History of Cherry Month

Cherry month was established to help bring awareness to the availability of the fruit throughout the year. Leelanau Fruit Co. celebrates it in some of the most outrageous ways possible, including such competitions as pie eating competitions, where cherry pies are consumed en masse as tribute to their crimson deliciousness.

There’s also the Cherry juice flip cup, and the decidedly less tasty and perhaps somewhat disconcerting pit spitting competitions. Thankfully cherries aren’t about showing decorum, but lavishly enjoying this most delicious fruit and relishing in all of its glory, right down to the pit!

Cherries as we know them originated with the sweet cherry, a tree that ranges all throughout Europe and into some of Northern Africa. It’s been eaten since times prehistoric, and was ultimately introduced to England in Teynham by order of the King, Henry VIII. Since then they spread throughout the world and are now enjoyed everywhere in all their variations.