With a short harvest season, cherries are a rare and sought-after fruit. Photo courtesy of Cherry Marketing Institute.

February 2007

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Fruits

Cherish The Cherry

Facts About A Favorite Fruit

Life is just a bowl of cherries...the cherry on the cake. Cherries—sweet, rare, and seasonally limited—have been a prized item since before recorded time. Like so many delectables, they’ve entered our common language in an important way: beautiful and delicious, they’ve become synonymous with the best of the best. If you don’t believe me, feel free to ask anyone who ever bought a car off the lot in cherry condition...only to find out that it was secretly a lemon.

Favorite Cherry Facts

In the United States, there are more than 1,000 different varieties of cherry tree, almost all of them blossoming over a three-week period in late May and early June. Of those 1,000, only about ten varieties are produced commercially, but they’re put to good use: every tree produces about 7,000 cherries or, if you prefer to think about it in real terms, about thirty pies’ worth. The American crop of more than 300 million pounds of cherries—of which almost 75% come from Michigan—has no shortage of health benefits. Like most fruit, they are fat-, sodium-, and cholesterol-free, and they are also a particularly good source of Vitamin C and potassium. Rich in bioflavonoids and other antioxidants*, raw fresh cherries maintain many of their antioxidant qualities if frozen immediately after harvest. Luckily, freezing not only preserves but also concentrates and improves the taste. *Read more about antioxidants and of the health benefits of sour red cherries.

Each cherry tree produces about 30 pies’ worth of fruit each year. Photo courtesy of the Cherry Marketing Institute.

• The two main species of cherry throughout the world are the Prunus avium, or Sweet Cherry (also called wild cherry), and the Prunus cerasus, or Sour Cherry (also called tart cherry). Growing on tall trees that range between fifteen and thirty meters tall, both varieties occur broadly across Europe and Asia, and there is no cross-pollination between the two. The wild cherry—also known as the sweet cherry—is largely cultivated across California, Oregon, and Washington State, and popular varieties include the Bing (named for a Washington state horticultural foreman) and their genetic offspring, the Rainier cherry. The Rainier is famous for its creamy yellow flesh and its high price tag, as most of the yearly crop is picked off by birds before it ever has a chance to reach your table.
• Another well-known sweet cherry is the Royal Ann, which is better known in its preserved, dyed and sweetened form as the maraschino cherry, used to garnish cocktails and desserts. (The name maraschino refers to the marasca cherry and the maraschino liqueur made from it, in which maraschino cherries were originally preserved. They were originally produced as a delicacy for royalty and the wealthy.)
• Darker cherries have higher antioxidant and vitamin levels than lighter ones, but Sour Cherries, which are generally bright red rather than a darker red-purple in color, have far higher levels than Sweet.

Sour cherries, whose origins strongly point to origins around the Black and Caspian seas, are popular for use in pies and general snacking by people who prefer a more tart taste (the fruit is actually more fragile than sweet cherries, and harder to come by). The most popular breed is the Montmorency, which accounts for more than 95% of the sour cherry market, followed distantly by the Morello and Early Richmond varieties. The tartness gives the fruit more complexity and an acid backbone for cooking: It is the Montmorency, shown in the photo at right, that is most likely to show up in your Thanksgiving pie or in Cherries Jubilee.

In addition to their wonderful fruit, the cherry tree itself is known for its beautiful flowers. In particular, Asian varieties such as the Japanese sakura (known colloquially as the cherry blossom and featured extravagantly in Washington, D.C.’s eponymous festival, are well-regarded for their long, weeping branches filled with small pink flowers. The more floral trees often produce tiny berries unsuitable for consumption; for this reason, many cultivars replace the tree’s natural stamens and pistils with additional petals to create a more beautiful—albeit sterile—tree.

Cherry History

Closely related to plums and other stone fruit, cherries have been known and appreciated since ancient times. Theophrastus, an early botanist and protégé of Aristotle, mentions them in his “History of Plants” in the 3rd century B.C., going so far as to mention that they had already been known to the Greeks for centuries. Roman historian Pliny the Elder later writes that the decadent Roman general Lucullus brought cherries to Italy around 74 B.C., and some myths even tell of the old soldier committing suicide when he realized his supply of the sweet treat had lapsed. Both stories about Lucullus—like the one about George Washington and his dad’s cherry tree—are, of course, untrue, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate why someone would raise so much fuss over one of nature’s nicest rewards.

