Sometimes I Feel Like the Fox From "The Fox and the Grapes."

When I was a child, the farm I grew up  on from when I was about 4 until I was 12 had an old cherry tree.  I loved climbing it, but more importantly, I loved the pies my mom made from it. It was a red, sour cherry,of unknown type...as the farm was established in the 1870s and we lived there in the 1960s and 1970s.

One horrible spring, a tornado came through and although it missed the house and barns, and the sheep we raised, it  claimed the cherry.

I've always loved cherries of all types, sneaking spoonfuls of frozen bing cherries from the 25 pound tins stored in our freezer. When we moved to Troy, I planted a dwarf Northstar cherry as red sour cherries are hard to come by.  In theory, the tree will only grow to 10 feet tall,but I think it will be taller.

With the numbness in my feet from the  chemotherapy, I cannot go on ladders as I would fall. So, I picked what I  could.  I asked my husband to help.....but he doesn't like  cherries....he  says they are too gushy and reminds him of cough syrup...of  course he says the same thing about blueberries as well.

I picked and finally he took pity on me and came out with the ladder and helped, but with him almost 6 feet tall and being on a 4 foot ladder, he still couldn't reach the top.  I had to teach him about avoiding bird pecked and wormy cherries (I don't spray).  At least we got enough for a couple more pies, but in reality, they will probably be turned into cherry crisp or cherry sauce for me and my daughter....who inherited this love.  One pie was made and shared with our friend Bob who came out from Connecticut last week to help with my garden.   Bob grew up in Michigan's cherry country....and like me, considers sour  cherry pie to be the tops.  Birds will get the rest now, and I will start spraying a fungicide to alleviate the cherry leaf drop which plagues me here as the springs can be damp and conducive to it.  Of course this is also the first year in three is has born cherries as late frosts got the blossoms the last two years.

And  I hear, sour cherries are good cancer fighters.

If you don't know the Aesop's fable about the fox and the grapes..it's here.  Not the version I was looking for ( a folk song my brother used to sing in the late 1960s in his local group "The Brotherhood.").