home > cherry facts
Tart Cherry Facts
Tart Cherry Nutritional Analysis
Fast Facts about Tart Cherries
The leading producer of tart cherries
is Michigan, producing 70 to 75 percent of the crop each year. The amount of tart cherries produced
each year varies, depending on a number of factors, including the age
of the trees and weather conditions. Generally, Michigan produces 200
to 250 million pounds of tart cherries; the U.S. crop is 275 to 350 million
pounds.
Tart Cherry Industry Overview
The red tart cherry, Prunus cerasus, is a perennial tree fruit
related to the plum, peach, apricot, almond, and numerous other
species of the north temperate zone. It is grown commercially for
its tart and juicy fruit, which is primarily used in baking and
cooking. Fully ripened tart cherries may be eaten raw, but are too
acid for many palates. The raw fruit stores poorly and its shelf
life is too short for the fresh-market trade.
Cherry Varieties and Uses
There is good evidence suggesting that P. cerasus arose from an unreduced pollen grain of P. avium crossed with P. fruticosa; this occurred in the same geographic region as for sweet cherry. The sour cherry came to the US with English settlers, like sweet cherries. It is more tolerant of the humid, rainy eastern conditions, and therefore proliferated there more than sweets, where it is still cultivated today in greatest numbers. Sour cherries do not attain good size when grown in arid climates.
|
Cherry Products