We started off by picking a big bowl of cherries. We had a great system going – I was picking them off the tree, handing them to you and you put them into our bowl (your little hands are just big enough to hold 5-6 cherries at a time, so were busy running between me and the bowl).
Next, it was time to pit them and after we changed you into some old clothing (yes, it’s a bit messy) we were ready to get started. I have to be honest, I expected you to watch as I was using the pitting machine, but you were “hands on” and pushed the lever down over and over. After a while I could tell your arms were getting tired (after all, our recipe was calling for a full kilogram of cherries), but you weren’t about to quit. When I attempted to take over for you, you looked at me with the most serious look and pushed my hand out of the way. My job was to hold the pitting machine on the bottom so that it wouldn’t move around, and keep feeding the cherries into the top funnel. You were also very diligent with the “quality control”, tasting a lot of cherries to make sure we were only using the sweetest fruit.
For the cooking portion we (ok, I) decided it was best for you to just watch from a bit of distance (boiling & bubbling jam is just not pleasant if it comes into contact with your skin), but you were right back on duty when it came to tasting the finished product. The final verdict: “Katherine approved!”
You are teaching me that doing anything in life is so much more enjoyable when we do it with people we love (and the jam tastes so much sweeter because we made it together). I love you always and forever.
