Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Cherries, cherries everywhere...................


One really good side effect of the very hot and dry spring in France this year,  is that we are able to be chez nous when the cherries are ripe and ready to pick. Normally they would reach this stage in 2-3 weeks and we would be back in the UK working!

We have three cherry trees in our garden, two large ones and one smaller one. They are all full of cherries! We are happy for the squirrels and birds to eat their share from the top of the tree, so long as they leave us the ones lower down.
The smaller cherry tree at the front of the house.

However I'm not sure they fully understand the terms of this deal!!

We've been having cherries on our breakfast cereal each morning and they really are delicious.

Tomorrow I am going to turn these .......


using this .........


into this............

I'll add more cherries to the one I make.


First I shall go into Loches tomorrow morning, to visit the market and buy one of

these ...............

or these..............

I'll post a photo of the finished clafoutis. It also has pastry and almonds, so perhaps it isn't really a clafoutis, more a clafoutis style cherry and almond dessert.

Watch this space.......................

       
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9 comments:

  1. Craig31 May 2011 at 18:39

    Hi Gaynor - I envy you. When we lived in Cognac we had two huge and prolific cherry trees. I very much miss the wonderful cherries. I can recommend the hand cherry pitter. We had one which we lent to the neighbours but the "lending" bit was lost in translation and they kept it as a gift! So we ended up buying another.

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  2. GaynorB31 May 2011 at 18:57

    Thanks Craig,

    I'll look out for one tomorrow.

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  3. Tim1 June 2011 at 10:31

    Gaynor, we use the multi-pitter.... works a treat after you get used to it... and it is LESS messy than the hand pitter as the juice is restrained by the sides of the works in the machine... BUT make sure the one you get comes with a table clamp. We found that the "vacuum" clamp is pretty useless unless you have a very shiny worktop! Also a lot of the juice that does sqirt out is kept in the container with the stones and can be reclaimed with a seive.
    But, if your cherries are firm fleshed, Pauline did the ones for the clafoutis by hand with a knife... very little loss of flesh on the stone and no mess... took trhe same amount of time as with a hand cherry-pitter.

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  4. Sweetpea in France1 June 2011 at 18:21

    I sit, relax and use my thumb. Three containers: one with cherries unstoned, one for the pips, one for the stoned cherries to be made into edible treats, if not tasted as I go along. I have not used the multi-pitter which looks a dream but sounds as if it may need an appropriate work surface. The individual one I have and is more trouble than it is worth and splatters more. I like my method as it is less messy. I have yellow cherries and the birds are supposed not to like them. We also have guignot cherries which are bitter but good for cherries steeped in alcohol to make a liqueur and if they can stay on the tree for longer ripen up to make a good tasty clafouti. My favourites have to be the dark, red cherries. And who would be without cherry jam for scones, toast and brioche. Enjoy.

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  5. Kitty2 June 2011 at 00:08

    Oh yummy! I'd love to have a cherry tree!

    Here's something that sounded very lush: http://sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com/2011/05/irresistible-fresh-cherry-dark.html
    I hope you can get some mileage out of it!

    Hugs and quiches from Kitty x

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  6. GaynorB2 June 2011 at 07:53

    Tim and Sweetpea,

    Thanks for the advice. I couldn't find a stoner in Loches - although I didn't look very hard - so will be using a knife and thumb!

    Cherry jam and sauce sounds wonderful. I'll take come cherries home with me to make jam, as I'm not yet set up here for jam making.

    Sadly next year we will probably miss the cherry season again - unless the weather patterns are the same as this year......

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  7. GaynorB2 June 2011 at 07:57

    Hi Kitty,

    Just checked out the website you suggest. Fantastic - I love cherry ice cream, especially if it comes with dark chocolate as well!!

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  8. Midwest to Midlands2 June 2011 at 10:27

    Sounds wonderful, anything made with fresh cherries. Hope your creation turned out well, I'm sure it did. Love France and enjoy seeing your pictures and learning more about the area you go to.

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  9. GaynorB2 June 2011 at 12:46

    Jane,

    I can't help but think the pics would be better if you were taking them!

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