For the Love of Dirt: Cherries

Showing posts with label Cherries. Show all posts

Saturday, June 20, 2026

CHERRY LEMONADE DAYS....

I remember those endless, warm summers when we'd make cherry Koolaid, poured over ice, and drop a few cherries on top. My mother called it Cherry Lemonade...

She grew a few wild roses, pale pink ones that eventually were smothered by tree roots over the years.

There was tea. On those warm summer days. On the old blue and white Mikado china, and grapevine cups, steaming with amber.

Bees hummed around Caraway Seed cake, thick cream, and the sugar bowl. They were always hopeful. Usually, drunken flies landed on the Cherry lemonade, spilled over on the table.

One, or both of our cats wandered by the porch, sleepily looking for a place to flop.

My mother hummed tuneless tunes. Her favourite was "Let me call you Sweetheart"...

She told me how my dad liked to sing it to her, years ago. Long ago. In the summertime. She missed him. She never said as such, but I knew.

After seed cake, the koolaid and tea, we'd pick sweet peas. They grew like ivy, all over the side of the house. So tall. I'd get a chair to stand on, and pick handfuls for the old white pitcher. I still have that pitcher. It waits, yearly, for sweet peas...

"I heard a red-winged blackbird singing down where the river sleeps in the reeds: that was morning,

and at noontime a hummingbird flashed on the jewel-weeds...

...clouds blew up, and in the evening a yellow sunset struck through the rain, then blue night,

and the day was ended that will never come again..."

- Sara Teasdale ( A June Day)

My world hummed with the heat. Ants marched back and forth, stealing crumbs of seed cake.

Trees rustled. The sprinkler sprinkled. Sweet peas and nasturtiums bloomed at the side of the old porch steps, where my mother sat with her tea.

We'd slurp frozen Koolaid popsicles, mixed with cherry jello, a melting frozen treat on a stick. Bare feet on hot pavement. End of day.

It was summer. Every summer...

Photographs 2026

Thursday, July 3, 2025

CHERRIES.CATS. Things to make with cherries....

Tons of cherries. The trees so heavy with fruit the branches lean halfway to the ground. Birds, racoons, ravens, humans feasting on cherries. Here's a couple of things you can make with them. For company that drops by in the summer. A treat. Send them home with bags of cherries as well!

"Life is like a bowl of cherries....don't take it too seriously. It's mysterious." -Bob Fosse

Stories

BLACK FOREST BROWNIES

1 pkg brownie mix or homemade. Some of the pkg brownies are really good.

½ cup oil ¼ cup water 3 eggs

*Beat these ingredients together. Preheat oven to 350 as usual and prepare a 13 x9 pan.

TOPPING after brownies have cooled in pan:

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese

½ cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla

1/3 cup whipping cream

1 1 and a 1/2 cups freezer cherry jam (easy recipe below) Then decorate with fresh cherries. You can also use cherry pie filling if strapped for time.

1 cup white choc wafers , melted carefully.

1.Pour brownie batter into13x9 pan. Bake as directed on box. Cool

2.Beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar till smooth

3.In small bowl beat whipping cream and fold into cream cheese mixture.

4.Spread over cooled brownies.

5. top with freezer jam.

6. Melt white chocolate and drizzle over brownies.

7. chill then serve to some very lucky people!

Sweet rewards.....

CHERRY FREEZER JAM ( quick and easy) It's more like a sauce....

· 3 cups cherries, fresh or frozen (chopped) Frozen cherries are GREAT!

· 1 cup blackberries 2 tablespoons lime/ lemon juice

· 3/4 cup sugar if using fresh cherries. 1/2 cup water

1 package no-cook freezer jam pectin (optional)

Take a large bowl and mash all together till sugar is dissolved. Frozen is easier to use. You can decorate with fresh blackberries or fresh cherries. Keep the extra cherry preserves in fridge, cause it won't last long, or freeze in small freezer containers. It is great to eat frozen at midnight...kind of like a sorbet!