Photo courtesy of SID CEASER PHOTOGRAPHY Shown is writer and humorist Teresa Santoski.

When you have a hands-off approach to gardening, an unexpected harvest is cause for great celebration. That sense of joy can quickly fade, however, once you realize what an overwhelming amount of work it is to use that harvest appropriately.

For the first time since it was planted nearly 25 years ago, we have succeeded in picking the cherries from our cherry tree before they rotted or were eaten by birds or insects. This is largely due to the tenacity of Younger Sister, who kept a close eye on the ripening cherries and was determined to pick them during their incredibly narrow window for harvesting.

That opportunity came on Father’s Day weekend. With Youngest Brother and Younger Sister home from college, Mom decided it would be a great Father’s Day gift if we used our collective labor to help get the yard in shape for Dad. Oldest Younger Brother and Sister-in-law came down to join us, and we spent a day mowing, weeding, raking and trimming branches.

Mom took the time to prepare by dividing the yard into sectors, each with their own assignments. That way, each family member knew what they would be working on ahead of time, and we didn’t have to waste time on the day of trying to figure out what needed to be done.

Younger Sister was given Sector 1B in the front yard, which included the cherry tree. My assignment-weeding and scraping moss off the patio stones-was in Sector 3C in the backyard, so I didn’t get to witness the cherry-picking itself. But I certainly saw the massive bucket she filled with fresh, homegrown fruit.

With such a bountiful harvest on her hands, Younger Sister decided to make some sort of cherry-based recipe. Her internet research turned up a recipe for cherry crumble, and she set about making it happen.

First, she needed a way to pit a large number of cherries. We didn’t have a cherry-pitter, so Younger Sister called around to local stores to see if they had one in stock. Her search ended up being fruitless (pun intended), but Dad found a tutorial on YouTube that explained how to use chopsticks to pit a cherry.

As she and Mom began the pitting process, Younger Sister discovered an important difference between cherries that are grown in your front yard and cherries that you buy from a grocery store or farm stand. When you buy cherries, you’re getting the best that the grower has to offer. Anything that’s unsuitable to eat has already been discarded.

With homegrown cherries, you have to do your own quality control. Younger Sister was, shall we say, less than pleased to come across the occasional piece of wormy fruit, especially after going to all that trouble to pit it. Though this is to be expected when you’re dealing with freshly picked fruit, she could certainly have done without experiencing this part of nature.

Once all the cherries selected for the recipe had been pitted, Mom, who grew up on a farm and was less surprised than Younger Sister, by the presence of the occasional worm, soaked them in salt water to make sure that any hidden critters were good and gone.

While the cherries were soaking, Younger Sister read through the next steps in the recipe. To her dismay, she discovered that the cherries would need to be cut into quarters. Poor girl. She definitely got a full upper-body workout that day.

After hours of pitting and chopping, the cherry crumble itself took a relatively short time to prepare and bake. It’s quite tasty, especially warmed up and served with vanilla ice cream.

I regret to say that Younger Sister does not share my opinion in that regard. The cherry crumble does not appeal to her taste buds, which means (a lot) more crumble for the rest of us.

Though I’m impressed by the fruits of Younger Sister’s labors, the crumble seems to have barely put a dent in the bucket of cherries. I’m starting to understand why canning and preserving are such important parts of farm living. No one can eat an entire tree’s worth of cherries before they go bad.

I’m not sure how enthusiastic Younger Sister will be about trying additional recipes after her adventures with the crumble, but maybe we can encourage her to experiment with jam-making or something.

Homegrown fruit is a lot of work and responsibility. Nature’s bounty can be unpredictable, so when you have a harvest that’s hardy enough to survive the elements and the appetites of pests and wildlife, you want to make sure that you don’t let it go to waste.

When we lived in upstate New York many years ago, our neighbors would share the overflow of their gardens with us. I’m sure there were other vegetables involved, but I remember mostly zucchini. In fact, I think we may have eaten more zucchini than the people who actually grew them.

But everyone loves fresh produce, right? Especially if it’s free. Perhaps we could follow that example and share our cherries with our neighbors.

Or, given the fact that we did find the occasional worm in the cherries, perhaps the most neighborly thing to do would be to keep our produce to ourselves.

Tete-a-tete is published monthly. Teresa Santoski can be reached at tsantoski@gmail.com or via www.teresasantoski.com.

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