Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Cherry 'n berry picking




Inspired by this post on Vicki's blog, Daiku and I went cherry picking last week. Even though the 4th of July was gray and damp, we braved the weather to catch the first day of cherry season at nearby Grisamore Farm.



Is there anything more giddy than running around a grove full of fruit trees with a bucket to fill?



Daiku picking cherries.



Bazu packing as many cherries into her mouth as into her bucket!



We also picked some raspberries, at $1 a pound, who could resist?



The raspberry bushes were so fruitful, I'm inspired to plant my own. I want a cherry tree too! So my question to you, fellow bloggers, where can I find raspberry bushes to buy? For those of you who have fruit trees or bushes or vines, what advice do you have to offer?



The farm also had an assortment of animals, my favorite being this friendly bleating sheep who came coming up to us, then running away, then running back towards us. He was adorable.

So what did we do with our pounds and pounds of fruit? Smoothies, pies, cakes, cobblers? Nope, we ate 'em all out of hand (or out of bucket, as the case may be). I tossed raspberries onto salads and Daiku tossed them onto ice cream. We devoured the cherries. I am not ashamed. But I do want to go back and pick some more next week. This time, I might even get creative with them!

Oh, one last thing. As we were leaving to drive to the farm, we saw this deer running behind our house. While it's very cute, it's also a little heart-wrenching, because the deer have to cross a major road to get from their hang-out to our house, which means a chance that they'll be hit by a car. I'm sad to report that last year, we even saw a deer get hit right in front of our house. It was traumatic beyond belief. So now when we see deer, we try to help them across the street and back home by watching to make sure no cars are coming by. Sigh. Sometimes I forget that I live within a 10-minute bike ride of the downtown of a major city!



S/he made it home ok!


Share/Save/Bookmark

20 comments:

KleoPatra said...

Wow, Bazu! Love the animal photos. Great shot of the running deer. *HUGS* to you for having had to absorb the shock and horror and sadness of the deer in front of your house... *HUGS* i have seen more than my share of deer who haven't made it on my travels throughout this state of CA where they are in fairly good number, so i am so glad to read that this dear deer did indeed get safely past the scary area.

The sheep is so cute, too, and i love the photos of the cherries (up close is so hard to do... you did a great job showing them off!) and those trees... so gorgeous, Bazu.

Love the raspberries as well. Decadent little red guys, aren't they?

Cherry picking seems like a lot of fun for sure. Cute photos of Daiku pickin' and you enjoyin'...

And thank you for your care and concern for Mattie. i so sincerely appreciate your words... here and at MySpace... checking in on her meant the world to me.

You are a wonderful woman and i'm very thankful for your friendship... even from afar as we are.

*HUGS*

laura k said...

How wonderful! Those fruits look so juicy and sweet... I really want to grow my own berries and cherries some day!

Glad the deer made it home! We have that problem around here too...

Unknown said...

I'm glad the deer made it ok, but I hear you with the heart-wrenching bit of it. I always cringe when I see animals near the road and tell them to back off and run to safety...they don't always listen.
you are way pretty!!

Monika K said...

Ooooh, those cherries look fabulous! And $1 per pound for raspberries? Unfair! I'm dreaming of berries and living vicariously through you in this blog. (-:

meesh said...

Hi Bazu!

Those raspberries looked divine! I am a raspberrie junkie. If I had picked a bunch of them i don't think many would have made it into dishes either. Although I do enjoy them with some vanilla ice cream. Yum!

How incredibly cool taht you help the deer back across the road! I used to live in Wisconsin and there are quite a few of them bounding around up there. You always hear about them getting hit and it is so terrible. On behalf of the deer, thank you! :)

theONLYtania said...

Aughhh I wish I'd gone cherry picking! And raspberries too! What are ya gonna make? Can't wait to see it.
Daiku is such a cutie!
Know what? I think you and I look a little bit alike. I don't know if that's an insult to you or not.. sorry haha.

Unknown said...

Fresh local berries are the best. The dates/cashews/berries plate is making my mouth water!

Anonymous said...

Wow--fresh cherries sound so good... You are lucky to have fresh local fruit near you for picking!

Courtney

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

I love fresh cherries!! I'm so glad they're in season now. Fabulous animal photos as well

aTxVegn said...

Hi, Bazu! I really enjoyed this post. I so wanted to go berry picking this summer but we've had so much rain they all drowned! The peaches are awesome though so maybe I can find a place to pick those. I'm glad you ate them fresh. When I made Chase's strawberry pie I cringed with every berry I crushed and cooked!

You are so kind to help the deer cross the street. You be careful doing that!

anna/village vegan said...

Yummy! Those cherries look lucious. This really makes me wish, even more than I was wishing before, that there was a pick-your-own farm near enough to NYC, that one could get to without a car, but alas, there doesn't seem to be.

Don't feel bad about not being creative with the cherries. I bought two lbs of cherries 10 days ago, and I ate all of them out of hand. (Not all at once, fortunately.)

You and daiku are so thoughtful to help the deer get across the street.

urban vegan said...

What a nice outing...and great shots of you, Daiku and the critters. [I'm so jealous of the $1 a pound deal for raspberries!!] Can't wait to see what you'll make with all your produce.

And you're a dear for helping the deer...They sure need it.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Awesome photos! Sometimes I feel like I'm right there with you sharing the experience. Thanks for that, Bazu!

Neva said...

I have berry and cherry envy!! What a great day that must have been!

dreamy said...

I wish we had places for deers and sheep and other animals where I stay, unfortunately it's a city area. By the way, I found ur blog thru your crepes at urban vegan, the crepes look delicious! :)

Emilie said...

what?! one dollar a pound raspberries?!!?

Kati said...

Okay, I am just dying to go pick some fruit. It looks so fun!

Thank you for helping the deer, too. It's tragic how many get hit every year. =(

Jackie said...

I am soooo jealous as I have never seen cherries or raspberries growing and the though of picking and eating them fresh makes my mouth water.

Wonderful shot of the deer. Shame they can't put a very slow spped limit there to slow down the traffic. It would cost them next to nothing and they could recover costs easily with fines for going over the limit. Sadly here we don't have deer except on hunting farms (horrid) or nature reserves, they wouldn't last 5 minutes out of a reserve.

vko said...

I want to pick cherries too please...maybe I can get Fcat to drive me up...

So heartbreaking about the deer, in Austria, they build little grassy overpasses for the animals cross major highways...wish we had that here.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where to get a raspberry bush, but try a local gardening store, and if not, definitely mail order will do it. Or perhaps ask what that farm can do for you, maybe they have trimmings or something. One of my mother's friends gave her a raspberry bush, and after a few years it grew a lot of raspberries for a few short weeks every summer, very yummy! They did not require very much attention or work at all, they were very hardy, always expanding. Probably with some more attention their growing season could be extended.