How I miss traveling. Every time I see a friend on Facebook mention a road trip they took or a long weekend they spent up north with friends, I feel a pang of jealousy. We’re not traveling for many reasons: this small thing called a pandemic, a lovable senior kitty who needs daily meds, me not having a job and trying to save money. Having reasons doesn’t make it any easier, though, especially for someone born with wanderlust.

So last weekend, when I hopped in my car and drove over the border into the wilds of Wisconsin, I was probably more excited than I would have been in The World That Once Was. My destination: Maple Leaf Orchard in Spring Valley, a little over an hour east from Minneapolis. Just days before, I had been admiring the sour cherries that my friend Carolyn had scored at the St. Paul farmers market. She tipped me off to the pick-your-own day that Maple Leaf was hosting that Saturday, the only time it would be happening this year. The fields would open at 9 a.m., and they were sure to be picked out by noon.

After a quick stop at Starbucks (which has become such a treat this past month), I sped down Interstate 94, crossing the Mississippi River, passing through Hudson and finishing off with a drive through familiar Wisconsin farmland. My timing was perfect: I arrived just as the owners were letting people into the orchard (after a stop at the hand sanitizing station and grabbing a bucket). I found a tree and pick, pick, picked away. Unlike picking blueberries, which we had done the weekend before and which required us to squat, get scratched by bushes and fight with insects, picking cherries was a snap. They were so plentiful that after about 40 minutes, I had almost 10 pounds in my bucket. That seemed like a decent amount, but all around me – although not too close – people were filling up multiple, bigger buckets. If only we had the freezer space!

I splurged on the extra $0.20/pound to have the cherries pitted and relaxed in the sun until my number was called. (For those who are curious, my cherries came to about $30, which included the picking and the bucket; everyone was required to buy their own for “a nominal fee” this year because of the virus.) It wasn’t too crowded, and people were wearing masks and social distancing, making it a pretty stress-free situation. I even ran into Carolyn, who was shoring up the stock from her own tree with another bucket or so. It was so nice to see a friend yet so weird as we kept our distance! We promised that next year, we’d grab our friend Bret and make a morning of it together.

Back at home, I measured out some of the cherries for a pie and some for a pancake topping, straining out the cherry juice to sip on later. The rest I froze with big plans to whip up a bit of summer once the Minnesota winter hits and we’re all probably still quarantined at home and going crazy.

For the pie, I used my favorite crust recipe from Pure Wow. This one never fails me and is super tender and flaky. Not having freeze-dried strawberries on hand to color the dough (which would have been a gorgeous complement to the cherries), I just used a bit more flour. The recipe for the filling came from one of my go-to sites, King Arthur Flour, and is aptly named Mr. Washington’s Cherry Pie. While cleaning out my kitchen cabinets earlier in the summer, I had come across a package of quick-cooking tapioca and wondered why I had it – and now I remembered having bought it the last time I made this dessert. Thankfully, I had fought the urge to toss it. The bright red pie turned out sweet and tangy, with a touch of rich fattiness from the butter pats put on top before baking. One note: If you think there’s a lot of liquid in your mixture, don’t be tempted to cut back! The tapioca will absorb most of it, leaving just the right amount of juice to keep the filling a little loose.

The pancakes – actually, cornmeal-based johnnycakes – I made the next morning threw the second stash of sour cherries together with maple syrup-sweetened rhubarb, becoming a topping. This is another recipe from Pure Wow, and it’s a winner: Johnnycakes with Rhubarb and Sour Cherries.

The frozen cherries are destined to become something delicious. I’ve already bookmarked two recipes that sound promising – Sour Cherry Coffee Cake and Drunken Cherries (which uses regular cherries but I’m guessing will work well with any kind). They may even find their way into an ice cream later this summer. My goal is to use them all up so that next summer I can opt for the big bucket!