MontMOREncy… what does it all mean?

Print

In an earlier blog post, we introduced you all to the term MontMOREncy cherry, and we promised an explanation. So what does MontMOREncy mean?

The Montmorency tart cherry is the most popular tart cherry grown in North America. These are the cherries you’ll find in your grandma’s cherry pie. Our dried cherries are made with a Montmorency tart cherry, as is our Tart Cherry Concentrate.

Farmers have long ago discovered that Montmorency tart cherries provide the greatest yield and are a great fruit to grow. Processors liked the Montmorency because it “pitted” well and the fruit held its flavor and color. Consumers loved the Montmorency for its sweet-tart flavor, its bright red skin, and its light flesh. Nature had developed her most perfect fruit!

Then in the early 2000’s, some researchers started poking and prodding our perfect fruit. Come to find out, our tasty Montmorency cherry is good for your health, too! The properties that give the Montmorency tart cherry its bright red pigment also has properties that promote wellness in humans, too.

You can learn more about the health and wellness benefits of tart cherries here, here, and here.

Want the science behind our superfruit in (almost) plain English? Click on this link.  It is a fantastic article.

Our industry has leveraged the strong clinical research and real world evidence of daily consumption of tart cherry juice into a wellness and health benefits message for consumers. Click on over to the industry page, www.choosecherries.com, to learn about all the health benefits of tart cherries.

Unfortunately, our industry has been challenged by inferior, imported cherry juice being sold as equal to our Montmorency tart cherry juice and concentrate. This imported juice does not have the health benefit properties that our USA grown Montmorency tart cherry concentrate does.

There is a difference!

Our MontMOREncy tart cherry juice contains MORE of the natural wellness properties that make MontMOREncy tart cherries a superfruit.

And that is why we spell MontMOREncy with the emphasis on more. It’s proven that USA Montmorency cherries are a superior superfruit. So when you buy tart cherry juice concentrate, make sure the brand uses only USA grown MontMOREncy tart cherries.

At Leelanau Fruit Company, we always and only use MontMOREncy tart cherries. For us, our source of cherries is right down the street, at our own farms. It doesn’t get fresher than that!

And remember, February is National Cherry Month. Click on over to our online store to grab some tart cherry juice concentrate. With ever order in February, you will receive a free gift from us!

National Cherry Month Cherry Recipes

Already known for their high vitamin A and beta-carotene content, research suggests that it’s the bright red color of tart cherries that provides the anti-inflammatory benefits. The antioxidants in cherries are believed to reduce the pain of arthritis, inflammation and gout. Besides their many health benefits, they are also wonderful to eat or drink. We offer our cherries in frozen (no online sales), dried, maraschino and juice form.
Let’s celebrate this delicious and healthful fruit in recipes!

 

Cheery Cherry Cake
8 cups fresh or frozen (partially thawed) drained, pitted tart cherries
½ cup sugar
1 package yellow or white cake mix
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced almonds (or other chopped nuts)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon sugar for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13x9x2” baking pan. Evenly spread cherries into the prepared pan. Sprinkle ½ cup sugar evenly over the fruit. Evenly shake cake mix over fruit and then sprinkle sliced almonds evenly over the top. Sprinkle the almond extract over the almonds. Place the butter slices evenly over the entire top of the cake. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake 50 -55 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Cool before serving. Enjoy!

 

Our Favorite Broccoli Salad
3 large heads broccoli, cut into bite size florets. The stem can be peeled and chopped into bite size pieces as well.
¼ cup chopped red onion
8 slices bacon, fried and chopped
1 cup dried cherries
½ cup toasted sunflower seeds
¼ toasted slivered almonds
In a large bowl mix the above ingredients.
Dressing; Mix in a small bowl:
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
Mix the dressing with the salad ingredients one to two hours prior to serving. Keep refrigerated.

 

The Best Cherry Chicken Salad
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup toasted & chopped pecans
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon buttermilk
1 teaspoon horseradish
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup cubed apples (optional)
In a large bowl combine the mayonnaise, buttermilk, horseradish, salt & pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

Cabbage Apple Cherry Slaw
½ cup apple juice
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ small green cabbage, thinly sliced
½ small red cabbage, thinly sliced
3 carrots, grated
3 green onions, sliced
½ cup dried cherries
1 apple, small cubes
In a large bowl whisk together the apple juice, vinegar, sugar, salt & pepper. Add the cabbage, carrots, green onion, cherries and apple. Toss well to coat.

 

Oatmeal Cookie Muffins
1 ½ cups flour
½ cups oats
½ tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons applesauce
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 brown sugar
1 egg
¾ cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
¼ cup chocolate chips
¼ dried cherries
In a large bowl combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir well, set aside.
In a small bowl combine applesauce, butter, sugar, yogurt and egg.
Pour over the dry ingredients and fold until mixed. Add the chocolate chips and cherries.
Grease and fill 12 muffin tins ¾ of the way full. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean when inserted into the center.

 

Maraschino Cherry Fruit Salad
1 pint sour cream
2 cans each:
Pineapple tidbits, drained
Mandarin oranges, drained
1 bag mini marshmallows
1 bag coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup sliced maraschino cherries
2 cups sliced or whole grapes
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Add sliced bananas and apple chunks just before serving.

Enjoy!

Happy National Cherry Month!

February is National Cherry Month! How are you planning to celebrate? Well, those of us at Leelanau Fruit Company traditionally spend all month challenging each other to pit spitting competitions, pie eating competitions, and cherry juice flip cup. Anytime is a good time to celebrate cherries in our book, but when we get national recognition and have a whole month to celebrate our fruit, we pull out all the stops!

In all seriousness, we do enjoy celebrating cherries during February, National Cherry Month. While the weather outside might be cold, snowy, and blustery, National Cherry Month gives us an excuse to tout the benefits of our local, picked fresh from our trees, superfruit.

We are fully supportive of you going out to your local grocery store and buying a couple dozen cherry pies to mark the special occasion. Heck, go nuts and garnish your pie with a couple of our maraschino cherries! You deserve to be spoiled.

But for those of you who have made a New Year’s resolution to get in shape and exercise more, our tart cherry concentrate can help you achieve your fitness goals and improve your health. Our partners at www.choosecherries.com have a great resource website where you can learn all about training and exercising while using MontMOREncy tart cherries.

Why did we spell MontMOREncy that way? Click on over to www.choosecherries.com to find out, and in an upcoming blog post, we will explain what the name MontMOREncy means to us.

In the meantime, we want to help you celebrate National Cherry Month in style. Any and all orders placed on our website in February will receive a free gift from Leelanau Fruit Company. The small gift is our way of saying Happy National Cherry Month!

So go on, order some cherry juice concentrate to boost your exercise routine. Grab an LFC t-shirt and go to the gym in style. Serve some chocolate-covered dried cherries at your Superbowl party, do a Google search of – sub sandwich shops near me, and have that treat (you can cheat your diet once in a while- we give you permission).

Click here to go directly to our online store. We will toast to you at our next cherry juice party!