We begin with pregnant pauses and delicious babies before moving on to geans and slot machines. As we debate Chekhov's Cherries we learn some alternate history, confess fruit related sins and ogle some droopy pairs before crossing a bing and a van. This episode is best enjoyed with doom drops and jolly beans.
Molly's Now but Wow! - Hanif Abdurraqib on All Things Considered, July 23, 2023
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Matthew Amster-Burton 0:00
Hi I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And I'm Molly. pregnant pause. Not pregnant though.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:10
And this is spilled milk the show where we cook something delicious. Not a baby and eat it all and you can't have any.
Molly 0:17
Yeah, babies are delicious though me to be clear.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:20
Oh, yeah, yeah, you know my babies are delicious song. Do I? Everybody's got a baby but me. Babies are delicious. As you can see, I can eat one or two or three. I forgot the last. I think I make it up every time. Okay, okay.
Molly 0:38
Well, anyway. Hey, it spilled milk. Here we are again. Yes, it's how it goes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:43
We're talking about sweet cherries.
Molly 0:46
That's right. As opposed to sour cherries,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:48
which we did recently. Let's let's see. When was that?
Molly 0:52
Sure How recent that was Matthew?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:54
I don't know. It's probably pretty recent. Episode 16.
Molly 1:02
Like 600 550 episodes ago,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:07
oh, no more than that. Yeah. July 8 2010.
Molly 1:10
It was 592 episodes ago. There
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:12
we go. Perfect. Okay, so definitely go back and listen to that episode. I bet it's great.
Molly 1:16
Okay, so today's episode was suggested by listener Dana, and listener, tired rundown listless on Reddit.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:24
Oh, which is not me, but I am also those things. Yeah. Because I just had COVID for the first time, and I highly recommend it.
Molly 1:34
I didn't. Wait. I didn't realize it was your first time. I thought it was your second time out first time. Oh, yeah. So we're, we're taping remotely today? Yeah. In part also, because I have limited childcare today. And everybody is so interested for all the ins and outs of that. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:52
the the one upside was I made a ton of progress on Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. So maybe maybe we'll do a new segment about that.
Molly 2:00
Okay, cool. Cool. So yeah, today we're talking about sweet cherries. So this is to say, I think the cherries that most of the world is familiar with eating like out of hand or
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:09
it's like the cherries that you see on a slot machine. Right?
Molly 2:13
I mean, I have you my favorite tasted the cherries on a slot machine.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:16
Oh, yeah. Every time I go to the casino I am licking that slot slot screen. Wow
she she realized before me like the, the crevice that I was falling into? I
Molly 2:39
sure did. Okay, here we go. So, Matthew, do you have a memory lane? You grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which is a good place for growing cherries?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:48
Yeah. So so right. So we had a cherry orchard like, like our neighbor. Our neighbor checked off his head who had a cherry orchard? Is that right?
Molly 2:58
Oh, George Washington. Yeah, he's George.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:03
Anton Chekhov. I make I make highbrow literary jokes exclusive.
Molly 3:08
only read the lady with the dog.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:11
I've never read anything by Chekhov. I just know that like he puts a gun on your mantel and then he shoots
Molly 3:16
you later. Right. And he was America's first president.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:20
That's right. So okay, so yes, I remember eating being cherries.
Molly 3:24
On what was the checkoff thing to check off your short story called The cherry or tragic? It
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:29
was a play. Okay. I googled it, but then I closed the tab so we'll never know. All right, go may pop back up in three. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I don't so so. Okay, I'm gonna level with you upfront. Like, I don't like cherries that much. Like I love sour cherries. If there's a like some sweet cherries sitting around and people are snacking on them. I will snack on them. Also, I don't hate them. I just never get a craving for them. Even like when Rainier cherry season rolls around. I'm not one of these people's like, gotta get my hands on those on those sweet sweet pairs of droops.
Molly 4:05
So, so when you for instance, walk into your local supermarket, and they've got like bags and bags of beautiful local fresh cherries right out on display by the door What do you do you just walk on by
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:19
I run in the other direction as fast as I can. Yeah, just I just like whistle on by
Molly 4:24
Wow, how carefree What is it like to just not care about cherries?
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:29
You know, honestly, I don't care about anything at the at the supermarket. I've like transcended trade say exactly. That's the word I was looking for. I tried to scented food and I just like whistled through the whole place. Like I just smell things now. Yeah, I mean, my when I had COVID My sense of smell got real messed up for a few days and that was not fun. It was diminished, but also like weird.
Molly 4:53
Wow, that's so interesting. I've only ever had a diminished sense of smell like from a cold or something and it's bad enough It's amazing how demoralizing it is. Yeah, okay, well yeah so
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:02
so like I did eat cherries growing up and I think they were probably pretty decent Northwest Cherries but I don't I don't have a lot of cherry Memory Lane How about you? I think that as I was really into slot machines for a period as a kid this is true
Molly 5:18
as a kid I think that I associated cherries with like cough syrup and with like juicy pie filling from a can
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:25
remember how I didn't get we did that cough syrup episode and I didn't get cherry and you've never been more upset with me.
