“Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries” or so
says the song (lyrics by Lew Brown and music by Ray Henderson).
Well … sometimes it is and sometimes it
isn’t, and the latter is all too true on the ill-fated Cherry Orchard farm — the
setting for the romantic suspense novel, WATCHED:
“Strong, handsome male lead Shay McGregor is a man on the move,
riding the rails in beautiful Eastern Canada during the Great Depression.
Widow Rietta Nicholson is finally free from her marriage to a bad
man and now struggling to run the family farm on her own. Then she’s introduced
to Shay, a tall, dark stranger new in town and looking for work.
There is immediate chemistry between the widow and the hired man,
but murder and mayhem await on Cherry Orchard Farm. Stalked by an unseen
assailant, neither Rietta nor Shay is safe in this wild ride of romantic
suspense. Can they even survive the night?”
Incidentally, Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries was written in 1931 at
the onset of the Great Depression, and the setting for WATCHED is 1932.
In any event, be they sour or sweet, metaphor or not, cherries are an
enormously popular fruit and my favourite by the way. But there’s so much more
to cherries than just their visual appeal. According to harryanddavid.com,
cherries are actually a “fleshy drupe,” a stone fruit that is soft on the
outside with a rock hard pit waiting inside:
“Coming from the genus prunus, the sweet cherry goes by Prunus avium,
meaning ‘wild cherry.’ This species is also known as a sweet cherry, bird
cherry, or gean. The sour variety is known as Prunus cerasus.
“Some 1,200 varieties of cherries exist worldwide, but you really
only need to know the major ones. The Bing cherry is America’s most popular
type of sweet cherry; the Montmorency is the most popular sour cherry.”
And perhaps the most showy of all are maraschino cherries, a
perennial favourite.
“Marasca
is a type of cherry originating from Dalmatia, and the largest yields come from
the city of Zadar. These cherries are a variety of classic Morello cherries.
They are small in size and have a dark red to blackish color. The flavors are
floral, acidic, and slightly bitter due to the stone in the center of the
fruit.” (tasteatlas.com)
Fresh cherries of any kind are always in demand in (a short) season,
and it is estimated (harryanddavid.com) that in the United States alone, an
average of 2.6 pounds of them are consumed per person in a variety of forms
every year. In the United States’ Washington State, Oregon and California are
among the top sweet cherry producers (90%) and Michigan accounts for 74% of
sour cherry production, (harryanddavid.com). However the king of
cherry-producing (and consuming) countries is Turkey.
Ahhh, there’s nothing better than a bowl of cherries, unless it’s
two bowls of cherries, and it’s Bing for me. I could eat my weight in them.
Late season Bing
cherries
The wonderful news is that cherries, aside from being succulently
delicious, are also nutritional. “Cherries are a superfood and are rich in
antioxidants, fiber, minerals, and vitamins A, C and K. They also have
anti-inflammatory properties that may help combat gout, arthritis, diabetes,
and cancer.” (harryanddavid.com)
The pits are well, the pits, and not edible. “No!” says
harryanddavid.com. “Cherry pits contain trace amounts of amygdalin, a chemical
compound that the body converts to the poison cyanide. However, you don’t need
to truly worry if you swallow the pit whole, as the chewing process is what
triggers the chemical conversion. Still, chomp on enough of them, and the risk
goes up. So just, don’t.”
Not just a treat for the palate, cherries can be found in countless
products, including skin care according to healthshots.com:
“Looking for ways to make your skin glow naturally? Start by
including cherries in your beauty routine. There are many cherry benefits when
it comes to your skin health. These small-sized fruits are packed with
essential nutrients such as vitamins A, C, and K, as well as potent
antioxidants like anthocyanins, which can address a multitude of skin concerns,
from combatting free radical damage to promoting collagen production. So, if
you’re dealing with acne, looking for natural glow, or just want to keep your
skin looking youthful, the humble cherry might be the answer you’ve been
searching for…”
While most cultivated cherries
are derived from ancestral stock, wild cherries still abound throughout the
northern hemisphere, and some suggest perhaps they are more nutrient dense than
their cultivar cousins. And if wild cherries are good for us, they are also a high-energy food for common foragers such as
deer, foxes, bears, squirrels and raccoons, and dozens of bird species. They
also spread the seeds.
Says motherearthnews.com about
eating wild cherries: “Cherry fruits generally mature in late summer, so if you’re hiking
around these bushes in late summer, there will invariably be fruit on the
bush. Some will be ripe enough to taste. Most people — like my hiking
students — can look at the fruit, and guess that it is edible.
“However, I strongly urge
you to never assume any wild berry or plant is edible simply because you
subjectively think “it looks edible.” That can be a quick way to get sick,
or die. Never eat any wild plant if you haven’t positively identified
it as an edible species.”
Cherry blossoms in general are
gorgeous, and I’ve always been partial to those of wild cherries — especially
the chokecherry.
Chokecherry blossoms
And for anyone, like myself, who wondered why ornamental cherry
blossom trees don’t bear cherries: “Simply put, cherry trees are fruit trees;
cherry blossom trees are flowering trees.” (harryanddavid.com)
And tart cherries? Says prevention.com: “‘Tart cherry juice became a
hot topic in 2023 as the main ingredient in the viral ‘sleepy girl mocktail.’
But the benefits of tart cherry juice may go beyond helping you get a good
night’s rest. ‘I often recommend tart cherry juice, especially for individuals
looking to improve recovery after exercise or manage inflammation,’ says
Caroline Susie, R.D., L.D., Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics.”
Speaking of cherries, we
can’t help but wonder if George Washington actually chopped down his family’s
cherry tree. He did not, according to mountvernon.org:
“This iconic story about the value of honesty was invented by one of
Washington’s first biographers, a traveling minister and bookseller named Mason
Locke Weems.”
Finally on the subject of
cherries, festivals abound worldwide in honour of this luscious fruit. Which
begs the question, what location is considered the cherry blossom capital of
the world? According to cherryblossom.com, that honour belongs to beautiful
Macon, Georgia (March 20-29, 2026):
“Each March, Macon becomes a
pink, cotton-spun paradise as hundred of thousands of Yoshino cherry trees
bloom in all their glory…”
And the celebration of
cherries continues.
March 20-29, 2026
Each March, Macon becomes a
pink, cotton-spun paradise as hundreds of thousands of Yoshino cherry trees
bloom in all their glory. Originally a sleepy southern town, Macon has now
become a bustling center of beauty and international friendship.
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