Both sweet and sour, cherries are more than neglected toppers on a summery sundae. —Stefanie Gans
Defrost
Snooze Button
Cherry trees need almost 700 hours of sleep. They awaken naturally with warm weather, but within the Commonwealth, steady warmth isn’t what happens. “The problem we have with Virginia,” says Scott Smythe of Virginia Berry Farm, “is that, let’s say after it’s been asleep for 600, 700 hours, we get that warm spell in March.” Those few days of 70-degree weather knock the tree out of dormancy and fruit starts budding. But, says Smythe, “all of a sudden, boom, we get four or five nights in the 20s and it zaps the fruit buds.” Smythe says researchers are cross-pollinating breeds to keep fruit trees asleep through that first fake-out of warm weather, as well as growing more disease-resistant and compact, but equally productive, plants. Once awake, the red-splattered yellow Rainer cherry is one of Smythe’s favorites: “It’s really sweet and the color on it is absolutely beautiful.”
Sip
Family Tradition
Forty years ago, when Dick Garofalo and his wife bought a house in Pennsylvania with a walnut tree on the property, it spurred him to recreate his grandmother’s walnut liqueur recipe. But he didn’t stop there. This year, Garofalo started a line of spirits—Garofalo Artisan Liqueurs—which includes Tart Cherry. Inspired by his grandmother’s brandied cherries recipe, Garofalo says Tart Cherry “doesn’t taste like cherry.” The 75-year-old uses Montmorency variety of cherries, tart ones often used for cherry pies, and later this summer, Garofalo will sell the spirit out of his Winchester shop. Asked to describe the liqueur, Garofalo insists: “It’s indescribable.”
Stuff
Double-take Dessert
“OK, how do I stuff a cake?” asks Dan Whalen, the author of “Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook.” The entire book, Whalen’s first, is dedicated to stuffing foods with others, in outlandish combinations, like ground beef wrapped around corn on the cob. (“Like a meat and corn version of a candy apple,” writes Whalen in the recipe headnote.) While searching for desserts to fit into this framework, he thought of his sweet cravings: “I really love a good, sour cherry pie. And chocolate cake is my favorite.” The recipe helps readers figure out how to cram a full-size pie into a full-size cake (It took Whalen four tries to perfect the trick.) The dessert, like the rest of the book, balances, “not over-the-top, but not normal either,” says Whalen. Although, staring at that hot dog stuffed into a jalepeno, it all depends on your definition of normal.
(June 2014)