Molly 5:33
I was more upset with you that time you cut watermelon and a completely I absolutely nonsensical way.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:40
That's true. Like what was upsetting when I when I like show up at the pearly gates and they're like, going through my like, you know, pros and cons list like that is the thing that's gonna keep me out of heaven. It's true.
Molly 5:53
It's true. They're gonna be like, you cut watermelon so that no one with a human face could eat it. Yeah. Because it was it would have like wrapped around my face. I would have had to wear it like as like a neck pillow in order to eat it. It was so yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:10
That's right. Yeah, you had to you had to like go for physical therapy after trying to eat this watermelon. Yeah, no, I'm gonna show up there and like, you know, like, like Charles Manson just gonna be in line next to me. And I'm like, like, this this way. Right? They're like, No, no, the watermelon thing is worse than anything he did.
Molly 6:26
Okay, well, anyway, hang on. So yeah, that and you're not buying cherry cough syrup. So, anyway, all my offenses are fruit related. This is true. I just have some other offenses. You're very
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:37
clever the other the time I ate grapefruit in like a lascivious way that really grossed you out. I don't remember that. Pretty sure this happened on the grapefruit and you put your tongue in the slot. I think I put my tongue in the slot. Yeah, like So really, all of my offenses are fruit related.
Molly 6:53
All right. So Matthew, back to what I was saying, please. So yeah, I think I was like kind of anti cherry like I would never have chosen something with cherries in it as a kid. Because all the cherry I knew of was like cherry flavored stuff. Or like cherry I love like cherry flavored Jolly Ranchers. I like cherry flavored Jolly Ranchers. I like cherry flavored jelly beans. But I mean, let's let's really think this through here like the difference between flavored cough syrup, and a cherry like Jelly Belly jelly bean. They don't even compare
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:25
which one's better? Why are we making this comparison?
Molly 7:32
Because I think that I like cherry jelly beans. And like cherry Jolly Ranchers more than anything. I think they taste red.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:42
Yes, you're right. laughing because when you said Jerry jellybeans imagine there's a product called Jelly Beans. And I don't know what it is. But I want it. Like it's probably
Molly 7:56
a strain of marijuana.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:58
Yeah. Like a young child would say when they met jelly beans, like mommy kinds of jelly beans.
Speaker 2 8:06
It's like June used to call dewdrops. Doom drops.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:12
So good. Anything of the world? It's better than that, like stupid stuff and kids.
Molly 8:20
Not okay, I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:24
good. Oh, good. Okay, it's that time of the show. All right. I'll pick up and I'll tell you a beverage.
Molly 8:32
I got this. Okay. Okay. I'm just gonna move on from the candy thing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:37
Yes. You're gonna have fresh cherries in Oklahoma City. Not
Molly 8:40
that I recall growing up. I mean, there weren't really I was not aware of farmers markets in Oklahoma City growing up and when there was one, it was like a big deal. And you better believe mo Weisenberg was there on like opening day? Oh, yes. Otherwise, we were buying all our groceries at Safeway, which then became homeland. Right? Oh, don't forget about Scaggs alpha beta, though.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:03
What about Crescent market? It seems like Crescent market would have it would have
Molly 9:06
this market? It didn't have? No, they wouldn't have had cherries. I mean, okay. What I'm trying to say is I really don't think I ate fresh cherries until I was like in my my teens. Okay. And then did they blow your mind? I think that maybe the first time I encountered them wasn't even in Oklahoma. But I do remember liking them immediately in part because they were nothing like cherry cough syrup or cherry pie flavor and true are filling. And then I remember so when I was in my teens and going to like horse shows in Colorado and New Mexico in the summertime. My mom would often be the parent who would like drive with me like the eight or 12 hours to get to wherever we were going. And I remember like packing coolers with my mom of like food that we would eat on the road. And I remember like there was some place where we stopped and bought cherries or something and moms Hold me about you can totally picture this. Tony Negroni, when she was like in her mid 20s, or something. She drove across country or at least from Oklahoma to San Francisco. It was just her and her dog. Maybe she drove down again traveled back to Oklahoma. Her name was Nicole.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:20
Again, I only make highbrow literary jokes. And
Molly 10:23
mom recounts fondly this road trip with her dog and she was wearing cut offs.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:31
And she was wearing cut off.
Molly 10:33
Mom was wearing cut offs. And she would have like her left leg like up and sort of like hanging out the window. You know? She would spit cherry pits out the window.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:44
That is so cool, right?
Molly 10:46
However, so like so dangerous. We're
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:48
gonna have a lot to say about this when she gets to heaven. It's true. It's true. Like her anyway, what are her other fruit offense?
