Dried cherries in my oatmeal, cherry concentrate stirred into my apple juice, cherries in chocolate. Yup, I am a cherry fanatic. Here. Have a recipe. It’s from The Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery, one of my favorite cookbooks. I bought it at an Indiana farm auction about 40 years ago. (I was, of course, merely a child. A precocious child.) It is so full of interesting and old-fashioned information about food that I could probably create a whole blog around it.
Sounds so good that you’re going to make that for Sunday brunch, aren’t you? Can I come? Because I’m probably never going to make anything that complicated again in my life, but it is really, really good, and worth all the trouble. Worth all your trouble. I’m planning to spend my trouble on other things, like hauling myself out of bed in the morning to go to the Elk Rapids leadership meeting on broadband. And you think you had trouble.
Now that I think of it, I have quite a lot of trouble at present. You’d think I’d be happy to spend it pretty much anywhere, in hopes of getting rid of it, but that is not the case. Go figure. I digress.
You will be hearing a lot about cherries this month, as it is National Cherry Month and there is a Major Marketing Campaign underway. I have a vested interest in the success of the orchards of Antrim County. I like to look at them. I like to eat–and eat, and eat–the fruit that grows there. I like to eat the excellent treats that Antrim County bakers make from the fruit that grows there. And I have a definite grasp of the economic importance of the industry, not just to the Kings and the Friskes and the McGuires and the Veliquettes and the Kamps and the Bargys and the Dawsons and . . . OK, you get the picture. I will be merrily campaigning along. Eat up, America.
Torch Lake Views 
La Mirada Bob
February 5, 2010
Remember the cherries we picked upon our arrival in Lake Katrine, when you really were a child (with no troubles, just baby sisters).
Gerry
February 5, 2010
Ah. The stories I could tell you about the baby sisters.
leslie
February 5, 2010
Oh I love cherries SO much!
Gerry
February 5, 2010
Me too! And I seem to recall that you have made them into ice cream. I cannot imagine what it must cost to get cherries all the way to Australia from Michigan. (What’s that? People grow cherries in other places too? Does Mama Nature know about this?)
Cindy Lou
February 5, 2010
An old friend of mine had family in Sutton’s Bay that had apple and cherry orchards. I only spent a weekend there – and it was oh-so-lovely – but we used to get dried tart cherries from them every once in awhile! What a treat! If I had some now, I might try that recipe…OK not – it does sound a bit complicated.
Gerry
February 5, 2010
I will tell you a secret. You can just make the cherry sauce (use canned cherries, the kind you’d buy to make a pie from scratch–as if, in my case!) and the cottage cheese filling. Put a scoop of the cheese filling in a little dish, put a couple of good spoonsful of cherry sauce on top, and skip the pancake. It won’t be the same, of course–nothing ever is after all–but it will taste very good and make less mess to clean up.
p.j. grath
February 5, 2010
Gerry, you MUST come to the fly-in this year! And you have to come EARLY to (a) see the planes coming in and (b) get at the breakfast before the line is too long. The pancakes are served with CHERRY SAUCE!
Gerry
February 5, 2010
And see, the best part is, somebody else will make the pancakes and clean up the mess! This is an excellent idea.
p.j. grath
February 5, 2010
I forgot to say (Gerry knows, but some others might not) that I mean the fly-in at Woolsey airport (grass fields) north of Northport, Michigan. It’s the third Saturday in August.
Maryanne
February 6, 2010
Northport must have stolen that “Cherry Sauce” idea from Eastport’s fly-in breakfast menu! Don’t forget that fly-in either on Father’s Day.
Gerry
February 6, 2010
Of course it did! Those people over on the Leelanau are shameless, I tell you, shameless. But they are an awful lot of fun.
I will most certainly not forget the Father’s Day Fly-in at the Torchport. This year I’m going to get there earlier and see more planes. And have more cherry sauce.
flandrumhill
February 6, 2010
Did you know that cherries are an amazing natural remedy for gout? But you don’t have to have gout to enjoy cherries.
I like them fresh, baked in a pie with a lattice top, between the layers of a Black Forest Cake or on top of a simple cheesecake. What a versatile fruit.
Gerry
February 6, 2010
I am envisioning a pie slipped between the layers of a Black Forest Cake. Hmm. I suspect this is the route to gout.