Every winter, bakers wait for the rosy orbs to appear in the market. We have everything else ready – the butter, the flour, the sugar, the cinnamon.
All except the Red Hills Fruit Co. pie cherries. Like mistletoe, they only appear in Colorado Whole Foods stores during the holidays, and they make the best pie you’ve ever had.
“They do extremely well for us” for holiday baking, says Jerard Whitehead, Whole Foods Rocky Mountain assistant grocery coordinator, but the company does not plan to carry them year-round. If you can’t find Red Hills Fruit cherries at your local store, ask the manager to request them, or order online at dundeefruit.com.
So, who is behind these cheeky cherries, and how can we get more?
Cherry saviour Dick Sadler answered his phone on the way to the Fancy Foods show in San Francisco, where he intends to spread the gospel of Pacific Northwest stonefruits. The past 10 years, Dick and Lynne Sadler have worked with growers to get Pacific Northwest fruit to people like us.
Q: I made the best pie of my life last week with your cherries. Why are they so good?
A: They’re the classic American tart cherry – montmorency (MOHN mor-RAHN-see). We work with the growers to make sure they’re picked correctly, and we put ’em in the jars as fast as we can.
Q: So why do I only see them in the store once a year?
A: We pack them fresh in the summertime and I do my damndest to pack for the whole year. It depends on the buyers for the stores.
Q: Why can’t I buy them fresh?
A: Because they’re so fragile. They’re not a fruit you can pick green because they’re already tart even if they’re ripe.
The history is these fruits don’t ship well. Salem, Ore., used to be the fruit canning capital of the world. There were hundreds of canneries there at the turn of the last century. Some stone fruits went south when California got irrigation but they never developed the same flavors and nuances.
After World War II, the canners decided to compete on price. They all just stopped putting quality stuff in the cans. They stopped doing all the stuff that’s hard and people stopped buying fruit in cans.
Q: Sounds like you’re on a mission. How did you get into the fruit business?
A: I got fed up with lawyering and decided I needed to do something productive and decent with the rest of my life. We took a bunch of old canning machinery and adapted it to work on glass.
Q: So you’re going back a century to preserve the future?
A: These growers are hurting and they need markets. You treat the fruit with a lot of respect and put it out there. Then you just pray that there are people who are willing to spend a little bit more for something that they perceive to be high quality. People learned it’s not high quality so they’ve been turned off to it.
Q: Well, I’ve tried and loved the pie cherries and the black cherries, but some people think $6 for a 29-ounce jar is pretty high.
A: The thing is, dirt-cheap food comes at a price too. But there’s an alternative. We’re out there in our little yellow truck picking stuff in the morning. We really do work with the growers just 5 miles from us. The cherries are in our jars within 3 hours from when they get pitted. The consumer can see what they’re buying – I can’t hide anything.
Food editor Kristen Browning-Blas can be reached at 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
Best-Ever Cherry Pie
I adapted this recipe, using Red Hills Fruit Co. tart pie cherries, from “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.” Makes 1 lattice-top 9-inch pie.
Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into small cubes and chilled
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
6-8 tablespoons ice water
Filling:
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
6 cups cherries (2 29-ounce jars or 4 14.5-ounce cans, drained)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon water
Directions
Crust: Process flour, sugar and salt in food processor fitted with steel blade until combined. Scatter shortening over the top, and process until mixture has texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, and using short pulses, process mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses.
Transfer mixture to a bowl. Combine egg and vinegar and add to flour. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons ice water over mixture. With the blade of a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 2 tablespoons more ice water if it will not come together.
Divide dough into two pieces. Flatten one piece into a 4-inch disk for the bottom. Flatten the other into a 4-by-3-inch rectangle. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate 1 hour.
Make filling: Mix 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Stir in cherries and almond extract.
Remove dough from refrigerator; let stand at room temperature to soften slightly, about 10 minutes.
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and place a rimmed baking sheet in the rack. Heat oven to 500 degrees.
Roll dough disk on lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Transfer and fit dough into 9-inch Pyrex pie pan, leaving dough that overhangs the lip in place. Spread cherries in unbaked pie crust.
Roll remaining dough on lightly floured parchment or wax paper into a 10-by-13-inch rectangle. Transfer parchment and dough to a baking sheet. Cut dough into 8 1 1/4-inch-wide strips. Separate them slightly and place baking sheet in freezer 30 minutes.
Weave lattice strips and trim overhanging edges to about 1/2 inch. Press edges of bottom crust and lattice strips together, tucking underneath edge and into dish. Crimp edge. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar.
Place pie on heated baking sheet and lower oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake until top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate baking sheet, reduce oven temperature to 375 and bake until juices are bubbling and crust is deep golden brown, 30-35 minutes.
Transfer pie to wire rack; cool to almost room temperature so juices thicken, 1-2 hours.
