Ingredient: Cherries
Category: Fruit
Season: Summer
Cherry, refers to a fleshy fruit (drupe) that contains a single stony seed. The cherry belongs to the family Rosaceae, genus Prunus, along with almonds, peaches, plums, apricots and bird cherries.
The Wild Cherry (P. avium) has given rise to the Sweet Cherry to which most cherry cultivars belong, and the Sour Cherry (P. cerasus) is used mainly for cooking.
Both species originate in Europe and Western Asia; they do not cross-pollinate each other.
The other species, although having edible fruit, are not grown extensively for consumption, except in northern regions where the two main species will not grow.
Given the high costs of production, from irrigation, sprays and labour costs, in addition to their proneness to damage from rain and hail, the cherry is relatively expensive. Nonetheless, there is high demand for the fruit.
Major commercial cherry orchards in Europe extend from the Iberian peninsula east to Asia Minor; they are also grown to a smaller extent north of the British Isles and southern Scandinavia.
Cherries have a very long growing season, they can grow anywhere including the great cold of the tundra.
In Australia they are usually at their peak around Christmas time.
In southern Europe in June.
In America in June,
In the UK in mid July, always in the summer season.
Kentish cherries, ripe and red, or ‘whites’, which were actually pale and creamy with a rosy blush.
These have the finest flavour of all cherries and there are still Kentish growers.
Because UK cherries are in short supply, we are grateful to other European countries and the US for sending us a plentiful stock throughout the summer.
They are expensive, because cherries are laborious to hand pick, but because the season is relatively short I always make the most of it and seem to eat them practically every day
We buy mostly dessert cherries, but sour cherries, called morello, are brilliant for cooking – they have a wonderful, quite unique, concentrated cherry flavour.
Because there’s a very short supply of sour cherries, we only seem to be able to buy the dried here, but bottled ones can be good and morello cherry jam is superb, both spread on bread and scones and in a sauce to serve with duck.
Dessert cherries cooked with wine and wine vinegar also make a superb sauce for duck or gammon, so I would serve this in the summer, and then in the winter months make it with dried sour cherries.
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