Cherries are considered to be the most popular of the temperate fruits, often being seen to epitomize luxury and affluence. The cherry is not the largest, sweetest or most flavoursome of the fruits. However its unique combination of visual appeal, crunchy yet juicy texture, sweetness and subtle flavor give it a special place. The challenges of its cultivation such as bird and rain damage, poor fruit set or frost damage conspire to make this an expensive fruit, which adds to its decadent image. The shortness of its harvest season combined with its limited storagability further add to its cost and the general excitement and mystique which surround the cherry harvest.
The wild ancestors of today’s sweet cherry are believed to have originated in the Caspian and Black Sea area between Europe and Asia. The wild cherry was much smaller than the modern varieties we have today. This has been due to casual selection of better strains over the centuries and more recently a deliberate horticultural improvement through breeding and selection. Thus today we have a wide variety of early, mid, and late season cherries in both white fleshed and red fleshed types showing improved resistance to disease, improved fertility, better rain crack resistance, and with firmer more flavoursome flesh. With the advent of these new varieties, advances in bird netting, irrigation technology, and new tree training methods, the cherry industry is now able to reliably produce fruit at an affordable price. This has seen a recent surge worldwide in the growing of cherries by fruit growers.
Cherries are not only enjoyable to eat; they can also be good for you! They have been shown to have several health benefits. Cherries are a rich source of anthocyanins, a potent antioxidant. Cherry anthocyanins have been shown to reduce pain and inflammation and are being used to treat gout – a painful inflammatory joint condition. Cherries are also known to contain another antioxidant, melatonin, which has been shown to be important for the function of the immune system, Melatonin is a cox-2 inhibitor. Research has also shown a link between low melatonin levels and elevated risk of heart attack.
