A Cherry Tree!

Here’s a funny story about cherry trees. Before we moved to Kentucky, I had always canned but mostly it was green beans, tomatoes, corn, potatoes – just the typical garden produce and that was when I lived in Louisiana. My grandma had peach and pear trees but she always made the jam and preserves for all of us. We moved to Kentucky and there was a big orchard, Reid’s Orchard, just a couple of miles from our house. They had a lot of fruits and veggies but we mostly bought apples . . lots of apples, and strawberries. Vince had to pass by the orchard on his way home from work and he would often stop and get apples and we would end up with more apples than we could eat so I started canning apples – any way I could find to can them, I did. But, the funny story was the cherries. One day we passed and he orchard had their sign out that they had cherries. It was “pick your own” so we went, got our pails. Vince, Chad and I were picking cherries, and had quite a few, then we decided to eat one. Oh, my! They were sour cherries. I had never had anything but sweet cherries. We all spit them out, asked a lady near us who was picking if she wanted what we had picked and we never went cherry picking again. Then, we moved to MO and a friend had a cherry tree and asked us if we wanted cherries. She was telling us how good they were to make pies, jams, jellies . . all kinds of things. Of course we wanted some. We went and picked about 5 gallons of cherries, got home, started pitting them, ate one . . oh, no! Sour cherries again. Oh, well, we had them and I was going to use them. I made cherry jam, cherry pie filling . . I can’t remember what all I made but we enjoyed everything I made. Then we moved away and I was never able to pick sour cherries again. I was pretty sad when the cherry jam ran out.

In Texas, I think we planted 5 or 6 cherry trees. Some were sweet, some were sour. The heat there was not ideal for cherry trees but the last summer I was there, I got 5 cherries!

When we moved back here, I told Vince that I REALLY wanted to plant a cherry tree and he was wanting pears and peaches and Addie wanted plum trees. I think it was summer, 2021 that Vince planted three peaches and two plums. One of the peach trees died and needs to be replaced.

Our last summer in Texas (2020), Addie spent 5 weeks with us. The plum trees were so full of plums but Addie was 100% sure she was NOT eating a plum.

I talked her into trying one and she was in love! We left this ladder out in the orchard and Addie spent half her time out there picking plums and eating them off the tree. She would get up in the morning, put on her boots and go out to the orchard in her nightgown. I kept telling her she was going to eat too many and get sick but apparently she didn’t. When we moved here, she said “Grumps, PLEASE plant a plum tree” and he did!

One plum is just full of blooms. One hasn’t quite bloomed yet. Both of the plums are self-pollinating but it’s always nice to have two varieties, and even nicer if they bloom at about the same time so I’m hoping the other plum will bloom before this one is done. And, I’m hoping for no really hard freezes, though these trees are blooming way too early, and I’m hoping for no wild and crazy weather (high wind or hail) that will ruin the blossoms but growing fruit is hit or miss for sure.

The two peach trees are starting to bloom. I’m so hopeful for peaches too.

Back to the cherry tree . . I’ve literally been hounding Vince about getting a cherry tree. He thinks it will not produce here. Why? We picked all those cherries from the guy in Nevada, MO. Our climate is close to what it was in Kentucky where we lived and those trees did great. I guess he decided I wasn’t going to leave him alone til I got a cherry tree. He’s looked everywhere we’ve been and called a few places and no one has had any cherry trees. Today we were in town and we passed Home Depot. Vince said “Wait! It looks like they got in more fruit trees.” He turned around, went back and they had a Dwarf Montmorency Cherry so he bought that. It’s a self-pollinator but it’s good to have another variety with it and it also needs to be a sour cherry. I haven’t mentioned that to Vince yet. 🙂

Vince wanted to plant it in place of the dead peach but that’s outside the fence. I want the cherry inside the fence where deer won’t bother it, I can water it – there are no faucets near where the other trees are planted and it’s hard to get a hose to them. The things I read said it takes 4 – 7 years for these trees to produce but I read that someone got cherries after the first year. I’ll get cherries when I get cherries but one thing for sure – I won’t get them if we don’t plant a tree.

You can bet that little tree will get lots of pampering!