U-Pick Update: Rainier Cherries in Season

Rainier cherries are in season, so yesterday we hitched up the oxen, piled the kids and cast iron pans into the Conestoga wagon, and headed out to Rick Johnson's Farm at 7700 River Road where the Rainiers are a going for a whole buck a pound. They've got really tall ladders for you to use, and they've got buckets for you to pick into. But make sure to bring your own bags in which to tote them all home.

Eighteen pounds later, we headed out to Fordyce Farm at 7023 Sunnyview Road NE to scope things out, and we stayed for an hour or two there picking strawberries and some early glorious blackberries and raspberries—all for under $1.35 per pound. We snagged maybe two pounds of strawberries, two pounds of blackberries, two pounds of blueberries, and a pound of raspberries, picking 'em all to the soundtrack of at least four different languages being spoken by families harvesting around us: English, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. Flushed with sun and on a fruit sugar high, we capped the day off with a Chicago-style deep dish pizza (sausage, onions and mushrooms, natch) at Geppetto's on Lancaster.

Today we're busy washing, eating, pitting, and freezing—and giving some away. Patrick on the NoMaSoFa U-Turn got some. So did Chuck at the F/Stop who was lucky enough to be the one tending bar when we walked in last night. (Great to see you there, Jared and Sky!) Sybil down at the U will get some as well. We're taking some more to a dinner tonight and have some earmarked for a dinner party later this week.

Are we plowing through 'em all too quickly? Shouldn't we be more like the diligent ant and think of the coming winter? Not at all, grasshopper, not at all. We need to make room in the fridge for the Bing cherries that come into season in a week or two.