Molly 10:56
But yeah, so she taught me how to spit cherry pits and I'm quite proud to say that she has also taught Juna how to spit cherry pits. That's great.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:03
So she so when you were driving to to a horror show with your mom, you would spit things out the window? Yeah, I
Molly 11:09
do think I could spit cherry pits out the window both of us but anyways, pretty great. I mean, I never did. I never did a road trip like that, like alone with my daughters with either your dog and your leg and my leg. I know I did a road trip with my two legs. Okay. But with with other people,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:27
whether they're like several several pairs. In fact, you and I got
Molly 11:31
to know each other on a road trip where we were looking at both of our legs and instead of cherries. We had corn nuts
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:36
and Cool Ranch Doritos. Yeah.
Molly 11:38
Oh, that's right. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:39
I just thought of another piece of cherry memory lane, but this is from last month. Does that count? Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay, I lied. It's actually from earlier this month. As you know, we're members of a pie club. Yeah, I am bragging. So once a month we get a pie delivered from pie bird bake shop in Seattle. And the pie this month was sweet cherry and apricot. And the pie maker was like I know it's supposed to be sour cherries in a pie like you're probably skeptical of this. I don't I don't know if she actually said that in the in the note that came with the pie. But I was skeptical of it. And it was really good.
Molly 12:14
Huh? Do you like cherry pie as as a general principle I
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:17
do. If it's if it's good, which it usually isn't, but yes, I
Molly 12:23
I don't like it ever. And I've even had one because of the gloop. I've even had ones that other people said were good. Like exceptionally good. And I was like, No, I think I don't really like the flavor of cooked cherries very much. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:39
Yeah, I really like a cooked cooked sour cherry and I like this cook sweet cherry pie. Now that is kind of the worst that when someone says like well, I you know, maybe you don't like Brussels sprouts, but you're gonna like my brussels sprouts. And then you're like, still don't like Russell's routes? Yeah, I love Brussels sprouts to be to be clear.
Molly 12:54
Me too. I don't know why you use brussels sprouts. I don't know. Okay, so Matthew, I as you know, I did the research for this episode. And for once, I used more sources than Wikipedia.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:06
Alright, where did you go? Did you go to like an agricultural research station?
Molly 13:09
I did not but I will be mentioning some agricultural research stations. I used to books that I think I will probably have on my shelf forever. One is Nigel Slater's. Right. Yeah. And the other is opera barons third book called pulp. Opera barons is a Midwestern chef. Her first book was called roughage. Her second book was called grist, I think, yeah. am I messing this up? And then her most recent book is pulp and this one's about fruit. This one maybe has the, to be perfectly honest. I think the recipes in this one are more complicated than I'm interested in doing when I'm cooking with fruit. Sure we're baking with fruit. But I use roughage in particular all the time. I really liked that book.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:57
Yeah, you were absolutely right. By the way roughage, then Gris, then pulp. Oh, great. Awesome. Anyway, so
Molly 14:02
my three favorite Britpop bands, great. Opera is fantastic. I highly recommend checking these books out not only because opera is an incredible Cook, and Chef, but also they're visually beautiful. And also I really like her politics. She profiles, farmers and people involved in agriculture in the Midwest. And you can learn a tremendous amount about like, how hard and how important farming is.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:31
Okay, I have not read any of her books, but I am putting a hold on roughage right now and it should be in for me at the library very soon.
Molly 14:40
Excellent. Excellent. I highly recommend the cream braised leeks. Okay, which Okay, the other book I used? Oh, I think I already mentioned it was Nigel Slater's. Right? Yeah. Anyway,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:50
I don't have any Nigel Slater on my shelf. I don't think but every time I go to your house, I pull down a Nigel Slater book and get enveloped in it. They're just delightful. Like I
Molly 14:59
don't know. reach for them for cooking purposes not even I own real fast food, which is I think his most like sort of everyday cooking user friendly cookbook. I don't love how he writes recipes. I'll be honest, but I find him an incredible companion in the Yeah, exactly. Anyway, so one thing I want to say before we start out is we're gonna be talking a lot about cherries, like cherries that were developed in the Pacific Northwest, like in BC in particular. However, I learned from abras book that Michigan is a huge cherry producing state.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:37
Yeah, I think I knew that you know, from our recent sour cherry episode.
Molly 15:41
Yeah, cuz they grow I think like three times as many sour cherries as sweet. But anyway, I just wanted to mention that
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:47
when I imagined sour cherries growing, even though I've literally picked them off a tree, I imagined them growing in bogs because I confuse them with cranberries.
