An Abundance of Cherries!

Life is like the cherry blossoms: beautiful, short and meant to be enjoyed.

These are words written by a lovely young woman I used to tutor in English. She had studied in Tokyo and regularly waxed poetic about the cherry blossoms in Japan. I had her write an essay about them and her essay ended with those words. I couldn’t agree more, but I would also apply them to the cherries themselves.

A hundred years ago, our little Valley of Heart’s Delight used to be nothing but cherry and apricot orchards. Shortly after World War II, the economy began to turn from agriculture to big tech, and in the 1960’s and ’70’s, office buildings, malls and high-rise apartments all but took over the orchards in the area. When we moved here more than 30 years ago, you could still see a few little clutches of land devoted to cherry and apricot trees, all owned by a prominent family in the area as heritage orchards; but even they gave way to apartments about 10 years ago.

While no orchards remain here in the Bay Area, we still get luscious stone fruit from the Central Valley and cherries always signal the beginning of summer.

And what a week it’s been! Cherries made their debut at the market last weekend and I bought six pounds of them! And oh my, it’s been a very fun week! I’ve been trying some old and some new recipes all week. I created the hands-down best burger situation I have ever made and made taco Tuesday a new and delightful twist! And, oh the margaritas!

Here’s what we ate: