Jubilee Days

One never hears of cherry gluts. Apples, yes. Citrus, also. There can even be too many pears. But cherries? Smack dab in the middle of cherry season, bang in cherry country, there are never more cherries than takers. Cherry trees are such finicky plants, the fruit are so tricky to pick and, once plucked, so very perishable, that cherry season is like no other--more fleeting than summer, as compelling as a perfectly sunny day.

Sweet cherry season, that is. It is best, here, to draw a veil over the sour cherry industry of Michigan, in which the entire crop is strangely brutalized by processors before sweetening and dying beyond recognition. If those cherries are sour, they have good reason. But this is about the only true cherries sold in the United States, fresh sweet cherries, and, whee, almost all of these come from the West Coast, where the season starts in California.

It unfolds in three distinct stages, the first being jealous disapproval. Teeth start grinding in mid-May when the first cherries from the Central Valley are packed up and sent to the Far East. As the critics have it, these cherries are picked too early and lack flavor. The B-side of that particular gripe is that our best fruit goes abroad.

But by the last week of May, local cherries are more than a rumor. They’re in the farmers markets. At worst, they’re good. At best, they’re superb.

The early ones will be a touch tart. These are an acquired taste, argues Fresno area cherry farmer John Hurley. They’re a relatively new, early harvest variety called Brooks: heart-shaped as a Valentine, crisp on the tongue, with good sweetness but a distinct acidic fillip. Ripe enough, they can turn a deep red, but most are lighter, more garnet-colored. “I tell people they’re not just sweet, that they have character,” says Hurley.

At markets around Los Angeles last week, Hurley was also selling blushing yellow and pink Rainiers, which he hopes to keep in his Summer Harvest stalls at farmers markets in Santa Monica, Calabasas, Studio City and Beverly Hills through much of June. These are also tart and firm, what cherry farmers call “crunchy.” By mid-June, the cherry supply will swell suddenly as other growers bring the main season cherry, the big red Bing.

There are hundreds of cherry varieties, including Garnets, Tartarians, Chinooks, Burlats, Lamberts, Vans, Black Republicans and so on. But Bing is the most popular sweet cherry in the United States for two reasons: It’s an intense mahogany red, and it’s explosively sweet. Make that one reason: It’s delicious.

Effete horticulturalists will always attempt to best the Bing with some exotic cherry that only they have tasted, served by nymphs, with harps playing. But for commoners, the Bing offers its own rapture, as sweet and perfectly tart as jam, and, here’s the trick, zingily fresh. Cruelly, Bings disappear from farmers markets at the end of June, but there is a reprieve. California is revived by a third season, in supermarkets, when Bings from Oregon and Washington replace exhausted local stocks.

But even with the longest season in the country, Californians could always eat more cherries. UC Davis farm advisor Steve Southwick explains why supply never exceeds demand. Cherries are extremely tricky to grow. “If it’s not been cold enough in the winter, the trees don’t make flowers properly,” he says. “Wind can be a big problem. It can scar the fruit and mark the fruit. Then, during bloom, if it rains and it’s cold, that’s no good. Most cherries require cross pollination. The honey bees might not fly.”

Even with clear flying conditions, the pollinating trees, which must be a different variety from the fruit-making ones, have a troublesome habit of flowering at the wrong time. Then there are viruses, fungi and, heaven forfend, sudden heat waves that can ripen the crop too quickly.

But the most persistent threat during harvest is rain. Last week in the Central Valley, cherry farmers hired helicopters to fly low over their orchards in an attempt to blow rain off trees soaked by a wave of late spring storms. The worry was that the cherries would absorb the water through their skin, and then burst on the bough.

“It takes about four to five hours of a good steady rain, then kaboom. You can hear them popping on the trees,” says John Fellman, a post-harvest physiologist at Washington State University. “Everybody hates that sound.”

Every five years, crops are wiped out, he says. This year, California squeaked by without many losses. Moreover, a cool year has produced “gorgeous cherries,” according to Jim Culbertson, manager of the California Cherry Advisory Board. Cool equals slow ripening, he says, the best conditions for good fruit size and intense flavor.

Having saved all those gorgeous cherries, farmers now have to pick them. The term “cherry picking” did not come to connote extravagant care by accident. Sweet cherries bruise and cannot be mechanically harvested. Ripe cherries bruise the most easily, but this is the only time to pick them, says Elizabeth Mitcham, a post-harvest physiologist from UC Davis. “With cherries the best quality is going to be there at the time of harvest,” she says. “They don’t continue sweetening after harvest.”

So farmers go out with ladders and pails, much the way they have for thousands of years, and hand-pick their cherries. During World War II, when labor was scarce, cherry farmers opened their ranches to the pick-your-own trade. In Southern California, this has become tradition at Mile High Ranch in Beaumont, so the farmers keep the trees pruned low, about 14 feet high, says Magdalena Humphrey. Insurance company rules mean only professional pickers get to go up ladders. All the better for eating while you work. Mile High Ranch charges $10 to fill a 5-pound pail--a bargain says Humphrey, “considering they can munch on cherries all the while.”

