the flathead cherries are ripe and a group of growers drove some to Billings so of course i bought 40$worth. There won't be enough to can by the time the kids get done in the next few days. Flathead cherries are really bings and ranier cherries grown in Flathead valley along Flathead lake, a really big natural lake. Not as big as the Great Lakes, but really big enough not to see the other side so it causes its own lake effect and allows fruits to grow that won't grow elsewhere in Montana. I usually just eat the rosehips I find, they have a delightfully almost citrus taste around a fuzzy middle. Have never gotten enough from my rugosa roses to make jelly, I just eat them as soon as i see them. I do make chokecherry jelly, wild plum jelly, wild plum conserves(for pork or chicken), canning broth, canning tomato mixtures ( we figured out a way to make italian spiced or mexican spiced, makes pasta sauces and chili super easy to crank out later), and of course butchering chickens and turkeys. there are wild sumac that are edible here, buffaloberry, black currants, and a few other seasonal wild and feral edibles around here. My parents taught me a lot about it because they both grew up around nature. My dad is an old cowboy.
