My cherry amour
Pretty falling petals make this tree one of my favourites
WHETHER taking pride of place in a Black Forest Gateau, topping Bakewell tarts or nestling nicely in a Christmas cake, cherries are always a treat.
Thinking of them takes me back to the age of eight, when my sister and I would share a tin of fruit cocktail. We’d eagerly watch as it was scooped into our bowls, to see who would get the single, eerily red half-cherry.
Cherries are full of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, folic acid, calcium and potassium.
They are also a good source of fibre, helping your body to digest food.
A portion of 14 cherries counts as one of your five-a-day, contributing to a balanced diet of plenty of fruit and vegetables (if you value your teeth, make sure you take the cherry stones out first). It may be too early for fruit here in the UK but as March 21 marks the first day of spring, our trees are starting to awaken.
Around the world, the blooming of cherry trees is big business. Blossom-lovers eagerly await this spectacular arboreal event every year and there are even special online services to forecast when it is going to happen.
In Japan, cherry trees break into flower first in the south. The blossom season then gradually spreads northwards, like a giant, extremely slow, pink, Mexican wave. It reaches Tokyo in late March. Japanese people traditionally head to the parks and countryside for picnics underneath the trees when they are heavy with their fluffy pink blooms.
Over in America, Washington DC takes great pride in its blossoming cherries, boasting that about 1.5 million people travel to the US capital each year just to see the trees in all their glory in late March/ early April.
The flowering cherry does not provide the type of fruit that you can eat, however. Its fruits are small and sour and strictly for the birds. In fact, it is essential that you don’t eat anything you find growing in the wild as it may be poisonous.
Producing fruit for us to eat is the job of the sweet cherry (prunus avium).
June/July is cherry season here in the UK, when cherries are at their plumpest, ripest, sweetest (and cheapest).
Until then we might have to rely on the fruit cocktail. Race you for the half-cherry…