FRESH & IN SEASON

Cherries

Peak Season: June through August

Happiness is sharing cherries a bowl of cherries and a book of poetry with a shade tree.
—Astrid Alauda

Whether you like them sweet or sour, there is only a brief window of time to enjoy fresh cherries. The short cherry season (lasting as few as four weeks and peaking around mid-July) gives us sweet cherries from the Pacific Northwest and sour cherries, also known as “pie” or “tart” cherries, from Michigan. While sweet cherries are often sold fresh, most of the sour-cherry crop is canned, dried or frozen.

Each July, at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan (the self-proclaimed cherry capital of the world), as many as half a million people join together to celebrate the harvest of 80 million pounds of sour cherries. The festival includes pit-spitting competitions (record distance: 95 feet 9 inches), cherry pie-eating contests and a CHERRYOPOLY tournament, and features specialties like cherry popcorn, cherry salsa and, of course, cherry pie.

Even if you can’t get to Michigan for the festival, have a cherry celebration of your own. Eat them fresh or try them in our delicious recipes— either way, cherries are a delicious and healthy treat.

Related Recipes: Dark Cherry Bundt Cake; Vanilla-Kirsch Panna Cotta with Cherry Compote; Turkey Tenderloin with Whiskey-Cherry Sauce; Sour Cherry-Fruit Slump; Brandied Cherry Sauce; Chocolate, Cherry & Almond Bread Pudding; Cherry-Almond Crumble; Grilled Chicken with Cherry-Chipotle Barbecue Sauce; Cherry Pie; Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cherry & Tomato Chutney; More Healthy Cherry Recipes

What You Get: Cherries are rich in antioxidants: anthocyanidins, which bolster antioxidant defenses, and quercetin, which may help regulate blood pressure. They are also a good source of fiber, potassium and vitamins A and C.

Tips

Shopping Tip: There are two basic types of cherries—sweet and sour. Sweet cherry varieties include Bing, Ranier and Lambert. Sweet cherries can be found in the produce section of most markets during cherry season. Sour cherries, which are too tart to eat out of hand, are most often used as pie filling. Find them frozen, canned and dried in most supermarkets; they are more difficult to find fresh. Varieties include Early Richmond, Montmorency and Morello.; Select cherries that are firm, plump and shiny without soft spots or bruising.

Storage Tip: Store fresh cherries in the refrigerator as soon as possible after purchase.

Fun Fact: Approximately 250 cherries are needed to make a cherry pie, and there are about 7,000 cherries per cherry tree, meaning one tree can provide for 28 pies.