Photo of the Day: April 15, 2016 – Cherry Tree

Here’s a photo of a cherry tree up behind our house (belongs to our neighbors, the Kroupa boys next door). It won’t be long before this baby will have cherries on it.

Growing up around cherries, selling cherries by the side of the road at the barn, and then working on the cherry shaker crew all through my childhood and into my 20s, eating a cherry was the last thing I wanted to do. Especially after you’ve been shaking for weeks on end in the heat, rain and all kinds of weather.

You’d fall asleep exhausted at night and dream about those little red cherries rolling down the catching frame, into the box, then on the front of your forklift as you drove them to the cooling pad (mom and I drove forklifts – she brought the empty boxes; I took the full boxes away).

Anyway, it’s not until the past decade or two that I developed a taste for them again. Dried cherries are my favorite now, and I’ve heard they’re really good for you.