What's Genny For?

Cherry Pickin'

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40 pounds of cherries!

Last Saturday Mathman and I took the redheaded minions kids cherry picking! It was a first for all of us.
Took about an hour-ish for the nine of us to pick 40# of cherries. I now better understand the phrase, "Many hands make light work!"

I managed to de-pit and can 6 quarts before bed. I've canned things before: peaches, pinto beans, cranberry juice...but it had been awhile since I'd drug out the ole canner. I was afraid of "mashing" the cherries so I didn't pack them as tightly as they should've been. When I stuck them in my hot water canner, the cans floated. First time I've ever seen'em do that! After processing, the cherries all shrank down to about 1/2 a quart. So, technically, I only canned roughly 4 quarts worth of cherries!

Grrr!

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8 quarts of canned cherries

Yesterday I got after the rest of the cherries. I froze three ziplock gallon bags of fruit for future use and de-pitted and canned another eight quarts. This time I crammed those suckers into their jars. No floating in the water bath and there wasn't nearly as much head space after processing!

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Cran-Cherry Muffins!

Today I made Cream Cheese Cran-Cherry Muffins. Soooooo yummy! In fact, I'm thinking of using this "secret" recipe and entering it a batch of muffins at our county fair next month. First place prize is $100. That's half of a goat right there!

I am so very glad to be done putting up these cherries. My hands are stained red, there are pits and seeds and juice all over the redheaded minions kids and counters and floors...but there's also a contentment and pride in looking at those sparklin' jars of cherries lined up in the cupboard.

Next up? Strawberries!