Today I gave the kids a break from math and spelling, packed them into the car and drove an hour away for our yearly spring tradition – cherry picking!

It’s a beautiful drive out to the mountains and the girls oohed and aahhed at all the big old historic estates in Albemarle County that we passed on the way.

It’s perfect timing, too, because we just ran out of our last jar of Brandied Cherry Jam that I made last year. And, like last year, we picked waaaaaaaaay more than planned.

In all, we came home with just under 20 pounds of cherries.  At $3.99 a pound…….you do the math.  Every year it’s the same.  We plan to not spend too much, and we pick too many.  I gripe about it as I am paying for them, I gripe about it all the way home.  I gripe about it as I stand and wash them for what seems like hours.

Then, after we’ve eaten our fill and I am planning out what to make with them I always say “We didn’t pick enough cherries!”

I washed, de-stemmed, and packed into ziploc freezer bags about 13 pounds of cherries.  They’re dead easy to freeze, and this way I don’t have to make jam right this second.  I am, in fact, waiting until I can order some Weck jars this year.

Because Weck jars are prettier that’s why.  And yes, they are ALL going to become jam.

It was THAT good.