Cherries
such variety
I’m a tart guy.
Not really interested in sweet so much as that mouth puckering tartness provided by certain foods.
To illustrate, as a kid my grandmother had a small patch of rhubarb growing in her backyard. I’d go out and snag a stalk and after washing it, munched happily away on it. Even rhubarb pie is much better, in my mind, without the strawberries most people pollute it with.
Yum.
That also goes with apples, the more tart the better.
Even soups, hot and sour soup is my all time favorite Asian style, along with sweet & sour pork.
Don’t get me started on sour patch gummies.
Which brings me to the subject today. Cherries.
It’s amazing that much like apples, cherries have their own distinct varieties, most of which are similar in flavor and sweetness.
But then, sitting high atop the mountain (heh) of varieties, is one that only comes around for a few weeks out of the year. Of course, I am referring to the Rainier cherry.
These buggers are expensive, but worth the price. They are only available a few short weeks of the year, and predominately grown in the pacific northwest. A small bag can cost you $10-$15 dollars or more.
It’s an annual event I look forward to every year, when they start showing up in grocery stores in the region.
Now, the Internet claims they are not tart at all, but to me, I beg to differ. Maybe my taste buds are wonky, but I find regular cherries like the Bing to be overly sweet, but apparently it’s the other way around. Yes, the Rainiers are sweet, but with a tang that I enjoy more than the dark red varieties.
It’s the same with green grapes, although the internet does acknowledge them as tart. Not a fan of other varieties.
I’ve been accused of being picky, but I think it’s more than I prefer certain things that others dislike. Black licorice, love that stuff, not tart, but sweet and bitter. Red licorice isn’t licorice in my opinion, just a rope of sugar dyed red.
What say you? A fan of the tart? Can’t stand real licorice? Never heard of Rainier cherries?
My back yard has three varieties of Cherries. The big one is the Lambert by the back door. Similar to the Bing, it’s similar to what you would consider the “Typical Cherry.” Next to it is a Black Republic that’s more of a pie cherry. Tart, but not terribly tart. I think you’d like it, although the cherries are quite small. Then we have the Royal Anne by the wood shed on the other end of the property. The Royal Anne has the red-to-yellow look like the picture you feature in your article. When you eat one, you can tell it’s a cherry, but… I’m trying to describe it… it’s very muted in taste. It doesn’t blast your taste buds. Not bad, anyone can eat one, but it’s not something an afficionado would be terribly interested in. But the Lambert and the Royal Anne were purchased from a nursery and the Black Republic was brought in from a relative’s neighbor’s house.
I also have a slew of “volunteer” cherry trees. Perhaps one or two dozen. Trees that started themselves from dropped cherries. And they’re not really clones of those three varieties. More like “Mutts.” The ones by the Lambert are close to the Lambert, but the cherries are the size of the Black Republic. They grow well, and they can impinge on structures, and so… yes, I’m going to say it!... I cannot tell a lie, I cut down a Cherry Tree with a chain saw back in February because it was starting to hang out over one of the cars and it was a hazard. That’s okay, there are many more around it.
Back in 2000, I dug a volunteer up that was dragging on that woodshed, and I brought it to my Grandparents’ house. I told my Grandfather the root went down 3 feet and off to the right 2 feet. It was a whip of a tree, only about 8-10’ tall. When I brought the tree in the truck, both us looked at each other like we were nuts. My grandfather had dug a hole the shape of a grave, 3 feet deep and 2 foot sides. I asked him who the hell he was burying, and he said “the only place that tree needs to go is into the shredder!” We planted the tree anyway. It took off. Today, the trunk is almost 2 feet in diameter, and the tree itself is over 50 feet tall. The birds love it.
Tart? One of the Grandparents’ neighbors by the Jefferson-Lincoln school had a red cherry tree in their back yard. Those damn cherries were inedible. Tart was an understatement. C Jay said it’s strictly a pie cherry. Yeah, tart like approaching battery acid. Yuck! But the cool thing about C Jay? He was a Freemason and one of the reasons why I joined. He was a Pearl Harbor survivor and received his EA degree at the same time as Chiang Kai-shek’s oldest son. Liberty Lodge No. 7, Grand Lodge of China. C Jay was later on my Investigating Committee and was my conductor for all three degrees. Now THAT was an honor.
I also forgot to list Raspberries as among my favorites. When I go to a diner for breakfast, digging though the cradle of jelly packets can be maddening. Sometimes all that is left is grape (ugh).