Welcome to Door County, where the cherry trees are ready for picking! Early spring the cherry orchards are covered with fragrant white blossoms and by July the cherries are glistening in the morning dew, ready for picking. All over the county you can see signs by orchards, PICK YOUR OWN, which is a Door County family tradition. I love to see little children pick and eat their way through the orchards.
Saturday morning food stands sell jars of homemade cherry jam and jelly next to pints of fresh picked Montmorency cherries. In our grocery stores you can find cherry flavored coffee, chocolate covered cherry candy, dried cherries (great for cakes and cookies) and bags of locally made cherry granola. Along a country road you might find a picnic table with cherry pies for sale and a sign that says, “Leave the money in the tin can.”
I love baking with fresh just-picked Montmorency cherries. Their bright red color and tartness makes the best cherry pies, cakes and compotes.
Although I’ve always liked to bake pies, only occassionally would I bake a cherry pie with canned cherry pie filling. I didn’t like it. Shortyly after moving to Door County, I made a pie with fresh locally grown cherries. I can’t even explain how good it tasted! My husband and I ate the pie warm out of the oven, the crust golden and flakey, the cherries tart and sweet, their juices spreading on our plates. Cherry flavors were bursting in our mouths. We sat on the deck enjoying our second helping of cherry pie thinking…THIS IS THE LIFE!
Door County. Land of goats and cherry pie!