Life is a 7-pound Bowl of Cherries

It was hard to narrow down favorite local cuisine in Door County.  They are famous for their fish boil, a dinner theater of sorts, where the boil the fish, onion and potatoes outside, with a big flourish of fire at the end, before you go in to eat it.  Many places had this dinner available, but none of the reviews was outstanding.  I imagine it’s like a shrimp or crawfish boil.  But we didn’t try it.

So many restaurants offered a Friday night fish fry.  I did try this one.  Th fish is fresh from the lake - sturgeon or trout, perch or whitefish.  It was very good, but I’ve had fried fish before.

There is a huge Swedish influence in the area, so we headed to Al Johnson’s the first night. Gotta have Swedish meatballs and see the goats grazing on the roof.  I only saw one goat the entire week we were there.  The meatballs were good, but heavy and salty.

And don’t get me started on the ice cream!

The real attraction to the area is the orchards, both cherry and apple.  Since they’d had cool weather, the cherries were about two weeks late, and we arrived just in time to pick our own, literally, with days to spare before the shakers moved into shake the trees.  There were two pick-your-own farms near us, along with Seaquist Farms, one of the largest producers in the area.  These are tart cherries, Montmorency and Balaton, the kind used in cherry pie fillings and juices.  And oh, what pies they make!  We bought a cherry pie from Seaquist the first day, and munched on it all week.  There were SO MANY cherries! I had to pick some.

When we arrived, we were given a bucket and told to head to the back of the orchard.  We were a little discouraged by the amount of cherries in the front trees.  They were high and hard to reach.  But as we got lost in the orchard, we found trees so heavy with fruit, the branches dropped towards the ground.  We only picked one pound the first day, thinking that would be enough.  But the late season fruit was so sweet, I needed more.

We went back the next day to find the orchard was closed, expecting the shaking machines to arrive any time.  So we headed down the road to the next one, and picked six more pounds of cherries.  It’s hard to stop.  They are so bright, gorgeous red, and the next tree has even more!  I think we controlled ourselves pretty well considering.

I kept the very best, choice cherries for my morning oatmeal, which is like eating cherry crisp for breakfast, and got the rest pitted and in the freezer quickly.  Now I have a problem.  How will I use these precious fruits?  Anyone have a favorite recipe?  I want it to be special, the best cherries dessert ever, so I can make room in the freezer for apple season!