Upstate Adventures

You know those perfect days? The ones where the sky is a pastel shade of blue, and clouds are everywhere, but they hint at cotton candy, not rain? The ones where the sun is ubiquitous and stays put all day, not moving even when a breeze comes to cool?
Yes. Those perfect, rare days in July when everything aligns and the world is good and simple.
We had one of those days last week. It was so beautiful that we planned to spend it swimming and laying by the pool and doing not much else, but! Cherries are in season! Sour cherries, at that. And they were ripe for the picking, not two hours away, and it was a pie day, I could feel it (you know what I mean? those days, they’re perfect, too: everything gets floury and buttery and the lattice turns out gorgeous) and I said: let’s go cherry picking!
So we did. We went to a small orchard upstate and were greeted by a horse. Then, we saw the cheeriest goats. And finally, we were met by trees full of gems: sour, bright red Amarelle cherries, sweet yellow ones, and rich, black, Morello sour cherries. They had sweet Bing and Rainier varieties too, and we picked those, warm still from the sun, and squishy with juice, all afternoon.
By the end, we had picked almost 6 pounds of cherries. Our shirts were splattered with cherry juice and our hands were tinged deep, dark purple. We were exhausted, but also excited; pie was coming! And it did. As soon as we got home, I got to work pitting cherries. We ate a flaky, sweet, sour and wonderful pie that night (recipe coming soon!!), made even better by knowing that we’d picked the cherries, and that we were eating, literally, the fruits of our labor.
We had a beautiful day (I also crossed off one of my summer goals!) and I can’t wait to do it again, hopefully this summer. And also, hopefully, with more pie at the end.

*We picked at Lawrence Farms Orchards.

∞ Cherries ⇐ ∞

∞ Inside, they sold perfect red and black raspberries ∞

∞ A cherry cluster (promptly picked, then devoured) ∞

∞ Two little ducks swimming in sync in the orchard’s lake ∞

∞ Morello cherries! They are darker than the traditional bright red sour cherries and have a rich, wine-like flavor ∞

∞ Our basket of colorful cherries, which weighed in at 6 lbs ∞

∞ Sour cherries everywhere! ∞