Summer is officially here and it’s starting to feel like it. Despite the heat wave, there are a few things I do love about summer. One of them is the vast amount of fruits that are in season. And June and July is definitely cherry season for us in California.

So this weekend I had my fair share of ripe cherries. Two different type of cherries too, the Bing and Rainier. The Bing is deep red to almost purple in color. They are a bit more tart but still really good. But the Rainier cherries are the best, I think they are definitely the queen of cherries.

The Rainier cherries aren’t as abundant as the Bing varieties, but are still very popular. They are much bigger and more plump then other types of cherries. 

The flesh is mostly yellow and have a pinkish blush on the skin.  But don’t let the color fool you, since these are super sweet cherries. Any kid who’s eaten these would prefer them over candies.

Rainer cherries got their name from the monarch mountain of the Cascade Range. They are a cross between the Bing and the Van, two sweet varieties of cherries. Harold Fogle of Washington State Universiy first crossed the two varities in 1952.

I love how the Rainier cherries hang from this branch. These are grown at Olmstead Orchards in Yakima Valley, Washington. Photo from Seattle P-I.

Only a small percentage of cherries harvested each year is the Rainier variety.  So Rainier cherries are much more expensive then regular cherries. They are difficult to grow and a good amount of the cherries get eaten by birds. There are some Rainier cherry orchards in California, but the majority of them are in Washington.

They also require much more time and care to pick.  The Rainier cherry picker also get paid much more to pick these cherries. Maybe that’s why it taste so good, since I can feel the love and care the growers and pickers put in this fruit.

These cherries would also be easy to cook with since the pit just falls right off. You can easily cut them up and add as topping to ice cream. Or if you are ambitious, make the homemade ice cream version of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia would be great.