Let Us Now Praise Famous Cherries

I am in love with cherries. Partially because of what they represent, the LA Times’ Russ Parsons notes that cherries mark the transition from spring to summer. Rewind to a few months and the sight of the neighborhood carpeted in cherry blossoms would normally be a portent of longer, drier warmer days but this year in Oregon, was a particularly brutal wet cold spring. The seasonal appearance of cherries coincided with a few sunny days, imbuing the fruit with more extra symbolic power this year.

Beyond the fruit’s weather changing powers, the flavor is pretty good. Benzaldehyde, linalool and eugenol are the prominent flavors that give a the fruit an bitter almond, flowery, clove flavor. While hints of the fruit’s cousins – peach and plum can also be detected. In order to develop these intense flavors, cherries have to be harvested ripe, they don’t mature after they are picked, making them fragile and hard to ship. Only a low percentage of the fruit is sold fresh, the rest is processed as jams, preserves and canned/frozen fruit.

Most preserved cherries are of the sour variety morellos, amarelles or Griottes, come from the Prunus cerasus trees. The Marasca cherry, variety of morello family, is the delivery vessel of the maraschino cherry. A process that Harold McGee states reduces the fruit to little more than its skeleton form after being bleached with sulfur dioxide, brined - preserved in sugar syrup and almond extract: A process that will never earn an organic label, but using the unnaturally red fruit in an occasional Old Fashion isn’t going to destroy the world.

Outside the maraschino-industrial-complex, cherries are viewed as being quite healthy with their antioxidant Kung Fu – particularly the dark red varieties. Packed with potassium, cherries have been valued as diuretic since Roman Days. And for the Neo-Galens reading, there is a current cleansing diet recommends eating about two pounds of cherries a day. Believing the cellulose in the fruit will eliminate toxins, this well-thought, clinically-researched plan will cause eliminations - since cherries can cause digestive fermentations, expanding the pulp and resulting in a swollen stomach and intestine before it all goes south from there. 

Or the same 2 pounds can be distilled into about 3oz of Kirschwasser, a cherry brandy made from the aforementioned morellos or if you a German enthusiast, Black Forest cherries. And if 2 shots of 80 proof brandy is a little too much, Kirsch is also used in Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake), fondues and chocolates.

Cherry season gets extended by the first cherries of the year arriving from California in May and Midwestern shipments keep grocery stores supplied until early September. Nothing like the local varieties - On the local front, now is the time - Bings, Queen Annes, Raniers and Chelan varieties all hitting the markets at the same time and unfortunately, will all disappear at the same time. Cherry's cousins, the plum and peach, will assuage the disappearance of this year’s crop in a couple of weeks. Until then there is clafoutis and on the cocktail side - a Manhattan packed to the rim with pitted cherries that have been chilled in the freezer for 10 minutes - for summer, cool and refreshing.

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