Those planning a family outing should not be surprised by the sounds of cannons firing in cherry country. These will be bird-scaring devices, along with balloons shaped like eyes and plastic snakes in trees. They don’t fool smart birds, says John Fellman. “One of my most vivid memories is of watching a magpie eat cherries while sitting on top of a cannon that was reporting every five minutes,” he says.

If birds and pickers get the freshest cherries, Mitcham offers this advice for shoppers in towns: Look for shiny skin and dark color. The glossiness is natural she says, and a good sign. In Rainiers, the pale background should be yellow.

Rancher Hurley warns shoppers at farmers markets to watch out for stalls selling an overabundance of cherries with “spurs,” a flaw where a second seed protrudes near the stem, or “doubles,” which are Siamese twin-type cherries with two fruit for one stem. This is natural--every crop will have some; it happens when a bud is heat-shocked. But if you encounter all spurs, the chances are good that the “farmer” is really a peddler and selling packing house culls, the rejects set aside by packers. “What’s allowed at farmers markets is a ‘field run’ of fruit, so you get the good and the bad and we’re able to sell everything,” says Hurley.

Once you get cherries home, if you get them home without devouring them, Mitcham recommends getting them straight into a sealed bag in the refrigerator on a cold shelf as close to 32 degrees as possible. By all means wash and dry them, but don’t soak them. The cherries’ permeable skin not only lets in water, it lets out precious acids responsible for their tantalizing tartness.

“Unless there is a certain type of acid,” warns Fellman, “the cherry becomes the famous dog’s nose. It’s cold and wet but not much else.”

The whole point of cherries is that intense burst of sour sweet flavor.

Deborah Olson’s family has been growing cherries in the Santa Clara Valley in Northern California since 1899. The most passionate cherry aficionados will tell you that the ocean cool that seeps in from the San Francisco Bay and envelops orchards at night make it the best cherry growing territory in the country. Olson’s family sells cherries from a stall, local fruit in season, South American imports in the winter.

She’s seen customers feed their children their first cherries and she’s sold cherries to hospice nurses in search of a final pleasure for the lips of a dying patient. One of her fondest childhood memories was accompanying her father to the train station to send “fancy packs” of cherries on trains to New York, where her family’s cherries, she says, always got the best prices. “There’s no other fruit like a cherry,” she says.

Given the persistent rarity of cherries, the poignancy of the memories they evoke, the longing that they inspire and the prices they fetch ($4 to $5 a pound), it is hardly surprising that we do not cook them much. The late English fruit connoisseur Edward Bunyard said of his favorite cherry, the Duke, “to cook it were a vandalism.” Even French pastry chefs set aside their dough scrapers and list “bowl of cherries” on their dessert menus every summer. Olson hopes that the same tradition will catch on here.

But she takes exception to the idea that “pie cherries,” the Michigan sour cherries processed into canned fillings, are superior to her sweet cherry pies. And a person who finds themselves with a large sack of sweet cherries, enough to spare for the kitchen, is in for a treat, she reckons. “I’ve always made Bing cherry pie. Always. When I was growing up, I didn’t realize that there were such things as tart cherries. I think the pie I make is sensational,” she says. “I’ll put my pie up against any tart cherry pie any day.”

* Beaumont and Cherry Valley farmers will host the 84th annual Cherry Festival June 6 to 9, starting at 5 p.m. in Stewart Park, between 9th and 10th streets and Orange and Maple avenues, Beaumont. For information about the festival and full listings of pick-your-own ranches, call the city of Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, (909)-845 9541.

* For pick-your-own cherries, the season should begin between June 20 and 25 at Mile High Ranch, 13000 Mile High Road, Beaumont, CA 92223, (909)-845-7344. Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

* Deborah Olson’s family business, C.J. Olson Cherries, will stage a cherry festival June 8 and 9, 48 W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, (800) 738-2464 (BING); www.con centric.net/~Bings/.

Chocolate and Cherry Tart plate and measuring spoon from Sur La Table.

*

Cherry Sour Cream Pie

Active Work Time: 25 minutes

Total Preparation Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes plus 1 hour chilling

*

Jeremy Lee is the head chef at the Blue Print Cafe in London and a contributing editor to Saveur magazine. He loves summer fruit. In this recipe, a heap of cherries is shown the pan just long enough to become a sort of instant jam. This is then ladled over intensely buttery pastry, topped with sour cream and almonds, sealed, baked and called “smetannik” or Russian sour cream pie. Lee got the idea from Darra Goldstein’s book “Taste of Russia: A Cookbook of Russian Hospitality.” It is aromatic rather than sweet, a perfect summer dessert to serve with a chilled Brouilly.

PASTRY

1 1/3 cups flour

Dash salt

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 egg yolks

Combine the flour, salt and lemon zest in a bowl. Add the butter and blend in using a pastry blender or 2 knives, working the ingredients to a coarse meal. Add the egg yolks, kneading in the bowl until the dough holds together and becomes smooth. (The dough can also be made in a food processor.) Cut the pastry in half, wrap both halves in plastic; refrigerate 1 hour.