Molly 15:56
Really? Yeah. That's so cute. Well, they are their their their tree cranberries. Their tree craft. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So sweet cherries are their Prunus avium Avium, which the pronunciation of the Prunus avium I like it, okay, whereas sour cherries are Prunus psoriasis. All right. So I didn't know this. But sweet cherries are also often called Wild cherries. They are thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus psoriasis, which is the sour cherry. So sour cherries are thought to have been developed from sweet cherry crossed with a some sort of dwarf cherry. Interesting. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:37
didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know that either. It also I don't think I knew that sweet cherries were wild cherries. But that makes sense. Because like Wild Cherry Pepsi. Tastes like sweet.
Molly 16:46
Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:48
So the other day, I was I needed a treat. And I was like hot. I was at Safeway. I was like, I want a bottle of cherry coke. And I got a bottle of cherry coke. And it was so satisfying.
Molly 17:00
Did you have it? I feel like the peak experience is to have it like with crushed ice. So I had a cherry coke when we went to see fast X Do you remember us? But it like the blend wasn't quite right. It was like a little too much cherry flavor. It was from a freestyle Coke machine. But I think the way to go is to have a bottle cherry coke and pour it over a cup of crushed ice.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:23
So I poured it over like chunky ice not crushed ice, but it was still very good. Okay, would you like crush your own ice for this?
Molly 17:30
No, no, but like if you were I don't know if you were in like a 711 or something. Couldn't you probably get a cup of crushed ice from their fountain? Oh, yeah, of course. Right? Yeah. Anyway. Okay, I crushed
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:42
mine with an ice pick. Like Like, as seen in our favorite movie. Basic Instinct. Totally unproblematic movie.
Molly 17:48
I crushed mine with my fist. Good. But like by squeezing
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:54
your spear like some sort of like,
Molly 17:56
like Yeti. I wonder how many times I've said anyway, to try to get us to the next point.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:01
It's weird. What's what's holding you back?
Molly 18:05
sweet cherries are native to a lot of places. Okay. And truly, it seems like they're native to everywhere like Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa. Like the the area that is now called turkey. Morocco, Tunisia, parts of Norway. I mean,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:22
there are a couple of continents you haven't mentioned yet.
Molly 18:24
You're right. I guess I haven't mentioned South America. And I haven't mentioned North America. Antarctica, Antarctica. There we go. The fruit is become naturalized to North America and Australia. What does that mean exactly? That like it didn't it didn't grow there originally, but now it grows. I think
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:43
it means that he'd like grows wild without having to be cultivated,
Molly 18:47
which I think means it probably like escaped cultivation. Yeah. Like you do when you run away from a bag of cherries. It is a mess,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:55
right? Yeah. Yeah. So So cherries ran ran away from us. And now I'm sticking it back to them by running away from them.
Molly 19:02
Way to go, man. So all parts of the plant except the ripe fruit are slightly toxic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:09
Oh, probably stopped snowing on bark.
Molly 19:13
And I think I mean, I think we discussed this back in you know, like maybe the peach or nectarine episode when we talked about like the little bit of like a cyanide type compound in the pit. The same thing I believe is in a cherry pit, right? Sure the fruit is a droop and I need you to remind me again what a drip is a droop
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:31
is okay so there's like a like a big chunky, like encased seed in the middle and some like fleshy like one seed in the middle and then some fleshy flesh clinging to it that typically like splits apart into two halves. So stone fruits or drone fruits or troops. A cherry is a stone fruit. It's just a little Yeah,
Molly 19:53
here's a thing I found a little I don't know, this just feels very British to Okay, so the sweet cherry was historically known as To gain g a n or G never
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:04
heard that word before and I love it.
Molly 20:07
It was also called a mazzard ma ZZ ARD okay. And until recently both of these names were obsolete in modern English by Mazur. Well, I know I know, that was my first reaction to but mazzard apparently is still sometimes used to refer to a particular like self fertilizing cultivar that grows true from seed and is often used as a root stock for grafting other types of cherry. Okay, I think this is probably a term that's used more often in the UK than here it was linked especially to North Devon, have you ever heard someone say it? No. But after I, after I saw it, I encountered it in one other place. That wasn't Wikipedia.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:51
Okay. So that's the mazzard is what is used to refer to that like, Route, like rewrite, stop, right? Okay. But do people have people started saying gain again? Because I love that, like, if sweet cherries were called gains, and I'd be like, I gotta, I gotta get down on to gains I would be a lot more excited to eat them every summer.
Molly 21:10
Well, you should try. Back in cherries are really old. I mean, as one might expect, given that they're native to a lot of places where humans have lived for a very long time. Cherry pits have been found in bronze Bronze Age settlements throughout Europe. So dating back to roughly like 2100 BCE. Okay. And by 800 BCE, cherries were being actively cultivated in what is today Turkey, and soon after that in Greece,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:38
when were the first slot machines.
Molly 21:41
What I've heard is that they came about around the time of Christ, okay. Yeah. What do I call that? Do I call that what do you call like the moment is it like that? We're BCE become CE the what do you call it? Birth
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:55
of Christ the guess? Yeah.
Molly 22:01
Silent Night.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:01
Yeah, that's right.
