Neohawk Cherry Tree in Full Blossom

The other day I posted about the cherry trees donated by JANO to the Brookside Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks being in full blossom. Well, our own cherry tree is in full blossom as well.

Our tree actually produces cherries as you may remember from last year(see my posts here and here). If I recall directly, the number of cherries is directly related to the number of blossoms on the tree. If so, then we will have a bumper crop this year. Of course weather and birds will most likely reduce the actual number of cherries we get, but still I think it will be a lot.

National Cherry Blossom Festival: Stand with Japan

I just found this site today - National Cherry Blossom Festival which is kind of embarrassing since a friend of mine from JANO has been telling me about it for a couple of years. But I noticed Elly had linked to on facebook. So I checked it out.

More importantly, though, I noticed this event they are having - "Stand with Japan"

The Festival invites you to Stand With Japan at the Washington Monument, followed by a walk around the Tidal Basin in the spirit of hope and rebuilding.

Beginning at 6:30pm on March 24, people will gather at Sylvan Theater (15th Street and Independence Avenue, SW) before walking the Tidal Basin. All donations received throughout the fundraising effort will go directly to the National Cherry Blossom Festival Red Cross Online Donation Site, directly benefiting the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

Did I Mention Cherries?

Did I mention the cherries from our tree are ready? Oh, right, this morning I posted about picking cherries. Yesterday, Elly, Ken, George and I were out for about an hour maybe less. As I mentioned in this mornings post, the cherries we harvested yesterday were way more than we could eat so we were taking them to the JANO Sakura Picnic.

 

 

We did exactly that and we came home empty handed. Those that weren't eaten at the picnic, people stuffed them in ziplock bags and took them home. Not a single cherry left. Sigh. We came home cherry-less. (Which was the idea!)

Picking Cherries

Over the last week or so, we've been watching the cherry tree in our backyard. It seems the time is finally here to pick them. It's a balance of waiting to just the right moment and saving the cherries from the birds.

 

 

So Elly, Ken, George and I headed out at about 11:30 yesterday morning to start picking what seemed to be the ripest cherries.

 

 

 

An hour later we had barely made a dent in the cherries on our tree. Still I think we gathered something like 500 cherries. The picture below are the cherries we gathered sitting on our stove. From this picture, you really can't get a sense of how many cherries there are, but trust me there is alot.

 

 

This is way more cherries than we can eat before they spoil. Plus, the tree is still full of 'em. We'll bring most of those we gathered to the JANO Picnic today for people to snack on. The rest we'll probably make some preserves, or jam. We might try a cherry pie.

cherries are ready!