Cherry Madness !!!

The most romantic fruit on the planet is just about to appear back for another seasonal appearance !!!

We may only think about these bold and meaty fruits at certain points of the year when this most romantic of fruits bring sweet notes but often many miss out on their snappy appearances - One thing for sure though is that they are often totally misunderstood and regularly missed out on as their seasons are ultra snappy

With their imminent arrival, the time has come to find out all that’s amazing around these most staggering of fruits, let's welcome the trusty Cherry!!!

Looking through history, it looks like we have been enjoying these luscious fruits since the Stone Age. Archaeologists discovered fossilised cherry stones in ancient caves all across Europe & beyond (Wowza)

These sweet fruits became extremely popular with Roman soldiers as they used to eat them on route to war as a ration. The Romans spat the pips as they marched throughout the empire, the old saying that to find a Roman road all you had to do was hunt down and follow the wild cherry trees could be true!!!

Lamberts, Lapin, Lexter to Royal Arms, Ravenous Delight & Rainer are all varieties of cherry, in fact, there are more than 600 + varieties of sweet cherries plus the same again not so sweet and somewhat tart. Only around 20 varieties are commercially farmed though.

Heard the word BING cherry before ??? They’re named out of respect for an orchard foreman named Ah Bing, who together with his good friend Seth Lewelling who turned out to know a thing or two about cherries developed the dark red varietal in the late 19th century.

Bing left the country to return to China on holiday and wasn’t allowed back to the U.S.A so good friend Lewelling named the cherries in Bing’s honour.

Cherries belong to the rose family wow did you know that.

The chemical reaction between cherries and alkalies such as baking powder causes a blue discolouration in a baked product. This can be stopped by using sour cream instead of milk in the recipe or by adding an acidic liquid to your mix !!! Now there's a tip you probably didn't know - We certainly didn't

One commercially farmed cherry tree can produce more than a staggering 7000 fruits in one season - Fruitful!!!

Legend holds stories of a salmon fisherman (oh that's where the crazy Did You Know picture comes from) called Lambert Delight.

Tricky Lambert loved to catch the leaping salmon at peak season with his naked hands as the hormonal salmon lept to their breeding pods. Lambert used to flog the salmon to his pals earning a cheeky fortune but one crafty day Lambert caught a leaping fish which didn't weigh much but was so very beautiful.

In order to achieve maximum weight fast thinking Lambert forced fed the gasping fish with low hanging fruit from a nearby weeping cherry tree.

It was a few hours before the fish made it back home for sale and crafty Lambert handed over the now so very heavy fish to his pal earning a right wedge.

The hungry fellow slit the belly when home to be greeted with countless cherry stones horrified they got flung through the kitchen window and the salmon slid onto the burning embers to be enjoyed

Years to come glorious cherry trees erupted and nobody really thought where they arrived from until crafty lambert Delight came round for tea one night - Is this where the Delight cherry variety was born from you think ???