The kitchen this evening looked very much like a scene from Dexter, sans all of the plastic to stop pesky DNA traces incriminating me. It is that time of year.
Cherry time.
I love fresh cherries.
And while the birds took every single cherry of of the little tree at the front of the house this year, the large tree at the back was absolutely packed with them. And, I must be learning a little and becoming more patient, because this year they are absolutely perfect!
We have so many that we can't keep them for ourselves and have invited the neighbors around to take what they can as well and there are still plenty in the higher branches I am struggling to reach, as well as still plenty in the lower that I will get to when I have the energy.
I should eat more cherries!
This year, they really are fantastic and while I have eaten many, it is a bit of a shame to have to pit and freeze most of them, because they are so damn good fresh off the tree. The other "shame" is that I am watching what I eat, so while cherries are fine, I would really like them baked into a pie with vanilla cream....
Maybe I can sneak one slice.
But, I am not going to spend all of this post telling you about my cherry fetishes and instead, will add a few images I took "mid-pit". Cherry pitting is a messy job and while it was easier this year to get the stone out as they were so ripe, the juice sprayed everywhere - but I didn't care, because we are getting a new kitchen soon. Except the floor... I cared about the floor.
Mostly because if I didn't my wife would kill me.
When she walked in and saw what I was doing she said,
"This will NEVER be done in the new kitchen."
Never ever? Never ever ever?
I like this part of living in our house, because while it is messy, there is something special about having food from the garden and, also being able to share it with the neighbors. Sure, it is just some cherries, but still - it is pretty cool. If we didn't put the effort into doing this here, we may as well live in an apartment.
Oh and yeah, the images are taken on an Olympus EM-1 with the 12-40 PRO lens and an off-camera flash kit. I didn't do much set up for this as it was an afterthought and my hands were covered in cherry blood, but I di the normal post-editing work on my phone to add a little more atmosphere.
I am looking forward to the new kitchen, because I think it might inspire me to finally take some decent food pictures. I haven't explored photography much and even less in the last few years and I want to start putting some of my kit to work, and perhaps adding to it if I need. I like macro photography and have a decent little lens, but haven't played anywhere near enough with it yet.
Pretty gruesome.
I like the bloody cherry shots, as it gives me some images for the markets, where HIVE is suprisingly staying up quite well at the moment, which is against my expectations. I am still hoping it is going to collapse down to about 50 again, so I can buy back what I sold - but if it stays ap or goes higher, that is okay by me too.
This might be one of the last things I will do in this kitchen, as I think by Friday I will be tearing it out in prep for the tradies to come in and start their building work. The more I can get done, the less hours they will need to spend doing stuff, and since we pay by the hour, that is a good thing. Sure, it might take me three hours to do what they can do in one, but I am far, far cheaper hourly.
It is actually one of the silly things that people sometimes bring up in regards to earnings on Hive, where they say "I can earn more hourly flipping burgers" - but they aren't flipping burgers, are they? If someone needs the money, there are a thousand and one things in most places that pay better for Hive, but if doing it for more than the money, than Hive is a pretty damn good place to be doing just about anything.
But speaking of money - after the first day back at work, I am pretty knackered! It wasn't even that hard of a day or anything, but the "forced routine" of it is wearing on the mind, body and soul. One day, Hive will go so high and stay there high enough, that I won't even need to sell my stake, I can just live off the curation - but that day, isn't today.
Tomorrow?
You never know!
(but it is highly unlikely)
But tomorrow, weather permitting, I might spend my lunch sitting in the garden chowing down on some cherries. There have to be some benefits to working from home....
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I would have loved to pick some cherries but I'm far away. I enjoy my guava here too but I can't call my neighbours to pick because it isn't producing as such.
This is the last time you're gonna mess up the kitchen with berries...😀
Guava! That is something I haven't had in about 2 decades!!
I miss all of the exotic fruits of the tropics - here, there are the cool climate basics and even they aren't that great. Except the berries!
2 decades!!!! Wow!
There are cherries here but very scarce and expensive. It's been over 2 years I took one. Thanks for the offer...
Cherries for everyone! :)
The hints of red everywhere add a nice flare, cool theme and great job using the cherries to act as a cover for all that blood!
"It's cherry juice officer."
Cherries is really tasty and nice to eat which I wouldn't hesitate to consume enough while eating and then like you said it is really nice to share with neighbors as well
Sharing is caring :)
I love cherries, unfortunately I can only get them at a grocery store, and then they have to be eaten in two days or they go moldy. We also only get them about this time of year in the stores, and I can only eat so many of them before they blast my blood sugar numbers to bits, but they have a lot of health benefits so a couple days of higher than normal levels is fine by me.
Are you able to adjust your insulin for the blood sugar spikes? A friend of mine used to do the needle since he was young and was able to adjust slightly, depending on what he was getting up to. There were a few drunken nights where it was imbalanced though!
Yes, I adjust mine insulin based on what my sugar numbers are. The 14 day Libre in the arm thing helped me a lot on that since all I need to do is hold my phone to my arm and it will read what my sugar numbers are. I think it is really helping me to manage my sugar numbers, and also letting me know that maybe I should not eat some things in the future.
Lol. My weakness is cherry pies and I mean pies and not one pie. We don't get them made here like we did in Europe and the cherries here are just too expensive. One more reason to move I suppose as I do enjoy them that much. New kitchen and cherry stains so the answer is a cherry wood kitchen.
:D
Sounds familiar!
Hmmm... not a bad idea :)
You should impress upon the Mrs. how healthy cherries are and that it is a great alternative for dining. Hell you could be indulging in worse alternatives.
The cherries aren't the problem - it is the rest of the pie and cream! :D
That is one serious crime scene over there with actually cool shots in a nice horror filter haha.
We are having blackberry bonanza here for the next weeksbut those stains are more blue-ish
More suiting for the horrormovie of the long gone deceased haha.
But loving this fruit season fo sho!
blackberries a re great too!!
Raspberries should be arriving soon, but looking at the bushes, I don't think we will have a good crop this year. And I should have gone into the forest for some blueberries - but didn't find the time... They are great here also most years.
When I was a kid, I didn't like berries that much and disliked cherries - but these days, can't get enough. Though, that is the same with wine :)
The cherries in the higher branches in my backyard have remained untouched and decayed as it is difficult to pick them from there. However, we used to climb trees and pick fruits without the permission of neighbours. It was a total action :)
I think the saying for kids is, "Stolen fruit tastes the sweetest" :D
Most of the top branches will rot there in ours too - the ladder isn't tall enough by far and if it was, I wouldn't be getting up that high....
Or we say "Free food is more sweety than honey" :)
Crime scene. Totally!
Need to call one of those clean up crews after a homicide.
It looks really messy, that why your wife say it can never done in the kitchen again, the whole scene look like blood scene in an horror movie,but cherries are very sweet
It is messy, but surprisingly, doesn't stain the hands.
Yes that's true
Hehe, one day, it will come!
Yeah, I am sure there are plenty of worse places to be.