Fruit of the Summer

For the last three weeks of camp habitat, we had "camp outs" with the kids every Thursday night. This meant that on Thursday morning kids would show up hauling their overnight bags containing, but not limited to: sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, muck boots, sandals, tennis shoes, their favorite marshmallow roasting stick, sleeping cots (not to be confused with camping pads), stuffed animals, sun screen, flashlights, bug spray, secret snacks for later, and some tried to bring their parents. And our faithful volunteers hauled out this VERY important gear to the back woods of Fairbanks. 

Needless to say the kids found a more important item that they often didn't think of packing but usually had left over from lunch earlier that day

And that was:

A Berry Bucket!

Toward the end of the week the counselors were so tired of keeping the kids entertained and regulating their behavior. On the first camp out we discovered a bountiful blueberry patch, and found that kids can pick for a very long time before boredom sets in. So each week instead of planning discovery hikes and activities, the weary counselors plopped down on a tussock and relaxed while the campers foraged.  At the last camp out we found a couple of campers who claimed they didn't like blueberries, and so they were our peons delivering berries to us counselors, the blueberry kings and queens sitting on our tussock thrones, to collect in our lunch containers. Since then I have washed and sorted them and they are in the freezer. I cherish them so much I don't know what I want to do with them. Pie? Crisp? Scones? The options are endless, but the berries are not. 

The next fruit:

Cherries!

Going home to Michigan this summer was spectacular. For a short time on one day I was able to be Dad's "huckleberry" (Refer to "Tombstone").

During that time I was able to: 

Document the cherry harvest process:

The cherry shaker

More of the cherry shaker with a Peterson Farms tank. Those of you who live in Fairbanks or other parts of the country and purchase dried cherries at Sams club, they are most likely distributed from Peterson Farms and could likely be Coulter cherries!

Loading the tanks on to the truck to be taken to the cooling pad. 

Cherry tanks secured on the truck with straps.

 

This was and is my favorite part, riding in the truck with Dad. 

Putting Coils in the cherry tanks to keep cool water running over the cherries so they don't get scorched by the sun. 

Dad at the cooling pad. Soon all of these tanks of cherries will be weighted using a very sophisticated method, where only people with the highest IQ's are permitted to do the weighing job. (My sisters and I had that job one summer, it's really NOT difficult).

The final product, Cherry Berries! I love em'. And Joel and I are eating oatmeal with dried cherries right this second.