![]() ![]() ![]() This is a tart treat you can nibble on as an appetizer or snack with nuts and a creamy cheese, such as blue, Brie or goat. PICKLED CHERRIES WITH WHITE WINE VINEGAR, TARRAGON Life is just a bowl of cherries, so live and laugh and laugh at love, love a laugh, laugh and Akis's columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday. But I'm sure he would have agreed with this quote by famed film and theatre director Bob Fosse: "Life is just a bowl of cherries, don't take it serious, it's mysterious. I'm not sure if my dad knew that when he ate them. Nutritionally, low-in-calorie cherries are sometimes referred to as one of the "super fruits." They contain fibre a number of vitamins, such as A, C and B minerals, such as potassium and iron and a range of antioxidants. If very fresh, they will keep for several days. Unless you plan to eat or use them that day, sort through the cherries and discard any that are damage, and then store them, unwashed, in a perforated plastic bag (what they are often sold in) in the refrigerator. Sour cherries should also feel firm, but be a little softer and have more give than sweet cherries. ![]() Sweet cherries should feel firm, not hard. (The Association of Saskatchewan Home Economists website offers great tips on food preservation visit and click on food and nutrition.) When buying fresh sweet or sour cherries, opt for plump, vibrantly coloured fruit. They can also be turned into preserves or be frozen. Sweet cherries are generally sold fresh, for eating as is or use in a wide range of recipes, such as chilled soups, salads and, of course, desserts. This added attention, plus a limited supply and high demand, explains why rainier cherries are more expensive than the regular sweet cherries. The reason they are pampered is because they are highly sensitive to weather conditions and the grower must keep a close on eye them to ensure they don't bruise or burst. One article I read called the rainier cherry, now grown in places such as the Okanagan Valley, the sweetest, prettiest and most pampered of cherries. Rainier cherries have a creamy-yellow flesh and a skin tinted yellow and red. Another sweet cherry variety growing in popularity is the rainier a cross between a bing and van cherry created in Washington state in the 1950s. The most common type of sweet cherry is the bing, but a number of other types are grown, such as the lambert, van, lapins and sweetheart. (For other farms growing and selling cherries on Vancouver Island, visit and click on products.) Sweet cherries do well in areas where summers are warm and winters reasonably mild, such as southern Ontario and B.C.'s Okanagan, Similkameen and Kootenay valleys, where the majority of Canada's sweet cherries are grown. However, grower Norrie Spencer says supply is very limited and they sell out quickly. For example, Rosemeade Farms on the Saanich Peninsula grows sour cherries and sells them at the Peninsula Country Market on Saturday mornings. Consequently, finding fresh sour cherries for sale for home use can be a bit of challenge, unless you or a sharing friend has a tree, or you live in an area where sour cherries are commercially grown and some of that fruit is sold at the farm gate, a farmers' market, or a food store. Agriculture website (.ca), almost all sour cherries are processed into such things as frozen, canned or dried sour cherries, juice, pie-fillings and preserves. The pale-fleshed Montmorency is by far the most common, commercially grown sour cherry variety, but there are numerous other types. Ontario has traditionally been Canada's leading sour cherry-producing region, but Statistics Canada says that the development of sour cherry trees even better suited to harsher climates has seen a rise in trees being planted in areas not considered prime fruit-growing regions, such as the Prairies. They are hardier than sweet cherries and can tolerate milder summers and cooler winters. According to an article on Statistics Canada's website (statcan.gc.ca), sour cherries are produced mainly in the northern hemisphere. Climatic conditions determined where a sweet, and a sour, cherry tree would best grow. Both of these cultivated cherries are descendants of two wild varieties native to western Asia, said to have grown as far back as 300 BC.Įnglish settlers brought seeds to North America to grow cherry trees. Those cherries were sweet cherries, one of two main types the other is the sour cherry. He would share and their addictive, give-me-more-flavour to this day still reminds me of journeys to the beach, park or fishing hole. One of my most lingering summer memories is of family road trips and my dad's favourite snack as we drove: fresh cherries.
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