I’ve lost count on what week of the COVID-19 pandemic we’re currently working through. Germany seems to be doing a great job at controlling the spread of the virus so, while I still won’t dine indoors at a restaurant, we are slowly starting to get back to normal. We still must wear masks whenever doing something indoors, but I’ve been finding activities for us to do outdoors that don’t require them.
On this particular day, we decided to try our hand at picking cherries (kirschen).
We’re (mostly) fortunate to be living in the day of Facebook, when expats in Germany can get around as easily as the locals just by the easy sharing of information and personal experience in Facebook groups made just for expats. We have a military community here, a contractor community, and an Americans living abroad community, and each one is packed with useful information so that each American who moves here doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s made our transition to Europe close to seamless, and I’m so happy to have these resources! In one of these online groups is where I read the recommendation for a local cherry orchard who was open for self-picking.
I saw the post, I made reservations on their Facebook page for a designated time to pick (keeping the crowds limited), and we headed out to Eltville am Rhein.
I was glad I allowed for some extra time to get lost, because that’s essentially what happened. The instructions to get there weren’t exactly an address. They consisted of words like “next to the Sporthaus in Eltville.” You know the one. Right? Finding the Sporthaus proved to be difficult for our in-auto navigation system. The road we traveled ended up taking on the appearance of a frontage road as it began winding through some agriculture fields. Since we were trying to find a cherry orchard, we assumed this was correct and kept going.
Then the road changed to gravel. I drove on at a slower yet more confused pace. The road was narrow, as most of them are here, and I could see several people biking and walking on various pathways up through the vineyards we were cruising through. Up ahead of me, I saw two bicyclists heading our direction on the opposite side of the street riding side-by-side. I kept to the far right side of the road, expecting the cyclists to move to single-file position as is the law on a street allowing auto traffic.
As I approached the cyclists I could see they were older generation Germans. Just seconds after this realization I experienced my first ever German scolding. I super offended this man for some reason. I’m not sure if my10 km under the 30 kmh speed limit on a gravel road was too much for him, but he was spitting angry with me. Yelling and aggressively waving his hands and kicking his foot toward are car. So much so I immediately began to question my place on the street and in the world. Did it somehow turn to a pedestrian-only street? Am I supposed to stop the car? Why was he riding side-by-side on a street allowing auto traffic? Why is he yelling at me? WHAT DID I DO?” He was so mad I was afraid he’d chase after us (I was going that slowly). Thankfully he got his anger under control and we continued on our way, but I was rattled. He reduced me to the age of 5 in a second flat! Turns out, we were on an actual road allowed for autos, we were headed in the right direction, and we reached the cherry orchard only 30 seconds after this ordeal. But it was intense!
When we got to the parking area, we saw people walking to the gate with buckets and bags in their hands. More panic set in. My husband knows this well about me but I hate showing up somewhere feeling unprepared. It brings out that fear I have of drawing attention to myself. Like others will point at me and laugh that I actually thought I could come here without a container to lug my cherries in. I know that sounds ridiculous, and I’m getting better at telling myself this. But we didn’t even have our reusable bags in the car since we had just done our grocery shopping and hadn’t put them back. This day was going so well! (sarcasm).
But as soon as we arrived at the front gate we mentioned we had a reservation and the girls working the stand were so sweet and kind they cheered me right up. They gave us a bucket to put our picked cherries in and I instantly felt my body relax. They spoke wonderful English, though as with most Germans I’ve met so far they apologized that their English wasn’t very good (even though it was). One of the sisters explained to us which trees to pick and to make sure to leave the stems on the cherries because that would help their freshness last longer. There were several trees of sweet (süß - pronounced like “seuss”) and two trees with sour (sauer) cherries. Fun fact, sauer also translates to “angry” in German, which seems pretty fitting.
Grant was immediately interested in tasting the cherries after we were told we could try as many as we wanted to make sure we picked the variety we liked best. He quickly designated himself our family taster, and was very serious about his work.
He made sure to taste every inch of the cherry, judging its flavors and deciding if it was worth the effort to pick several from a particular tree. It took a lot of concentration to do this while also not swallowing the pit (or stone) in the process.
But just stand clear, my friends, because for some reason cherry pits were seemingly flying all around us while we picked, as this kid stripped the flesh from the stone with his teeth and tongue and promptly spat the final remains of the cherry into the wind. It reminded me of the watermelon seed spitting contests my family would have from my Grandparents’ dock on the Forest River in Savannah, GA. We spent many fun summer gatherings doing this. Why is seed-spitting so fun?!
Anyway, he was careful to pick the best cherries, and picked as many as he could on a single set of stems. Can’t say he isn’t efficient! Three at a time seemed to be the most common grouping he was able to pick. He was so proud!
Some cherries were up really high on the branches. Those seemed to be the best quality still left on the tree.
Grant’s favorites ended up being the sour cherries. The two sour cherry trees were still loaded with fruit and it was obvious that sauerkirschen are not the preferred selection. Although I did read that sour cherries are excellent for making really delicious, tart jam. Maybe we’ll give that a go next year. This time, we were on a mission for sweet cherries since we had a pie (or a cherry cheesecake) in mind to make.
Neil was very helpful with the picking as he was able to select the unpicked fruit from high-up on the tree that most couldn’t reach. His contribution made quick work of our labor and it wasn’t long before we had half a bucket filled with beautifully red, sweet cherries.
While we were picking, and our bucket quickly filling, I asked Neil how we were going to pit them all? Neil pulled out his phone while I continued picking, and within 30 seconds I hear “ok, a cherry pitter will be coming to the house on Tuesday.” Thank goodness for good Internet and for German Amazon!
All-in-all, we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon out of the house and away from the crowds, picking fresh fruit to take home. We took them back to the front gate to have them measured and to pay and were shocked that 2.5 kilos of cherries only cost us €5. In the grocery store they are easily €6 for only 1kilo. We were also able to purchase some fresh apricots (Aprikosen) and cherry wine (Kirschwein) for Neil, and some local honey for me and Grant.
The customer service was super friendly and the surroundings very lovely, as this sweet little orchard is nestled in Rheingau among the vineyards. Yes, you read that right. We essentially live 10 minutes from the Napa Valley of Germany. I can’t wait for my parents to be able to join us for some local wine tasting. The US needs to get their Coronavirus issues under control for several reasons, but one of the most important reasons being so my parents can come to visit!
We took our bounty home, and I was able to drive all the way there without offending anymore Germans!! Huzzah!
Update: This trip was a huge success. We took home nearly12 cups of cherries, 6 of which turned into the syrupy topping for a cheesecake that we ate on the Fourth of July. The leftover cherries and sauce were used the next morning for a pancake topping. Cherries are becoming my new favorite!