FILLING

1 pound cherries

1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar, divided

1 cup blanched whole almonds

1/2 cup sour cream

1 egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Flour, for rolling

Pit the cherries, catching the juice.

Combine the cherries, the juice and 1/4 cup of sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, until the cherries have softened and a syrup has formed, about 10 minutes. Do not let burn. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Roughly chop the almonds and place them in a large bowl. Add the sour cream, egg yolk, cinnamon and almond extract, then fold in the cherries.

Roll out one pastry half on a lightly floured surface to fit a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Spoon in the cherry mixture, then cover it with the sour cream and nut mixture.

Roll out the remaining pastry slightly larger than the tart pan, so it overlaps about an inch, and cover the pie. Trim the pastry edges and pinch to seal. Sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of sugar over the top. Cut 3 or 4 slits in the top of the pie.

Bake the pie until the top is golden, 45 minutes. Serve warm.

8 servings. Each serving: 514 calories; 60 mg sodium; 236 mg cholesterol; 40 grams fat; 18 grams saturated fat; 33 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 3.40 grams fiber.

*

Chocolate and Cherry Tart

Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 1/2 hours

*Edon Waycott makes the preserves for Campanile restaurant using local fruit. Last year her strawberry jam made the Food section’s 10 best recipes’ list. At $5 a pound, the best cherries can be too expensive to put into the jam pot, she says. She offers this recipe in which the cherries remain teasing and fresh “just sitting on top of that chocolate.”

CRUST

Butter, for preparing pan

3/4 cup whole unpeeled almonds

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.

Finely grind the almonds in a food processor. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly browned, 10 minutes. Remove and cool. Return the nuts to the food processor and add the flour, salt and sugar. Pulse to combine. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture, processing until the ingredients resemble a coarse meal. Add the milk and almond extract and pulse until the dough comes together.

Turn the dough into the pan and press evenly over the bottom and sides of the pan with floured fingers or a piece of plastic wrap. Leave the oven at the same temperature and bake until the entire crust is lightly browned, 35 to 40 minutes. (This will be all the cooking the crust gets, so err on the side of done-ness.) If the crust puffs up during baking, gently press it down with the back of a fork. Cool slightly. (The crust can be made a day head and held at room temperature, or tightly wrapped and frozen for two weeks.)

FILLING

6 ounces fine semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 pound pitted dark sweet cherries (about 3 cups)

1/2 cup melted currant or apple jelly, for glazing, optional

2 tablespoons powdered sugar, for dusting, optional

Melt the chocolate with the cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until well combined, then remove from the heat and cool until the filling is the consistency of soft pudding, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour into the baked crust (the crust can be warm) and smooth the surface. Press the cherries stem side down into the surface of the chocolate as close together as possible.

Glaze the cherries with melted jelly or dust with powdered sugar.

6 to 8 servings. Each of 8 servings: 403 calories; 88 mg sodium; 42 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 3.63 grams fiber.

*

De Pomiane’s Country Tart

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour

*

No voice from the kitchen was more trusted or beloved in 1960s Europe than that of Edouard de Pomiane. Radio broadcasts from Paris found their way into English kitchens in the delightful 1961 book “Cooking with Pomiane.” In the book, cherry pies were a recurring theme, every recipe offered with the instruction that the cherries be pitted with “a new metal hairpin.” But the tart that de Pomiane evoked most richly was a country tart, handed down from the 1860s. This dish was probably conceived with sour cherries, Montmorency types or Morellos in mind, but it bakes fine with sweet ones, and the flowing juices demand a large dollop of vanilla ice cream or fresh cream. (Very sweet cherries will require less sugar, tart ones a bit more.) De Pomiane describes having discovered the recipe from a lady who made tarts whenever she baked bread and who made the crust by cutting bread dough with lard. He recommended getting a half-pound of fresh dough from a local baker and kneading in 3 ounces of butter. We asked Edon Waycott to supply this recipe for a leavened pie shell fit to absorb the flowing cherry juices.

PASTRY

1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup warm water

2 cups flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

2 egg yolks

Stir the yeast and the sugar into the warm water. Let sit until bubbly, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the 2 cups of flour and the salt in a food processor; cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the yeast mixture and the yolks. Process just until the mixture forms a ball. Turn the dough onto a floured surface. Knead the dough until supple and an indention with a finger springs back, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle the dough with flour. Let rest for 10 minutes. Roll out the dough to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Transfer the dough to the plate and flute the edges.

FILLING

2 1/2 pounds cherries

1/4 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on sweetness of cherries), plus more for serving

Heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Pit the cherries, reserving the juice. Place half of the cherries in the shell and sprinkle them with half of the sugar and add the cherry juice. Add the rest of the cherries and top with the remaining sugar.

Bake the pie until the cherries darken, the juice is bubbling and the crust is browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Serve hot. The juices will run from the pie and hot cherries will “burst” when you serve it. De Pomiane advises sprinkling more sugar to taste on top.

8 servings. Each serving: 431 calories; 158 mg sodium; 159 mg cholesterol; 21 grams fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 57 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 2.83 grams fiber.