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Photo Challenge

Rare

For this week’s challenge, show us something that stands out from the everyday.

Could it be mid-August already? For those of us who live in less-warm climes, summer’s long, sunny days are a prized commodity, something to look forward to all year long. But even during this all-too-short season, some things are more prized than others.

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Exhibit A: sour cherries. They’re tart and satisfying and beautiful in ways other fruit can barely come close to. They’re also almost impossible to find, at least where I live: their season lasts about seven minutes, and fewer and fewer people appreciate them these days, so growers keep replacing the trees with other, more user-friendly (read: giant and sweet) varieties. Sour-cherry devotees have become a loosely-organized seasonal cult, haunting farmers’ markets, searching for their phantom favorites with desperate looks.

But then you find them at that one fruit stand, and for a couple of weeks, as supplies last, you’re content. You make compotes and cakes. You prepare yourself for another year of waiting.

For this week’s challenge, share a photo of something rare: a family heirloom. A cloudy day in a normally sunny desert. A sad frown on a cheerful kid’s face. Or anything else you think of as scarce and singular. I can’t wait to see what “rare” means to you!

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  5. Summer? That in itself was a rare occurrence this year! If we had ten real summer’s days it would have been plenty! And drat… the Met folk are predicting that autumn is rushing in sooner! 😉

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  9. Oh my! My family grew up picking sour cherries. My mom, my sister and I love making cherry pie. Every year the entire family would go to the orchard and pick. Pounds and pounds and pounds. Then we’d sit around the kitchen table pitting them. We froze them. I continue the tradition, though my entire family has moved to the south where you can’t get these. Now it’s my responsibility to go to the orchard and pick. Less pounds, but still a lot. And I pit alone. It’s the pits. (sorry!) I agree, these are special and rare and wonderful. And when the light shines through the ripe ones on the tree it’s magical. Thanks for bringing back fun memories that I sometimes forget when I’m slogging through the process of getting them ready to freeze.

    Now I’ll go find something else that is ‘rare’ for the challenge.

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    1. It’s always nice to know I’m not a one-person sour-cherry cult! 🙂
      I actually came to love them as an adult, through my wife, who grew up in a country where they’re very popular.

      Looking forward to see your photo!

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  16. Love this time of year with the good produce! My rare family heirloom is my great grandfather’s pocket watch which I found out it was from 1918. Make sure you follow my blog
    chefstegonzcom.wordpress.com

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  22. Sour cherries and sour plums are part of the summer diet here in Tbilisi, Georgia. The cherries were giving way to watermelons in the markets, when I was searching for inspiration for the earlier photo challenge “cherry on the top”.

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