Produce Spotlight

South Central Asia was the birthplace of the sweet cherry.  Cherries were first identified in the areas now known as Turkey, Iran and Azabaiijian. The Greeks cultivated cherry trees as early as 300 BC.  The area today known as Iraq became famous for cherry trees as well as peaches, pears and pomegranates, during the early years of Islam 600-900 AD.

Sour cherries grow on smaller trees than their sweet counterparts and are found wild in Central Asia The somewhat sour chokecherry is native to North America. These sour fruits were able to cross pollinate with the sweet cherry giving us the varieties we are familiar with today. The Romans spread the cherry tree throughout Southern and Western Europe, planting trees as far afield as the British Isles. Eventually, British and French colonists brought the cherry with them to New England as well as the areas around the Great Lakes. Michigan grew to become North America’s first sour cherry capital.

By the mid 1800’s cherry cultivation began in the Willamette Valley outside of Salem, Oregon. The popular varieties of Bing, Lambert, Royal Ann, and Rainier were developed there. Today California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho produce the majority of America’s sweet cherries.

Nutritionally, cherries are loaded with vitamin C and vitamin A. They contain an equal amount of fructose and glucose. They have trace amounts of B vitamins as well as a healthy amount of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and folic acid.

Medicinally, the choke cherry was the base for Smith’s cough drops. Native Americans used the cherry for chest pains, coughs and sore throats. The pit of the cherry contains prussic acid which can be a volatile poison, but when used in small amounts can treat intestinal and stomach spasms. Six cherry pits a day were said to get rid of kidney stones. The Ohio College of Medicine discovered the ellagic acid in cherries protected DNA from hazardous cancer causing chemicals.

In northern California we enjoy a sweet cherry season that begins in late April-Mid May and ends in early July. Cherry season in Washington and Oregon begins in Mid-June and continues through early August. Late season rains can cause the cherries to split. Thus far were expecting a moderately good cherry season here in California while Washington and Oregon are expecting a record bumper crop. Cherry cultivation continues to expand and grow year after year. 

Prices tend to be high initially, then dropping as the season progresses. Don’t let this discourage you from tasting this exotic and desirable fruit. In 1876, cherries were being sold for 3 cents each. In today’s money that would be about $4 a cherry. The Co-op will sell our cherries below our normal margin to make this year’s crop of cherries as affordable to as many people as possible.

With almost seven and a half billion people on our planet, space dedicated to crop production is becoming increasingly scarce. For people living in densely-packed urban areas, a personal garden may seem like an unattainable luxury.  Some households are able to plant rooftop and/or patio gardens, provided they have access to ample sunlight and unused space in which to plant. Even if one meets all the requirements necessary for an urban household’s garden, the harvest would merely supplement a food budget; it would not meaningfully augment the local area’s food production capabilities. New ideas will be necessary to feed a growing, increasingly urban world.

Fortunately, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Open Ag program is developing a small, fully automated self-contained garden, or Personal Food Computer (PFC), for indoor deployment. The PFC gives individuals total control over their garden’s environment. Climate variables such as carbon dioxide density, temperature, humidity, and dissolved oxygen amounts are entirely programmable by users. The smallest PFC would be able to fit on a small table-top, whereas large-scale “Food Datacenters” will be able on the scale of large warehouses.

Personal Food Computers will empower people who do not have the knowledge, infrastructure, or environment to grow a traditional garden. All the parts necessary to build a PFC cost approximately $900. Open Ag has made their research and build guides available online at http://openag.media.mit.edu/. Furthermore, people who build their own PFC can upload and share their ‘climate recipes’, further adding to a huge open-source pool of knowledge on the growing conditions of different plants.