Great Falls 08/11/2010, Page L01
Savor sweet cherry season
Flathead gems are ripe
Enjoy them now, preserve some for the winter
By POLLY KOLSTAD For the Tribune
I knew I liked Toby Phillips the moment I saw him.
Wearing sturdy boots, he came through my door lugging two boxes of fresh Flathead cherries.
He had come to help us with our wheat harvest, bringing a tasty surprise.
He had spent the previous day picking and culling 40 pounds of cherries with his father-in-law, Hugh Hockaday, at the family orchard on Angel Point near Lakeside.
Flathead cherries are abundant around Flathead Lake, and the season is at its peak. Orchard growers in this area are famous for their high-quality bounty.
Though the harvest is a little late, it’s a good year for Flathead cherries. Picking began around the first of August and will continue for another week to 10 days.
The Hockadays’ cherries are Chinooks, pollinizers that resemble a Bing cherry .
“The cherries are of good size,” said Hockaday, who has been running the operation for more than 50 years.
Other big sweet cherries that do well in the area are Bing, Lambert and Queen Anne varieties. These cherries ripen after the Washington and Oregon cherries are off the market.
With a little help, cherry trees live a long time. It takes three to four years before they produce. They peak at 12 years and might produce another 12 years.
The Hockadays cultivate their trees repeatedly over the summer to keep the weeds out and to make sure all the moisture is going to the trees. Any split, cracked or bruised cherries go on the ground, left for the deer.
His grandfather had bought the land in 1910. Hockaday moved onto the property with his dad in 1946 when his granddad had a stroke. There were some trees there then, and he planted a lot more for commercial sales. Even then, cherries were big business.
“Granddad hired girls t o pick in the morning and pack in the afternoon,” Hockaday explained. “Then the cherries were loaded on steamers (boats) and taken to rail at Somers,” Today, the Hockaday orchard is a Upick operation charging $1 a pound.
Many people return year after year for the tree-ripened fruit which, according to Hockaday, is a lot sweeter because they don’t irrigate and pump them full of water.
My hands are beautifully stained from handling and pitting the plump red fruit.
Not letting one go to waste, I have prepared many recipes. Still, I have a windfall of Montana’s sweetest picking.
“Just throw them in bags and freeze them,” Phillips suggested, “that’s what we do.
“Then, in the cool of winter take out a bowl of cherries and relish the delicious memory of summer.”
SWEET CHERRY PIE
Prepare pastry for two-crust pie. Measure 2 cups flou r into large bowl, and with your hands, make a well in the center. Pour in ¾ cup vegetable oil, and ¼ cup water. Mix together. Divide into two balls of dough. Roll out one ball between waxed paper and fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out second ball between waxed paper, and set aside.
PIE FILLING
1 cup sugar ¤ cup flour Þ tsp. salt 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 4 cups pitted sweet cherries 2 tbsp. butter
Combine sugar, flour and salt. Add lemon juice to cherries and toss with sugar-flour mixture to mix thoroughly. Turn into pastry-lined pie pan. Dot with butter. Add top crust and crimp edges so juice doesn’t escape. With a knife, make three slashes on the top. Bake in hot oven at 425 degrees about 40 minutes.
SWEET CHERRY JAM or TOPPING 4 cups pitted sweet cherries 2½ cups sugar ½ cup lemon juice
Put ingredients in a heavy bottomed pan and mash together lightly. Cook, stirring while mixture boils, for five minutes. Cook five more minutes until thick and syrupy. Ladle into hot jelly jars. Seal with paraffin wax. Will fill two pints, or four small jelly jars.
CHERRIES JUBILEE
4 cups pitted cherries ½ cup water 1 tbsp. sugar mixed with 1 tbsp. cornstarch ¼ cup Kirsch (cherry liqueur) Vanilla ice cream
See CHERRIES, 2L
PHOTO COURTESY POLLY KOLSTAD
It’s easy to present cherries elegantly so your dessert looks as good as it tastes. Cherries Jubilee are pictured.
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