Of Cherries and Water
The neighbor's cherry tree, at least 2/3 of which is on our side of the fence, is literally dripping with fruit. My wife and I picked about 5 gallons of them in two 30 minute sessions last week. Any thoughts about how best to preserve them? The best tip we have recieved thus far is to purchase a cherry pitter for about $15. Where does one find a cherry pitter?--At Collier Hardware (established 1871) of course.
On a different topic, a friend of ours told us she keeps the sprinkler on all the time, 24 hours a day. She is on a flat rate, and doesn't see it as wasting water, rather, she feels that she is "returning it to the aquifer," and is thus in her own small way offsetting any efforts on the part of CalWater to pump and ship water from the Tuscan Aquifer to points south.
I see where she is coming from, but I respectfully disagree with her approach on scientific grounds. How deep the water from her sprinklers sink I do not know, but I doubt it will ever recharge the same aquifer from which it came. From what I understand, the recharge of the Tuscan Aquifer is in the foothills and mountains east of Chico, where the angles of the sloping rock formations allow rainfall and melting snow to slowly seep down beneath Chico as if flowing down an underground ramp.
But as I have mentioned before, most of our knowledge of the Tuscan Aquifer is best guess. As such, a substance as valuable is water is not something to be messed with lightly, and it doesn't matter are if you are a citizen who is still on a flat rate or if you are the CEO of CalWater.