National Rainier Cherry Day -Postcard Friendship Friday #128

Today is National Rainier Cherry Day.  The cherries described as Rainiers seem to be exactly the type I ate as a child.  We would climb to the top of Grandma's cherry tree and eat to our heart's content.  Ah, those were the days.  A lovely summer afternoon, a good book and a bunch of fresh picked cherries.  Hmmmm… my mouth is watering...  When I am done here, I must find myself a bowl of cherries!  

The Rainier cherry was created at Washington State University, by fruit research scientist, Harold Warmon Fogle in 1952.  Fogle created the new cherry by cross-breeding Bing and Van cherries.

The resulting crop was a sweet, intensely shiny, blushing yellow cherry called the Rainier. This exquisite new fruit took its name from Mount Rainier, the highest peek in the Cascade Range.

Due to their superior taste, Rainiers are considered a premium cherry.  They are harvested mid-season, and are the highest value cherry produced in the Pacific Northwest. Large in size, The fruit has a distinctive yellow skin, a red blush and clear yellow flesh. They ripen three to six days after Bing cherries do, and they have excellent firmness, with an outstanding sweet, mild flavor.

A food writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer once called the Rainier the "sweetest, prettiest and most pampered of cherries." Since it's release in 1960, the Rainier has become one of the most popular cherries grown in the Pacific Northwest.

In Spring, the tree is beautiful with it's tremendous load of blossoms. Its prolific flowering results in sizable early yields. Rainier cherry trees are large with spreading branches.  This protects the delicate cherry from wind and rain, which is crucial in the rainy Pacific Northwest.

Have a lovely weekend, Happy Rainier Cherry Day, and have a great Postcard Friendship Friday!

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