Molly 22:11
I want to talk about different types of sweet cherries. But one thing I do want to say before we move away from like, where they're where they you know, where they come from, and stuff like that. I really found abras description of how to select sweet cherries to be useful and instructive. I don't know if it's anything new but I liked what she wrote. So quote, look for firm even fruit avoiding any that have brown or blue mold around the stem or any kind of obvious but yeah, in the flesh of the fruit Shut up Matthew. The skin should be bright, shiny and taut. Ideally the fruit will look like it is trying to burst through the skin. as it ages the flesh loses moisture in the skin Lusa
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:53
when you said it should be bright, shiny and taut. I was like This sounds like a pet food commercial. And then you said the other stuff and I was like No It no longer does.
Molly 23:01
The flesh just burst through this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:03
Yikes.
Molly 23:08
Your coat your your dog has healthy. Looks like it's trying to burst.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:15
Thanks I think like stick please step away from my dog. Okay,
Molly 23:22
anyway, no, but I liked that bit about like trying to burst through the skin if overtime. Right. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:28
but if it if the fruit actually does burst through the skin, is that is that good? Okay, no,
Molly 23:35
no. So, in fact, the first type of charity that I want to talk about is a little bit persnickety about being harvested if there's been rain like right around harvest time it have a tendency to crack or split open. And so why is that Sheriff first cherry I want to talk about is the big cherry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:55
Okay, I feel like I'm gonna learn a lot here because I've eaten a lot of things, but I don't know anything about them other than their the red one.
Molly 24:02
Yeah, no, I didn't know much about them either. So it's the most produced variety of sweet cherry in the US. And it's a cultivar that originated in Milwaukee, Oregon. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:12
I didn't know that. I grew up like right next to Milwaukee, Oregon and went there all the time. Like I grew up in Sellwood in Southeast Portland, which is right next to Milwaukee.
Molly 24:21
Wow. Well, I mean, this is this is an old cherry this. So the big was created in 1875. Okay, and get this. It was a cross between black Republican and Royal and wow, right Royal and it's also known as Napoleon. Okay, so black Republican and Napoleon. I mean, that sounds like a really powerful mix.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:44
It does. Yeah, the less the less said about which probably the better.
Molly 24:49
Okay. It was created by a horticulturist named Seth lewelling and his Chinese Foreman are being okay. I didn't know this at all. Yeah, I didn't either. Uh, According to Wikipedia arbing was, was born in China and emigrated to the US around 1855. And he worked as a foreman in the lewelling family fruit orchards in Milwaukee for about 35 years, supervised other workers cared for the trees etc. He went back to China in 1889 for a visit and because of the restrictions imposed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, he was never able to return to the US. So apparently sources disagree as to whether arbing was himself responsible for developing the Bing cultivar or whether it was developed by lewelling. And named in Bings honor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:42
I didn't know any of this.
Molly 25:44
That's amazing. Right? Right. Really? I think that's a great story. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:48
I didn't know that. It was named for a person I didn't know it was named for for a Chinese American horticulturalist and I didn't know was developed like next door to where I grew up. Pretty cool.
Molly 25:57
All right. So so anyway, it remains the major cultivars, of course in Oregon, Washington, California, Wisconsin, and BC, maybe some other places too, I don't know. And it's grown almost exclusively for the fresh market. So you know, not so much for like dried fruits or pie filling or whatever. They're large and they're dark, and they ship really well but they will crack open if they're exposed to rain near the harvest. So don't do that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:26
Don't expose do that
Molly 26:27
don't expose them. So you know, I think being far and away if you have had a dark red cherry in the US was a big so what we'll talk about some other ones if
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:39
you've had a dark red geen, we should say, Dean, that's right. That's what it's for. Now, it's gene.
Molly 26:45
It might be pronounced gene, I don't know. But I prefer sounds so bad. There are many different I mean, I want to say right up front here that from reading both Wikipedia and Nigel Slater. There are so many different types of
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:01
I'm hoping we get to a point where you just start listing off funny names. I'm gonna
Molly 27:04
go ahead and list summary. Okay, and I'll tell you if I happen to know where certain of them originated. So here are some types sunburst summer sun, which originated in the UK, Stella, which originated in Canada. Okay. The noir de Guba. Then Burke home that originated in the UK, Napoleon in the UK, you would think that would have been a French one. I don't know what white heart old Blackheart Merton glory and Celeste pizza for one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:36
So yeah, Terry's right. So that's the last variety instead of having like Two Cherries stuck together. It's just
Molly 27:41
one Cherry. Yeah. And then I didn't see this mentioned anywhere. But I've also in France had a type of charity called Bill law are spelled like bu R la T. Okay, and that was delicious, like a dark red cherry brillat. But anyway, I'm not going to go into detail on any of those. But I wanted to mention them because some of them in particular Stella, one of the Canadian cherries, is about to come up in the next cherry I want to talk about okay, let's let's talk about the next year Pacific Northwest. So the next cherry is called a lap in Cherry L A P I N. It's sometimes called a Cherokee cherry. I've never seen it called that. But I saw that from multiple sources. And it was created. It's a hybrid of a stellar cultivar bar and a van cultivar. And we'll talk about van and just a minute,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:31
how do you cross a fruit with a van?
