looking black ones. I only picked a few as it was getting late in the day, but tomorrow morning I'll go and pick enough for some good jam. In our house cherry jam is called Best Behaviour jam because you have to be very good to have any. It's such a pain to stone all the fruit that it really is a labour of love.

I plan to have some ready for BrodieB when she gets home from Australia. She'll deserve it.