All Things Cherry
Published
These ruby-red stone fruits bloom in late spring and are ready for picking come July and August.
While visiting Door County in the spring, you’ll find cherry blossoms everywhere. Both blossom-viewing season (May) and cherry-picking season (mid-July to mid-August) have their benefits, so decide which works best for your schedule and be sure to check out the cherry tracker to know when the trees will be blooming and which stage the cherries will be in before you arrive.
Door County’s cooler spring months and unique soil composition make it an ideal spot for growing cherries. Early farmers in the county observed this and developed some of the earliest and largest fruit orchards in the state. Some of the biggest names in the county—such as Seaquist, Lautenbach, and Zettel—got their start with a modest grove of cherry trees, eventually making the words “Door County” synonymous with “cherries.”
Cherry Buds & Blossoms
As early as mid-April, the cherries will—slowly, carefully—begin to bloom. Buds in shades of green and white will emerge and, for the next few weeks, mature and grow. Florets, eventually puffy and floppy, will grow from the plant’s interior, indicating things are moving along smoothly. Soon, 2,500 acres of cherry orchards will be blanketed in white and pink. A just-perceptible cherry aroma has been known to waft through the air during this time. Act fast, though, the full-bloom stage usually only lasts about two weeks, with apple blossoms’ peak time arriving about a week later.
Cherry Picking
If you want an authentic and immersive Door County cherry experience, head to a U-pick orchard. There, you can pluck the fresh fruit from the trees, collect it in a pail as you explore a gorgeous orchard or farm, and take it home to eat and cook with later.
Traversing row upon row of verdant green trees bursting with the tart red fruit, plucking them one by one from the branches, and taste-testing a few as you dream about all the wonderful things you’ll make with them in the summer peninsula sun—there’s nothing else like it.
It’s cherry therapy for those who live for fruit season each summer and long for autumn days spent canning, pickling, and feasting on the fruits of summer’s labor.
Innkeeper Caroline’s Cherry Chocolate Cookies
Caroline Cardamone is a baker at White Gull Inn in Fish Creek
Cherry Chocolate Cookies
1 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbs. Vanilla
3 cups A. P. Flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups of cherries ( frozen and thawed/ canned and drained or fresh)
2 cups dark chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. with a rack in the middle. Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Cream together the butter and sugars for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Stir in the dry ingredients. The dough will be thick at this point but will thin out when you add the cherries. Add the cherries and chocolate chips and stir.
Drop 1 inch balls of dough (or desired size) onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the sheet. I used frozen then thawed tart montmorency cherries, but you can use whatever you choose.
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