I came home the other day to find a be-ribboned box of Rainier cherries, recently imported from Washington State… A box filled with four kilos of fruit! Wow! It was a thank you present from a friend, for a bunch of things I had done over the last few months, but this was a totally unexpected thing. I am a huge fan of cherries, so I was thrilled to receive them. Thank you R.A. for the completely unnecessary, but totally appreciated largesse…
Rainier cherries are considered almost “royal” when compared with their other cousins. Incredibly juicy, sweet and addictive, they are much sought after, particularly by folks in Asia. As much as a fourth of the harvest in a given season end up on this side of the Pacific, with some fruit fetching unbelievable prices in Japan… Read more about Rainier cherries, here. I like Rainiers, but I also have to put in a good word for the tarter, sometimes more flavorful dark red and almost black cherries as well. The latter seem to make fabulously flavorful jams and pies. I don’t get to eat cherries that often unless I happen to be in North America in late June and early July when they seem to be at the height of the season, but I will savor this box of cherries in the days ahead. :)
24 Responses
Enjoy the Rainiers! We all look forward to cherry season in my household. My kids like the Rainiers and I like the Bings. If you like to make pies, Montmorency or Morellos (i.e. “sour” cherries) are typically used for this purpose.
On a side note, if you think Rainiers are expensive ($5+/lb.), try the sour cherries at $12/lb. at the farmers markets; the grocery stores don’t even offer them.
I love rainiers as well. I seem to vacillate from year to year, between rainiers and bings. As long as they’re big, juicy, and flavorful, I will eat cherries till I’m sick. :)
Wow,lucky you! what a big stash….can I have some? :)
I work for a big water district here in Northern California. We supply water for all the cherry farmers within our district. Linden is the cherry capital of California. During the season, farmers take turns giving us all kinds of cherries, but i love rainier the most. They are the sweetest. They are the most expensive too.
My fav…wish they were not so expensive here in Manila
Oh wow! Can I just say I REALLY ENVY you MM?
I recently saw cherries like that being sold in Shopwise but was labeled as something else (golden cherry or something).
My brother recently brought home probably the last batch of cherries for the season. They were delicious big dark red cherries from Canada. My mom also loves cherries.
Love ’em to bits and eat them like pop corn :) One has to be on alert when they get ripe else a host of sparrows stops by on one’s tree and every fruit gone in just a matter of minutes. But these hungry birds, I noticed, know which trees bear sweet cherries. So a cherry tree with fruits late in the season is indication of tartness. I am blessed with a kind neighbor with a big cherry tree (just beside the fence of my backyard) and he’s always on vacation abroad when the fruits ripen leaving me to play the role of the greedy sparrow :)))
I have one cherry tree, but it’s still very young about 2 meters high. I got just a handful of fruits from it this summer.
Oh, so that’s what you call them! Thank you, MM for Cherries 101. :) I bought a pack when I was in Jakarta and they were quite expensive. I usually like visiting groceries on trips abroad and buy cherries (and the local fruits in season). Since they didn’t have the red ones, I got those “yellow ones.” Very different in texture and sweetness. The Rainier cherries looked like tiny apples, according to my househelp when she saw me unpack it from my luggage. Hehehe.
My favourite fruit! I love cherries. Rainier are the best. Enough said. :) I cant work anymore. Im salivating :)
Lucky you! They look delish!
It’s Cherry seasons,here in Washington states,I have 3 little Rainier cherry trees and 1 huge Bing cherry tree..fruits are gone late June, a lot of them eaten by the birds, my husband uses our backyard as bird sanctuary:( I love Rainier Cherries.. So i buy and binges on them until the seasons last cherries are gone:) ..they are plenty of them available right now on markets and street vendors towards Mt.Rainier..unbelievably so,you can’t even find Rainier cherries in a quite few states,luckily you guys can enjoy them, when i was home last year,persimmons are available at the SM Clark food-mart,..Lucky MM:)
inggit ako sa cherries….
Yeah I just found out that these cherries are sweeter and plumpier than the dark red ones. When I first saw these on the stores, I ignored them thinking they are of less quality (or not ripe) than of the red ones; but somebody gifted me some one day and I hesistantly ate them…..and wow.. now I am addicted; and even though they are much expensive (actually double $ per pound), I still chose to buy them.
Beware, they are as potent a laxative as their cousin plums. Popping just one too many at any one sitting may inevitably lead to a rumbling in the stomach then a pressing run for and in the bathroom. An indelicate Italian colleague at work related to me once that he could not be bothered spitting out the pits so he sounded as though he was strafing somebody with a Tommy gun afterwards.
my favorites!!!!! tis the season (almost ending). need Tums with them.
I like Bing Cherries the best!
@footloose – my, what a visual your last sentence presented but i must admit i had a great chuckle! (^ _^)
thanks for all the info! i ignore those rainier cherries thinking they are not as good as the red ones. Now i know better!
One of my favorite reasons to see an uncle of mine based in Washington State was because he had a cherry farm, and he had both Rainier and the Queen Anne varieties. I could easily gobble a kilo of the Rainiers (not a smart idea!).
I also love the black cherries I had in Germany, available over the summer. My friends tell me never to eat them on an empty stomach, but it’s impossible to think logically when faced with a bag of succulent looking berries.
Cherries are one of them fruits with a very low glycemic index. You can feast on a big bowl and not feel guilty at all.
You can sun dry these sweet cherries and use for your green salad as an alternative to cranberries. They are meatier and plumper and gives more body to any salad.
Hi MM, I have cherry envy! How can an ordinary girl like me order those wonderful cherries in bulk? Thank you!
Rainier cherries are my favorite. I have to be careful when I eat them. It’s easy to eat $5 worth or more of them in one sitting!