Cherry

fruit · sweet treat · summer harvest

Trees, not shrubs. Cherries grow on trees that belong to the Prunus family, the same family that includes peaches and plums. These trees can live for many decades and produce fruit year after year.

Three main types. Sweet cherries are delicious to eat fresh right off the tree, sour cherries are better for baking and cooking, and ornamental cherries are grown mainly for their gorgeous pink or white flowers.

Flowers come first. Before any cherries appear, the trees burst into beautiful white or pink blossoms in spring. Bees visit these flowers to help pollinate them, which is what allows the fruit to develop.

Hard pit inside. A cherry is a drupe, which means it has a fleshy outer part (the part you eat) and a hard pit (seed) in the middle. That pit is why you need to be careful when eating fresh cherries!

Grown worldwide. Cherries are farmed in many countries around the world, including Turkey, the United States, and China. They usually ripen and get harvested in late spring or early summer.