Easy picking!

It's time to pick sweet cherries and the trees are loaded at Corey Lake Orchards.  Willow and I wandered the rows of trees and could not believe how easy the picking will be.  There are four varieties of sweet cherries to pick and these are the blush.  There are still come strawberries for sale as well as rhubarb and the hot house tomatoes are ripe and red and delicious.   By the way, the cherries are delicious, too.

It has been a tough spring for fruit growers though.  Early warmth and then freezes have cause many apples to drop off the trees. Rain and hail damage affected the strawberries in their crucial last week of ripening. Nature gives and also takes away. 

P.S.  And after the big rains Willow found all sorts of mud to roll in; she has not ever done a better job of covering herself with gunk.  A friend says that the largest part of a Golden's brain is dedicated to seeking out the putrid of the world.  Willow's brain is right up there with the best!

Corey Lake Orchards abloom

In the orchard it is the cherries in bloom; in the woods it is the Amelanchier or Shadblow or Serviceberry, call this graceful tree what you will.  Both have such delicate white blossoms, but yesterday Willow and I concentrated on the cherry trees at the Corey Lake Orchards, the place where you must go for the best fruits and vegetables all season long.  And for homemade apple brandy -- a close cousin of slivovitz.

Not too long a wait and those shelves above the signs will be loaded with good things to eat!  For directions and more information, visit their website: http://www.coreylakeorchards.com/