The Cherry Marketing Institute is sponsoring some fantastic cherry recipes at allrecipes.com right now. Super Fruit (Cherry) Lime Muffins, Berry Good Oatmeal, Mango Cherry Avocado Salad, and Chewy Cherry Whole Grain Cereal Bars are just a few of the creative cherry recipes they’re highlighting.
Warning: The pictures will make you hungry. I hope you have some dried tart cherries in stock!
The market has lots of frozen cherries available. Montmorency and Balaton cherries are in 10lb bags. I have small tubs of montmorecy cherries enough for just one pie. Remember my hours are Mon – Fri 9 to 4.
For far away customers, we are shipping cherries until the end of March. My experience has been that shipping frozen tart cherries in the winter (2 day air) is more successful and cheaper than fresh. So Hurry!!!
I do ship fresh black sweet cherries in July. They have to be shipped next day air, but they are wonderful!!! Betsy
This quick and easy cherry recipe is from Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross at Desperation Dinners. Desperation Dinners promises their recipes are not hard, do not require expensive equipment, and can be made in 20 minutes or less.
Start to finish: 5 minutes preparation, plus 20 minutes to bake and about 10 minutes to cool
Ingredients:
Cook’s note: Bring the piecrust to room temperature following the instructions on the package so that the crust does not crack during baking. We used both Pillsbury and our local supermarket house brand in testing, and both worked well.
We used cherry-pie filling with extra fruit for testing.* Any of the leftover filling, gel or cherries can be refrigerated for up to four days. (Use it to top cheesecake or spread on toast and croissants.)
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Unroll the piecrust (it must be at room temperature) onto the prepared sheet. Spoon the cherry-pie filling (using as many of the cherries as possible) onto the crust, leaving a 2-inch margin. Sprinkle the liqueur, lemon zest and almonds evenly over the filling only.
Gently fold the edges of the crust inward over the first 2 inches of the filling, leaving the center open. The sides of the crust will overlap slightly at the edges. If the crust tears, gently press it back together with your fingers. Sprinkle sugar lightly, to taste, over the exposed crust.
Bake, uncovered, until the crust is light brown and the almonds are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet until slightly warm, slice and serve, with vanilla ice cream if desired.
Serves 6.
Nutrition information per serving: 217 calories (49 percent from fat), 12 g fat (4 g saturated), 9 mg cholesterol, 2 g protein, 25 g carbohydrates, 1 g dietary fiber, 189 mg sodium.
*We think King Orchards Cherrier Cherry Pie Filling is a perfect choice for this recipe, because it is chock full of cherries.
Peter Barnes talks to Dr. Wendy Bazilian, the author of “The Super Foods RX,” and Jeff Manning, Cherry Marketing Institute CMO about the rebranding of tart cherries and their health benefits.
It sure is nice to see the news getting out about the versatility, availability and healthfulness of tart cherries. Truth be told, I have never really loved the “Not Just Another Berry” tag line. I believe marketing should clarify, not confuse, and Peter Barnes rightly points out that cherries are not a berry at all.
My favorite part of the interview is when Peter Barnes exclaims, almost as if surprised, “They’re Delicious!”
We’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think would make the best tagline or slogan for Montmorency Tart Cherries?
I had to make a really quick Trail Mix for Scouts with M&M’s, Mixed Nuts, Pretzel sticks, Goldfish and Dried Cherries! Yummy! So quick I love to make it for my dish to pass. Well, I had a friend volunteer to bring the Cherries and they were brown and dried to a pulp. I was disappointed because I am so used to our King Orchards Red Dried Cherries with a little squish to them yet (not dried right out!). I gave my friend a quick lesson in the difference between Dried Cherries – of course, we think ours are the best!
Rose
In Celebration of National Cherry Month, here are some interesting historical facts about Tart Cherries.
Cherries have pleased the palates of food lovers for centuries. Their ruby-red color and tangy taste won cherries a place on the tables of Roman conquerors, Greek citizens and Chinese noblemen. For history buffs, you might like to know that:
The first cherry processing facility, Traverse City Canning Company, was built just south of Traverse City, and the ruby-red fruit was soon shipped to Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee.
To learn even more about cherries – their history, the cherry industry, taxonomy, cultivars, processing – please visit our All About Cherries Page.
Yesterday was our high school regional ski meet. The parents put on a big spread for the kids for lunch. I was talking to a mom who brought a broccoli salad with dried cherries in it. She said the recipe called for dried raisins but she liked dried cherries. She felt you get a bigger flavor punch from dried cherries and they kind of “up scale” the recipe. Just the kind of things I like to hear. My son won the slalom race and so it was a great day. Betsy King
I stumbled across another tasty cherry dessert idea while doing my daily web search for all things cherry. This recipe comes from Ann Lovejoy at SeattlePi.com. Just in time for Valentine’s Day.
CHOCOLATE CHERRY MERINGUES
MAKES ABOUT 50
2 egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons tart dried cherries, finely chopped
2 tablespoons bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Cover two baking sheets with foil or baking parchment.
In a deep bowl, combine egg whites and salt and beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar by the tablespoon, beating constantly between each addition. When egg whites are stiff but not dry, gently fold in vanilla, cherries, and chocolate.
Drop by teaspoonfuls on the cookie sheets or pipe into rosettes (use a 1/2-inch star tip). Bake until dry but not browned (45-50 minutes). Turn off oven and leave meringues to cool completely before removing from pan. Store in a tightly sealed tin.
Today I talked with Adam from Hilltop trees in Lawton, Mi about our tree order for 2008. I want to get several rows of McIntosh planted this spring. We have McIntosh planted on the home farm and on Jim’s home farm but most are on the larger rootstock so picking requires ladders. The larger trees are a real headache when it comes to u-pick Mac’s. The top of the tree has the best color and people are inclined to reach for those, but Macs fall off readily when they are ripe so any disturbance causes apples to fall. I hope that by planting fully dwarfing trees I can have u-pick work more easily. We manage the height and bearing branches on the dwarfing trees so that the fruit colors more evenly and the apples in the top are the same as the apples at eye level. Also the tree is only a few feet across from outside to outside so most of the apples can be reached from the ground without disturbing the apples that we don’t want to pick yet.
We plant the trees on dwarfing rootstocks close together. The trees I ordered today are on M-9 rootstock and we will plant them 3 1/2 feet apart in rows 14 feet apart. Trees on M-9 can not stand up on their own so we will tie the tree to a bamboo stake and then tie the bamboo to a trellis for support. On the plus side the trees on M-9 root grow large apples and start bearing in the year following planting. We hope for full production by the 5th year!!
I am going to plant these Macs in a block near the M-88 market right next to some rows of Northern Spy, Mutsu, Gala, and Honeycrisp. I hope to encourage u-pick apples.
John
February 29 is the last day to get apples. We have Ida red and Empire apples. The markets are open Mon-Fri 9-4. Applesauce is still easy and Ida reds or Empire are good choices. Stop in. We have lots of frozen cherries available for that cherry month recipe. Betsy