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Midsummer sights

Rainier cherries photo by Chandler O'Leary

For the first time in anybody’s memory around here, the height of the season has actually arrived by the time the official solstice declared it “summer.” And as if on cue, it’s summer around our house, too.

Ourdoor brick grill photo by Chandler O'Leary

So it seemed fitting to take a break from the more pressing repairs on our new house and focus on rehabilitating the vintage 1950s brick grill in the back yard. The Tailor’s parents were here over the solstice, and he and his dad got the grill back into shipshape—and then re-christened it with some seriously good kabobs over the charcoal from some fragrant cedar logs.

Deer photo by Chandler O'Leary

And we’re not the only ones celebrating summer at our house: this gal has been a regular visitor all month (she’s helping us prune back our shrubs…and pilfering a few apples as payment). When we stepped out back to hang some laundry outdoors, though, we were startled to find her napping in the shade back there. She watched us put the sheets up on the line, and waited patiently for me to grab my camera.

I suspect she’ll demand some more apples from us pushovers after this—ah, well. We can put up garden fences next year—and buy our apples for this year’s canning.

Happy summer!

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With a cherry on top

Pie cherries photo by Chandler O'Leary

Picture a Chuck-E-Cheese-ball-pit-sized vat of pie cherries: that’s what our kitchen feels like right now.

The Tailor loves fresh sour pie cherries with a fiery passion, but they don’t grow well in western Washington (not enough sun). And they’re both hard to transport commercially (thin skins) and not super popular with folks under the age of 80 (too much work). So as you can imagine, even though home canning is a big part of everyday life around our house, he hadn’t been able to add cherries to the routine.

Until now.

Pie cherries photo by Chandler O'Leary

He managed to find a farmer on the other side of the mountains who specialized in pie cherries. To make it worthwhile for both the farmer to harvest them fresh, and the Tailor to drive three hours one way, he ordered a metric boatload.

So now our kitchen is filled with pitted cherries.

Pie cherries photo by Chandler O'Leary

And mashed cherries.

Cherry pie photo by Chandler O'Leary

And pie’d cherries.

I gotta say—I finally see what all the fuss is about! That is one tasty labor of love.