Allan Baugher coaxes his ancient Ford pickup truck up a grassy slope past rows of cherry trees thick with foliage.
As the truck trundles by, there are glimpses of small green pearls nestled among the leaves, some just gaining the blush of maturity. In a few weeks, if all goes well, these will be some of the few but delicious Maryland sweet and sour cherries of the season.
"People enjoy picking cherries," says Baugher, who has managed Baugher's Farm Orchard Market in Westminster since 1953. His family bought the property in 1900. "When you get them tree-ripened, it's hard to find a better fruit anywhere."
The arrival of cherries in markets practically signifies the arrival of summer itself. And like these few months of sun and warmth, cherries are prized for their rarity. Unlike other fruit that is available almost year-round, it is unusual to find fresh cherries in the store past the summer. The season in Maryland, from about mid-June to mid-July, is as fleeting and fantastic as a summer thunderstorm.
"Cherries are a fruit that people equate with American cuisine, whether it's cherry pie or something else," says Nancy Longo, chef-owner of Pierpoint restaurant in Fells Point. "They're something most people have grown up with."
The state's crop of cherries is so small it is not recorded by the state Department of Agriculture. The leading producer of tart cherries is Michigan, while the largest crop of sweet cherries is grown in the Pacific coast states. Most of the cherries raised in Maryland go to a few markets or are consumed at pick-your-own orchards like Baugher's and Catoctin Mountain Orchard in Thurmont.
"People just love eating a quart of cherries as they head down the road," says Robert Black, president and co-owner of Catoctin Mountain Orchard. "There's nothing better than picking and eating cherries. You just need to spit the pits out."
In France, as in Maryland, it is the season of cherries, and at Petit Louis Bistro in Roland Park, the restaurant marks the occasion with a monthlong cherry festival. To honor the arrival of the red gems, chef Cindy Wolf creates a menu in which three of the four courses put the summer fruit on center stage.
The menu features a cold soup of Bing cherries and nectarines complemented by the addition of lime juice, which heightens the flavor of the fruit. The remainder of the meal features some traditional incarnations of the cherry such as duck in a cherry sauce and the quintessential French dessert, clafoutis.
