A Crafter Needs to Eat, Outside Adventures!

The Fruits of My Neighborhood, Part II

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In the post The Fruits of My Neighborhood I shared my adventures of discovering a neglected green apple tree in a nearby neighborhood during a bike ride; “liberating” the fruit; and making an apple pie.

Since discovering a neglected, unused apple tree, I have kept an eye out for other fruit tree in my neighborhood or surrounding neighborhoods that are neglected, apparently unloved, and unused. I think of it as my “Fruit Tree Love Intervention” or “Fruit Tree Appreciation Harvest Rescue” program.

The other day I discovered a neglected tree (the house is on the market and empty) that appeared to have “cherry-like” fruit but the fruit did not look like traditional cherries.

IMG_4324.jpg

I thought – “what the heck, I will try one of the suspicious cherries and see if they are edible” (or if they will cause me to fall to ground convulsing as the poison of the toxic berry races through my body).

I lived, but you probably guessed that as I am writing this post.

The sample cherry was VERY tart, especially the skin. It did not taste like a traditional “sweet cherry”. I went home and researched what type of cherry I had sampled, searching through many photos of cherry fruit and cherry fruit trees; and it appeared to be a Prunus cerasus cherry or “sour cherry” according to Wikipedia.

After reviewing several sources on sour cherries, I decided free sour cherries sounded like a good idea for a future pie. I thought “future pie” as it has been very warm in Central Oregon lately and I was not in the mood for baking.

The challenge: the sour cherries on the tree appeared were fairly ripe and many had fallen to the ground already (poor unloved fruit tree!)  If I put off making the pie, the cherries would be done for the season (lying on the ground, sad that they did not get into a pie, tart, or jam…)

So I researched freezing cherries and it turns out that sour cherries are very good to freeze – they keep their nutritional value when frozen. Also sour cherries have considerably more nutritional value (according to my “googling”) than sweet cherries.

I returned yesterday and gathered a huge load of unloved sour cherries from the neglected tree, rinsed and froze them for use in a future pie or tart!

I froze them individually at first and then bagged them together for freezing, so they would not stick to one another:

IMG_2572IMG_2574

Postscript

I am still keeping an eye on two neglected pear trees in the neighborhood.

Their fruit is not getting ripe, it is still very hard. I keep testing pears and they they are hard and not very tasty. I did take one home to see if it would ripen off the tree, but I think they pears are just not ready yet.

So they will have to wait to be “liberated” from their neglected tree!

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

14 thoughts on “The Fruits of My Neighborhood, Part II”

  2. We had one of those pear trees. Never could figure out when to pick or how long to keep. We were told to wrap them individually in newspaper to ripen. They had a tendency to rot before ripening. In another yard had another pear tree. They seemed never to ripen, but we learned they were to be pickled.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ha! Not a “napper” but a “liberator”! I am freeing fruit from being unloved and unappreciated and rotting on the ground! 🙂 I do have some old fruit fabric, I was saving it for potholders someday but a quilt might be interesting….

      Liked by 1 person

  5. You are a brave taste tester. I hope you know not to try persimmons before they have had a frost. We have what we call sand pears that never get soft. They are ripe and sweet enough to eat, though still hard. They are best for cooking and make great pear preserves or pear relish (with maraschino cherries and spices).

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh that sounds delicious Martha – pear preserves or relish! I am feeling more positive about the still hard pears after reading a link another reader posted on how pears do not ripen on trees (and might not get soft at all if they are like the ones you mentioned). I can see a pear tart in the future! We do not have an persimmons that I know of so I am safe 🙂

      Like

Comments are closed.