Last week was one of my favorite days of the year. Cherry day! There are five cherry trees behind our house and once every year (or two) they turn bright red with fruit and there is a two or three day window to pick fresh tart cherries before the birds get ‘em. This year we were able to pick two days in a row.

We made it back to the house  with plenty of cherries (even after the little one had his fill on the short walk home). I learned you can pit cherries with a paperclip, which actually works!

I always make a pie. Which I did again this year. I don’t have time for crust so I just use store bought. I also threw a handful into brownies and they tasted very good, but they definitely got lost a little bit in all of the chocolate flavor.

But the most exciting creation of cherry day was homemade maraschino cherries. There was a rumor floating around that maraschino cherries from the store are classified by the FDA as decoration instead of food. Snopes says this is false, but even so, nothing beats the real thing. So Adam picked up some fancy maraschino liquor (Luxardo) and I boiled my cherries with it and got to soaking. Now I can have my Manhattan with a homemade cherry, which makes this country mama very happy.