Molly 28:33
Anyway, it was developed in BC at the Summer land Research Station, our first Agricultural Research Station because it's called a station I picture it like, like up in the sky like
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:46
like a space station. Yeah, sure. This as like a railroad depot.
Molly 28:50
Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah, you got to pass through a lot of stations to get to where you're going, which is to a lap and chair. Yeah. And every
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:58
station they put they bring up your list of pros and cons and start haranguing you about your fruit fruit fences.
Molly 29:04
That's right. That's right. This cherry was first released in 1983. So it's kind of wild to think about, I mean, the Bing was created like 100 years before some of this was like during our lifetime. That's right the lap and cherry was created during our lifetimes. It's a variety that was developed by this Latvian agronomist who was working in Canada, and his last name was lap ins, okay. And he was best known for his work in the development of so
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:36
whether he was actually a bunch of rabbits in a trench coat.
Molly 29:40
I bet he was he was so free.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:44
Anyway, he was to grow out of it and Other Stories by me check off.
Molly 29:51
So, cherries, I think wild cherries are not self fertilizing. And so it's been a big deal in the world of like, wood you You say horticulture or agronomy? I don't know what but it's been a big deal those worlds to develop self fertilizing types of cherries
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:09
because because when they sell fertilized like it produces like the same thing in the next generation, right? That's the idea. That's
Molly 30:15
right. Well, I mean, I think that's just called like producing like true from from seed. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:22
I mean, because it's still like so fertilization is still it's still sexual reproduction so you still gonna get more variety than you want probably right?
Molly 30:31
Probably I don't really know. I don't either you so anyway, Mr. or Dr. Lappe, Ins Mr. Rabbits, whatever was known for his work in the development of self fertilizing cherries, these fruits I'd be curious to see these side by side with a bang because they're described as being dark red as well I'm gonna bring it up right now but they ripen about two weeks later than being there later ripening Wow, this
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:59
looks really similar. Yeah, okay.
Molly 31:01
I want to move on now and I want to talk about the the van cherry Okay, which actually I should have talked about before Lapin so that we could like, you know, build on our knowledge here. Van was developed in BC, also at the Summer land Research Station, and it originated from an open pollination of an Empress Eugenie
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:21
tree. Nice. Okay, this this one look does look different. It's like lighter flesh.
Molly 31:27
Ah, interesting. Okay. Well, so this cross was introduced in 1944. And it was named after a horticulturist named Jay AR van Harlan. According to Wikipedia, it has dark red flesh and black skin. Is that true with what you're seeing there for the van?
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:43
I mean, the the photo that I'm looking at here, the skin is dark red, but the the flesh is kind of like like, peachy color.
Molly 31:52
Oh, that okay. Well, this is going to be really interesting to talk about the next one. Okay, gotta get to this next cherry because we got to get hot cherry. Okay, so this next one we're going to talk about is the rain near cherry. Okay, so this one was developed at Washington State University in 1952 by a guy named Harold Fogle. Okay, and of course, he named it after Mount Rainier. It is a cross between a big and a van. All right. So what I find interesting about this is it like so it's interesting to know that the van has a lighter flesh color. But both of these parent varieties have dark skin,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:28
but the Rainier cherry is known for its like, you know, blushy light hue.
Molly 32:33
Yeah, it's known for being kind of yellow with like, reddish and pinkish tones.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:40
Yeah, and these are these are like a favorite cherry among Seattleites. I feel oh yeah,
Molly 32:46
rainier cherries are especially celebrated here. Interestingly enough, Matthew the standard root stock for Rainier is the mazzard cherry that is so interesting. Is that so interesting? The tree the Rainier cherry tree is one of the most cold hardy of the sweet cherries. Okay, but the fruit the fruit seems really delicate to me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:08
Yeah, like it not as elegant as like a sour cherry but yes, that's true. But also like you You are really rough with your fruits.
Molly 33:17
That's true. That's true. That's true. I like it rough Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:21
like I've seen you like drop a hammer out of out a bag of cherry Squeezy with my fist the way I crushed my crush ice Yeah, like Yeah, you know you've got you've got the Yeti in you.
Molly 33:31
I do I do. Wikipedia says that the Rainier is considered a premium cherry
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:36
Oh yeah, I think I feel like they're usually cost like $1 more per pound than the beings at the farmers market.
