Local Flavor: Sour Cherry Pie

The best thing about living in Vermont is being immersed in some variety of nature and the "outside world" whether you like it or not. Our yard is one giant garden and the kids forage several times a day for raspberries, black raspberries, red currants, blueberries, apples, cherries, plums, and what-have-you as the seasons progress.

We have one big sour cherry tree and a smaller one as well and between the two of them we've gotten a good hall of delicious, tart cherries for a couple years, now. The above (oh-so-good) pie was made by me (I will use any excuse to make pie) this morning, but represents the work of all four of us picking cherries and Bonnie and I pitting them one-by-one over breakfast and coffee.

These little beauties still on the tree will probably wind-up in a second pie in a week or so if I get my way.

Meanwhile, I have unrealized goals that need to be met in the way of needing a decent (read: not funky) fruit/cider press and a good electric fruit crusher/pulverizer if I ever want to see our "grape house" and several apple trees supply me with something good to drink. I love wild grapes with their strange, syrupy-sweet, sourly-intense taste -- but they're a pain to use minus the right tools.