Washington was not the only U.S. leader to have a particular relationship with Prunus cerasus: President Zachary Taylor, when he died of dysentery in 1850, was reported to have developed his symptoms after enjoying “cold cherries and milk” during a long, hot outdoor Independence Day celebration that included breaking ground for the Washington Monument. Five days later, Taylor was dead, the cause listed as “gastroenteritis--inflammation of the stomach and intestines.” Alas, the health benefits of cherries could not come to his rescue.

Yet another founding father, Thomas Jefferson, grew cherries on his plantation at Monticello; so did literary giant Henry David Thoreau on his family’s Massachusetts farm. Neither, though, could likely tell you about the cherry and its massive value as a health aide: at more than 12,000 ORAC units per hundred grams of fruit, it has a higher antioxidant capacity than grapes, oranges, plums, raspberries and strawberries combined. In the 18th century, developing gout or arthritis would have meant a long relationship with pain and patience; it turns out, instead, that some tart cherry juice might have worked a little better.

Cherry pits have been found in Stone Age caves; perhaps our earliest ancestors, when not busy dodging angry mastodons, also had an appreciation for the cherry and its antioxidant properties, including an abundance of vitamins A, B, and C. Perhaps they even enjoyed it with freshly spear-hunted boar or wild fowl; their gourmet descendents have been known to enjoy it with savory pork and duck dishes as well.

Russians enjoy cherry preserves in their tea; Germans distilled cherries into their brandy. Still others use them in cakes and pies, over ice cream, dried and diced into salads, as a garnish in their cocktail, sprinkled over soft cheese or soft and warm in the middle of an indulgent chocolate truffle. The question, really, isn’t what you can do with cherries- but what you can’t.

Cherry Tips

Your relationship with this luscious red fruit is more likely to be a bowl of cherries if you follow these do’s and don’ts in the purchase and use of cherries:

• Always buy completely ripe cherries; unlike other stone fruits, cherries do not ripen off the tree.

• Look for cherries that are plump and brightly colored; avoid those with blemishes, or which feel hard to the touch.

• Cherries are highly perishable: their shelf life is about four days in the refrigerator. Use them promptly, or they will rot.

• Cherries can be frozen; this is a good way to preserve both the fruit and its juice. Do not defrost cherries before using them to cook or bake, or you risk losing some of their succulent juice.
• As with many plants in the Rosaceae family (including the apricot and the Japanese plum), cherry leaves are poisonous and should not be eaten.
• Cherries and their juice are renowned for their ability to stain hands and clothing. For stained hands, rub lemon juice over the affected areas and rinse well with warm water. For clothing, apply any commercially common brand of stain remover directly to the stained portion of the material, wash in cold water and rest easy.

Recipe: Cherry Tiramisu

Here’s a quick, fun cherry tiramisu recipe that you can sink your teeth into, courtesy of the Cherry Marketing Institute:

Ingredients

• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup coffee liqueur
• 1-1/2 cups pure butter shortbread
  cookie crumbs (about 30 2-inch
  cookies)
• 1 can (21-ounces) cherry filling and
  topping†
• Grated chocolate for garnish
  (optional)
• Fresh mint leaves for garnish
  (optional)

†A gourmet-quality product is available from Chukar.com.

Directions

1. Combine ricotta cheese, confectioners’ sugar, sour cream and coffee liqueur in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Set aside.
2. In the container of an electric blender or food processor, process cookies, in small batches, until finely crushed.
3. Remove 6 cherries from cherry filling; reserve for garnish.
4. To assemble dessert, spoon 2 tablespoons ricotta cheese mixture into each of six (8-ounce) parfait glasses. Add 2 tablespoons cookie crumbs to each glass; top each with 2 tablespoons cherry filling. Repeat ricotta, crumb and cherry layers. Finish each serving with an equal portion of the remaining ricotta cheese mixture.
5. Garnish with reserved cherries, grated chocolate and mint leaves, if desired. Let chill 2 to 3 hours before serving.

Serves 6.

Cherry Resources

Traverse Bay Farms, in Bellaire, Michigan, grows cherries and sells them as dried fruit, fruit salsas, Montmorency tart cherry juice and more. They also have recipes for Cherry Salsa, Southwestern Style Cherry Slaw, Cherry, Smoked Turkey Salad, Cherry Sauce for Grilled Salmon and a Cherry Pepper Side Salad. Visit them at TraverseBayFarms.com.

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