Molly 33:42
I wonder if this is just because they are a little bit more delicate which I also think is because the flesh is more watery than other sweet chair. Yeah, but I
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:52
think I think that's probably part of it. But also I think people like
Molly 33:56
that's true so they can just charge more for them. Yeah, and I guess so there are lots of types of cherries that we're not going to talk about specifically that we should talk about here but apparently the Rainier is particularly sweet for a pale cherry it seems like it yeah, yeah. Anyway, so that's a cross between a being in a van or being in a van or being in a van and the last one I want to talk about is one that I've seen in farmers markets in recent years maybe you have to it is the sweetheart cherry doesn't ring a bell but I believe you okay, well it I think of this one is having a brighter red skin than the big okay the van but it's still not as bright as it's not the kind of bright of like a sour cherry but it's more a truer red. The sweeter cherry was developed in BC in Summerland, but not at the Summerland Research Center or research station.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:45
Yeah, like some some people in BC are doing their own research.
Molly 34:49
That's right. That's right. This was developed at the Pacific agri Food Research Center. Wow. Yeah be NAC is
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:57
really like a like an agricultural research powerhouse. Alex, isn't it this episode? By the BC agriculture poor?
Molly 35:04
Please pay for us to go to BC yeah, see agriculture.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:09
Remember when they were going to send us like all over Canada?
Molly 35:13
That was going to be so great. That was that was an advertising opportunity that didn't pan out. Anyway, the sweetheart was the sweetheart is a hybrid of the van and new star. And it was released in 1994. Oh, okay. And it's a very late season. Sherry it ripens like three weeks after being Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:35
1984 is when I first met wife for the show, Laurie? Oh my gosh.
Molly 35:38
She's a real sweetheart. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:40
Was that a spelling bee when we were kids? Oh, I
Molly 35:44
forgot about that. Oh, God, I love it. Okay, well, moving right along, Matthew. Yes. Have you ever eaten like one of those like historic cherry desserts like cherries jubilee? No.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:55
And I want to I want to do another episode where we have to Flom Bay. Something like one of my fondest memories is the time we ate Bananas Foster together and we like we kindled a flame and then it was way tastier than we expected.
Molly 36:11
Let's make cherries jubilee. Do it. So I'm not going to talk anymore about cherries. do a whole episode talk about it. In the episode we do. We'll do
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:19
it. We'll do an episode where we do cherries jubilee and like, like crepes. Suzette. Is that flaming? I think it is. Sure peach melba. Is that flaming? I don't know. Just saying old dessert names.
Molly 36:29
What about cherry? klevu? T?
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:32
Yes, I've more often made a blueberry cloth booty but I have made sweet cherry. How about you?
Molly 36:36
I have made several klevu Tea over the years apricot. I've made a plum klevu tea. I've made a pear class blue tea and I have never made a cherry klevu tea because again, I don't like the flavor of cook.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:49
I have heard I think I've maybe read this in a John Thorne essay that like if you're in France, like people will say that you have to leave the pits in when you make a cherry cloth. Is this true? Yes. Yes. I'm not going to do that.
Molly 37:01
Yeah, no, no, no, I don't like the thought if that Nigel Slater had a little thing about this too. He was like he said that some people also insist upon leaving the pits in a cherry pie. And I was like, oh, what kind of nonsense is
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:15
nice? Yes. Some some like, like sadistic, problematic people. Yeah. Can you imagine if someone brought you a pie and had pets?
Molly 37:25
i Can you even imagine how much work it would be to eat back?
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:28
Yeah. Wow. That's that's like, you know, if you're if you move into a neighborhood and your neighbor brings you a pet pie, like you need to leave immediately.
Molly 37:37
Yeah, it's a sign. It's a sign Matthew. So what do you do with cherries? Or when you buy them? Which I know you don't? Which type? Are you more inclined to buy?
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:46
I'm more inclined to buy the Rainier. And I'll just eat them straight and then I'll get bored with them and then like, hope for someone else in the family eats the rest. Okay, cool. I don't hate fruit, like as much as your spouse does, but I'm not a big fruit person.
Molly 37:59
Yeah, I'm a big fruit person. And my kid is a big fruit person. I've had a bag of Rainiers in the fridge for a while. I can't remember I bought really good. Well, actually, what's notable is that they kind of got pushed to the back of the fridge and I forgot about them for like five days and they were still totally fine. They refrigerate really well. June has been really enjoying just opening the fridge every now and then and taking out a handful of cherries and nice them and and that makes me feel like I am giving my child good child
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:30
again, when like there's nothing more satisfying in the world of like food aesthetics than holding like a pair of cherries that are attached by the stamp.
Molly 38:39
I mean, I can think of some things but this episode that's the best one and this this is a cherry episode. Yeah, this is a cherry episode. Matthew. There's one thing from abras book that I do want to try making it is it's on page 198 of pulp. It is a chocolate pudding with coffee soaked black cherries. And so you make like a coffee like simple syrup. I'm just really interested because I do like cherries and chocolate. And I like coffee and chocolate. And I'm intrigued by the cherries and the cheese. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:16
I would if you make this all try it. I'm skeptical of it. But I bet it's good.
