Discover the Sweet Side: Top 13 Fun Facts About Cherries You Never Knew!

1. 1000 Cherry Varieties

Cherry-picking your favorite isn't as easy as pie when it comes to these mouth-watering little gems: there are actually over 1000 different varieties of cherries, including the well-known sweet Prunus avium and the sour Prunus cerasus, as well as more obscure ones like the grey-leaf cherry and the Antilles cherry!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

2. Tart Cherry Capital

Who knew cherries had a secret rendezvous destination? Thanks to the perfect match between Michigan's soil and weather, it's been named the "Tart Cherry Capital." Funny, right? Now for the serious part: Michigan is responsible for producing around 74% of the country's tart cherries, while sweet cherry lovebirds prefer California, Oregon, and Washington—bing cherries, in particular, dominating the cherry consumption scene in the United States.
Source => dljproduce.com

Did you know there's a rare strawberry variety that tastes like pineapple? Meet the Pineberry, a white, speckled fruit with a unique flavor that'll leave you craving for more! 🍓🍍

=> Fun Facts about Strawberries

3. Cherry Color Chart

From the fashion runway to the cherry display: cherries have their very own color chart to rival Pantone! As these berries ripen, they strut their stuff through shades like yellow, flushed yellow, orange red, light red, red, brownish red, dark red, and blackish, showcasing peak maturation for each variety. Iconic names like White of Provence and Bing represent haute couture in the cherry world, reminding us that fashion isn't just for humans—it's for fruity morsels, too!
Source => en.excelentesprecios.com

4. World's Largest Cherry Pie

Cherries may be small, but they sure know how to make a big entrance – or should we say, pie-ntrance? Get your forks ready and your oven mitts on standby: Traverse City, Michigan once held the title for the World's Largest Cherry Pie, weighing a whopping 28,350 pounds and measuring 17 feet 6 inches in diameter, dethroning Charlevoix, Michigan's previous record. Alas, the cherry pie crown was snatched by a 39,683-pound behemoth baked in Oliver, British Columbia in 1990, proving that, in the world of cherry pies, size does matter.
Source => dcnorrisna.com

5. Mr. Do! and cherries

Back in the 80s, when video games were as fresh as a bowl full of cherries and our thumbs hadn't yet developed Call of Duty blisters, a certain arcade gem taught us the importance of cherry-collecting with a delightful, fruity twist: Enter Mr. Do!, the 1982 classic that challenged players to gather all the cherries in a group without hitting pause, scoring bonus points that were sweeter than the fruit itself. As the first game released as a conversion kit for other arcade machines, it sold an impressive 30,000 units in the US, making it quite the cherry on top of the gaming world.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

6. Maraschino Cherry Origins

Here's a cherry on top of your history lesson sundae: the eye-popping red maraschino cherries that playfully sit atop cocktails and desserts are actually an American brainchild, born during Prohibition. Horticulturist Ernest Wiegand innovated a preservative technique using brine, calcium salts, and sugar which turned Royal Ann cherries into Frankenstein's monsters: ghostly white, almond-flavored cherries dyed fiery red to resemble the original Marasca cherry-based maraschino liqueur. The FDA granted them the "maraschino cherries" title in the 1940s, putting the cherry on top of this sweet impostor's success story.
Source => thecocktailcamp.com

7. Cherry Pit Spitting Championship

When life gives you cherries, spit them out: The International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship is an official competition recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, founded by Michigan cherry farmer Herb Teichman in 1974 as a small neighborhood event. Each July, hundreds flock to southwest Michigan for the event that launches the tart cherry harvest, with "Young Gun" Krause holding the current world record – an impressive 100 feet, 4 inches, picking up where his father left off in 1993.
Source => americaslibrary.gov

8. Cherries' Health Benefits

While cherries might not be found at your local comedy club, they do know how to make your insides chuckle with delight: Packed with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, cherries not only reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, but are even known to ease arthritis pain and improve sleep quality.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

9. Bird-Snacked Cherry Blossoms

Talk about a tweet tooth: Northern cardinals and blue jays are prone to a peculiar cherry craving at the National Mall and Memorial Parks, where they can't resist snacking on cherry blossoms! The hilarious result: pollen-packed beaks that inadvertently aid in cherry tree pollination, keeping the cycle of life thriving by pruning excess blossoms and gobbling up harmful bugs.
Source => nps.gov

10. Cherry Blossom Trees Gift

Talk about a blossoming relationship: In 1912, Japan gifted the United States with 3,000 cherry blossom trees, sparking an annual tradition of over a million people flocking to Washington D.C.'s Tidal Basin to witness their magnificent bloom and celebrate the deepening bond between the two nations through various events and cultural exchanges.
Source => mofa.go.jp

11. American Black Cherry Tree

Not everything is a bowl of cherries, especially when it comes to the American Black Cherry Tree – maker of jams, jellies, and a not-so-delicious snack for unsuspecting taste buds: This versatile tree produces small, tart cherries that are unfit for raw consumption, but it redeems itself with its stunning reddish-brown wood, which is sought after for furniture, kitchen accessories, and flooring.
Source => vermontwoodsstudios.com

12. Polish Cherry Revolution

Who needs a cherry on top when you've got a cherry revolution brewing in Poland? They've been secretly turning sour cherries into temptingly tasty tongue teasers since 1954: The ongoing sour cherry breeding program at the Research Institute of Horticulture in Skierniewice aims to develop new cultivars specifically suited for Polish soil and climate conditions while being disease-resistant and easy to harvest, with 11 cultivars and two generative rootstocks already included in the national register.
Source => agris.fao.org

13. National Cherry Festival

You've heard of the cherry on top, but how about a whole festival under the cherry tree? Traverse City, Michigan takes the cake (and cherry pie) with an annual celebration that's truly the cherry pop of epic proportions: The National Cherry Festival attracts a whopping half a million visitors each year, making merry with parades, carnival rides, and a buffet of cherry-based delicacies to satiate one's fruity desires.
Source => dictionary.com