This year for the first time in my 15 years here in Toronto I went to see the famous cherry blossoms in High Park and fell in love. Ever since I was obsessed with having my own cherry tree in the yard. I started researching and determined for baking down the road I should go with a sour cherry variety like is pictured in the header here. Our neighbourhood is blessed with some great garden centres so I started checking them out on my morning dog walks (I like to multi task, they are open very early, are generally quiet that time of day, it's great training for the beagles to go to new places and they make friends wherever they go).
My new favourite place is Joe's Garden Centre and Grapes on Davenport near Caledonia. I tried to find a link for you all but they are pretty old school and while popular in the neighbourhood they don't even rate a Yelp listing! I did find this article though. I trust they've learned their lesson about illegal homemade wine selling and now they just sell a great range of flowers, vegetable seedlings, shrubs and trees. In the fall it's where I got bushels of San Marzano tomatoes to can and they also sell bushels of cranberry beans, red peppers and of course all sorts of varieties of grapes (for home use only I'm sure). They even have a small grocery store attached with Italian and Portuguese cured meats and cheeses. I'd been looking at a group of fruit trees they had beside the store for a few weeks - they had looked so pretty flowering away in their pots. The beagles and I spied several varieties of cherry (sweet bing and sour), peaches, plum and even a couple of apple trees.
But I kept coming back to the cherry trees. Then about a month ago I took the Hubs down to look at them. Done flowering they looked a little sad but they were now only $25. Next thing you know I was carrying it the four blocks home trailed by the Hubs and two very confused dogs.
The Montmorency cherry is a variety of sour cherry grown in the United States, Canada and named for the Montmorency valley in France. Montmorency cherries are part of the lighter-red amarelle cultivar of sour cherries, rather than the darker-red Morello.
The variety produces light red fruit and has been cultivated in North America since at least the early 20th century. It is the most popular sour cherry in the United States and Canada, and is extensively used in cherry pies, jams and preserves. I've read that Montmorency cherries are also the cherries that are dried for baking. I have a serious thing for dried cherries in chocolate chip cookies but think it will be years before my little tree gives me enough for a pie much less enough to dry.
Not soon after planting it in the yard I noticed it had some tiny baby cherries on it. I was sure the shock of transplanting it into the yard would cause them to drop and I'd have to wait until next year before I got any cherries. Low and behold the tree and it's fruit is hanging on! I'm sure I won't get more than a handful this year but I'm excited all the same.
Do you have any fruit trees in your yard? Ever planted a fruit tree? How many years until you started reaping the rewards - let me know in the comments!
