Monday 26 July 2010

Alsatian cherries

this weekend I have been eating cherries (cerises in French).  It is a cliche to say that in France food is eaten more seasonally than it is for instance in the UK - but it is a cliche because it is true.  I have always liked cherries, and English cherries are mostly excellent, especially since the summers warmed up, but in England I sometimes forgot to look for cherries at the right time of year, and they are among the more perishable fruits, so I'd miss them altogether.  But here it has been cherries cherries all the way, we are at the end of them now and the apricots are here.  The Alsace cherry festivals take place at the end of June, and the cherries last about another four weeks.  Incidentally did you know that cherries are exceptionally good for diabetics - and for alcoholics btw - because they give you a lot of fructose, which unlike most other sugars is processed by the liver, giving the pancreas some time off and taking the pressure off the kidneys, which have to deal with stuff when the blood sugar gets too high.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easily my favourite fruit, and until a few years ago quite affordable.
Prices are now ridiculous - I presume the orchards have gone the same way as everything else.
Daft when exotic fruits like pineapples are not just cheaper but really cheap.
L9

janestheone said...

some of it is to do with bees - cherries need bees to propagate (mostly) and the bees are (mostly) dead, hence the shortage. In France there is much more small-scale bee-keeping, including increasingly in urban areas, vg.