Pick of the Season: Cherries
Written By Betsy Block
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Cherries are full of theatrical possibilities: The juice makes superb lipstick or fake blood, and double-stemmed pairs looped over the ears are fine fruity earrings.
But the show's over all too soon. Since cherries are one of the few truly seasonal fruits left, the Cherry Players are just summer stock.
Recipes
Cherry Pie
Cherry-Lime Slush
Cherry-Lemon Pudding
Fun Facts
- Maraschinos really are cherries. They've been dyed red, injected with sugar, and submerged in a flavored syrup. They're not preserved in formaldehyde — that rumor may have been born when a magazine writer (ahem) confused formaldehyde with benzaldehyde, a flavoring oil made with cherries, bitter almonds, and the pits of apricots and peaches.
- The Guinness World Record for competitive cherry-pit spitting is 93 feet 6.5 inches.
- There's no such thing as a pitless cherry. That's because the cherry's three layers — the skin, the fleshy part, and the pit — start as one tissue.
- Make "click-clacks" out of double-stemmed cherries: Pick one up and let it fall against the other like a pendulum.
- Use a halved, pitted cherry — the juicier, the better — to draw on paper. Eat your paintbrush.
