Michigan agriculture is known for a lot of things, and cherries top the list!

According to michiganagriculture.com, 70-75 percent of Montmorency tart cherries and 20 percent of sweet cherries grown in the U.S. come from Michigan. We even have the Cherry Capital of the World, Traverse City, located in the northwest region of the state.

Whether as juice or jam, on a salad or in a pie, or fresh off the tree, cherries are delicious, versatile, and (depending on how you consume them) healthy. Cherries, especially Montmorency tart cherries, are practically medicinal, being used to fight inflammation, reduce strength loss, and to improve the quality of sleep, to name a few. Here are seven ways to enjoy this delightful red fruit.

1. Pick your own cherries and eat them fresh. Visit an orchard where you can pick your own cherries from June through mid-August. There’s nothing fresher! Go on an outing as a family. Cherries ripen at slightly different times depending on the region you’re in, so check pickyourown.org/MI.htm for ideas of where to go in your region; call the orchard or check their website or social media pages for updates about what’s in season. Take your fresh fruit along with you to the beach or the park, or just for a snack around the campsite.

2. Give a quart of cherries to a neighbor. Since you’ll have fresh cherries on hand, be neighborly and give some to the folks next door. If you don’t know your neighbors, this simple outreach can be a great way to strike up a conversation and maybe a friendship.

3. Make homemade cherry BBQ sauce. We all love cooking on the grill, and a tangy, sweet BBQ sauce blended with Michigan cherries is just the ticket for a great meal. Here’s a recipe for this easy to make Cherry Bourbon sauce, courtesy of Tom’s Foodie Blog.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 medium garlic clove, minced
  • 1 cup tomato sauce
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 teaspoons sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 3 cups pitted Michigan Sweet Cherries, halved or roughly quartered (1/4 cup separated)

Directions: In a pan, melt the butter until bubbling. Add chopped sweet onion and cook until soft (3-5 minutes). Next, add garlic until soft and butter begins to brown. Add canned tomato sauce, salt, pepper, mustard powder, lemon juice. Integrate all ingredients. Bring to a full boil. Add brown Sugar and thoroughly and return to a full boil. Add cherries and maintain a full boil. Let the sauce cook at the rolling boil for 10 minutes, or until the cherries are fully softened in the sauce. Using a potato masher, ensure the cherries are smashed. When cherries are smashed, add a handful of additional cherries in the sauce. These additional non-smashed cherries will create a chunky BBQ sauce. Continue cooking at a rolling boil for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until thickened. Add 1 and 1/4 shot of bourbon. Cook an additional 5 minutes.   Pour sauce into mason jars. The recipe should fill several 12 ounce mason jars.

4. Add cherries to a salad. Sweet cherries are perfect for adding to a summer salad, especially ones with feta or goat cheese, or even with corn or asparagus. It adds a little color and a little punch to your typical garden salad. Just simply slice the cherries into halves or quarters and add them to the rest of the ingredients. Drizzle some homemade dressing – an easy one is a mixture of salt, pepper, sherry and balsamic vinegars, and olive oil – and you have a salad that is delicious and impressive.

5. Make the best cherry cobbler ever. Tart cherries are preferred over sweet cherries for baking and cooking. If you have fresh tart cherries that need to be pitted, then do so. You can also find already pitted, frozen tart cherries from Michigan farmers in some specialty stores or even from the farmers themselves. These will give you a great based for making the best cherry cobbler – made even better with vanilla ice cream. Here’s the recipe for Cherry Cobbler, which can be made in the conventional oven or the Dutch oven, courtesy of King Orchards, Central Lake, Michigan.

Ingredients

Filling

  • 6 cups tart red cherries, pitted (substitute 3 cans of tart cherries in water for fresh if necessary)
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 4 teaspoons cornstarch

Topping

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons milk


Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a saucepan combine filling ingredients and cook, stirring until bubbling and thickened. Pour into an 8-inch square baking dish. Meanwhile, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until it is crumbly. Mix together egg and milk. Add to flour mixture and stir with a fork just until combined. Drop topping by tablespoonfuls onto filling. Bake for 25 minutes until browned and bubbly. Serves 6.

6. Have a cherry pit spitting contest. The world record, set in 2004, is 93 feet, 6.5 inches. But you don’t need to be able to spit a pit that far to have some fun. Make it a friendly competition. If you’re crafty, you can save and clean the pits to use as fill for bean bags (corn hole, anyone?) or small pillows that can be heated or cooled and used for aching muscles. Some people use cherry pits to make cherry infused vinegar.

7. Visit farmers markets and local farms for their exclusive homemade products. Enjoy the cherry’s versatility and take home some of the homemade products and baked goods from local farmers. Often using family recipes in addition to the family cherries, their jams, jellies, juice concentrate, muffins, cakes, and pies make for quite a treat.