Molly 39:20
I'm going to show you the picture because it looks really good. Yeah, that looks pretty good. Okay, okay. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:26
Are you making it today?
Molly 39:27
No, I am not. Matthew, do we have any segments?
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:30
Do we? Yes, this segment is called spilled mail
and I want to preface this preface this by saying I don't really have an answer to this question. But I just wanted to read the story because it's a good story that I have a feeling Lister Grace has told before because she tells it very well, but let's die. Okay. Okay, dear Matthew and Molly. Are there any eating habits that drive you nuts or give you the IQ? I went on a string of dates with a celeb Pretty who turned out to be a real jerk? Part of the allure was going out to restaurants where he was recognized but I should have known after he ordered himself two cocktails at once, and all the desserts on the menu that it wouldn't end well. Actually I should have known when he described his favorite cuisine as quote kid food, but I was too entranced to heed the sides are finally supposed to be cooking together, which turned out to be him watching me cook while he's soaked on his phone and ate an entire container of unwashed sugarsnap peas without removing the stringy parts. As we sat down to eat, he asked, So what do we have here as if he was AlixPartners Shelly and I was some sweaty, chopped contested seeking national recognition. But the real kiss of death was later in the meal. When a mid conversation and without breaking eye contact, he reached his hand across the table and into the salad bowl and took a fistful of dressed lettuce back to his play. It is this mental image that prompted me to finally break things off. Now if I see him on a billboard, I just pictured his pale stubby fingered head making its deliberate mechanical journey into that salad bowl, and I've suddenly resolute and determined never to speak to him again. Sincerely, your loyal listeners since 2014. Grace.
Molly 41:10
Oh my god, Grace. I really want to know which celebrity this is. I promise I won't tell anybody.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:15
Okay, so the question is, like, Are there any food habits such as eating salad with your hand? That gives you the egg? Well, so I want I
Molly 41:23
want to be clear here, which is that a lot of chefs do I know kind of like eat salad leaves with their fingers. Sure.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:31
Yeah. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with unlike like, eating food with your hands is great.
Molly 41:36
But reaching into a shared bowl right food with your bare hand is not cool right? Now. This this man is a monster.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:45
I feel comfortable saying yeah, I don't really have any that I've like, right. Like nothing. Nothing. Certainly that that like stands up to that story. I'm trying to think um, I have a friend who likes Spitz cherry pits out the window and she's on a roach. Oh, yeah. I
Molly 41:58
got What a monster and sticks
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:01
her leg out the window. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying
Molly 42:05
to think here. I feel like
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:10
we can just leave it at this great story from listener grace. We don't have to we don't have to click sleep. We don't have to put it on blast for their eating.
Molly 42:18
It's a great story. Okay. Okay, Molly,
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:19
do you have a now but wow,
Molly 42:21
I do.
So Matthew, I thought long and hard about whether to use this one this week. Because I think I've mentioned this writer before, Hanif abdurraqib, who has written very memorably about food about American culture, black American culture, he's also a poet. But the reason why I wanted to mention him this week, is that he was on all things considered recently, I believe it was July 23. I don't even know what the occasion was of his being on the show. I don't think he has a new book out. Maybe he does, who knows, the conversation that he wound up having with the interviewer wound up being about depression, and suicidal ideation and grief. So consider this a content warning. However, it was so uplifting and lovely. And I think such a really important and heartfelt and really lovely. I know I keep saying lovely, but it was just a really meaningful conversation. And I felt really privileged to like, like, we get to hear it, go check it out. We'll link to it in the show notes. But it was on all things considered July 23 2023, lovely, lovely thoughts about grief as a spiritual practice and as a part of everyday life. I have
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:51
read Hanif abdurraqib. 's book, they can't kill us until they kill us, which is a collection of essays about music very good. And he also wrote which what I've heard is a great book about A Tribe Called Quest, which I haven't read. Which one is that? That's not a Go ahead in the rain. Okay.
Molly 44:06
And I think there's another one called a little devil in America and
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:11
something else. All right. So check, check out all the Hanif abdurraqib Our producer is Abby circuit tele you can rate and review us wherever you get your podcast, you can check in with other listeners at everything spilled milk.reddit.com
Molly 44:24
In deed, Matthew, let's thank everybody for listening to the show.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:30
Let's thank everybody for listening to the show. And yeah, thank you. Thank you, you and demeaning and abetting all of our fruit related atrocities. Thank you and you and and you and also you there with the headphones. I'm talking to you. Thank you. I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.
Molly 44:49
I'm Molly Weissenberg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:56
Well, I had some fun doing research. Oh, yeah, I can tell No, I mean excited to talk about it I'm Matthew up
Molly 45:05
still chewing my lunch I'm Molly Let's do
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:07
that again or Abby will be upset