Christmas & Cherries: A Symbol for Christmas
Christmas is a wonderful time of year. Everyone is looking for a gift to give to their friends and family. Fresh fruit, especially Christmas cherries is one of the most pleasurable gifts to give this Christmas season. You would be amazed at our selection of Snowgoose Cherry Hampers, including "Cherry, Cheese & Bubbly", "Mixed Fruit & Dessert Wine", and "Sweet Temptations and Moet".
As the first cherries of the season start to ripen, it is a sign to Australians that Christmas celebrations and fun is coming. So, how did cherries become such a popular Christmas fruit here in Australia? Well, there are a lot of different reasons that cherries have come to symbolise Christmas and the holiday season here.
Why are Cherries a popular fruit for Christmas?
Colour
The colour - one of the first things you notice about a cherry - is usually a dark, rich red. Red is one of the two big colours associated with this holiday season; the other colour being the forest green like our Christmas trees. The deep red hue also offers a wonderful seasonal pop to any kind of dessert or dish. Or they can be candied and preserved to give that extra burst of flavour to any meal or when eaten just by themselves. You can even get candied cherries that are bright green.
Rarity
The deep red hue of the fruit offers a colour unique to the Australian Christmas season for an interesting reason. While Americans enjoy cranberries and the French enjoy their cheeses and wines, the Australians enjoy their fresh juicy cherries. Why is it so? Christmas time is when the cherry trees bloom. For all the beauty they offer, it's only available for a limited couple of months during the year and in sunny Australia, this happens right around Christmas time. This means cherries are plentiful.
Flavour
The flavour is often the top reason that people look to eat cherries and give cherries as a gift during the holiday season. The cherry fruit's flavour can be sweet, tart, tangy, or somewhere in between depending on the variety of cherry you pick. The flavour of any cherry variety offers a pop to seasonal dishes. From the tart cherries the fruit adds tanginess to a pie and the sweet taste of a Snowgoose cherry as a side dish for dinner, there's something for everyone.
The flavours of a single cherry from Snowgoose, are sweeter and juicer than those you could buy at any fruit store. The simple reason for this is because the fruit is left on the tree a little longer that most allowing the fruit to store more sugar before being picked and shipped directly to you or your recipient’s home.
Availability
As mentioned a little earlier, cherries are abundant during Christmas time. This makes cherries a great tasting and affordable gift during the holiday season. You could give your friends and family a large hamper of cherries to enjoy!
Health Benefits
There are so many health benefits to cherries that people overlook often times.Cherries contain melatonin. This chemical is one of the many in our brains, but it is one of the major players behind falling asleep. Cherries can help to normalize the circadian rhythm in your body. They also allow your body to have a melatonin reservoir to dip into.
Other chemicals that cherries contain include anthocyanins and bioflavinoids. These chemicals help take the edge of off the symptoms of various other conditions. Anthocyanins help reduce inflammation - a large part of gout, and migraines.
Anthocyanins are also a chemical responsible for helping to reduce muscle soreness after an incredibly intense work out. There has been no research on how many cherries would be needed to reduce the soreness by a certain percentage, but that is too personal for any scientist to figure out on a large scale.
There are two other things these amazing fruits can help with: protection against cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and weight loss. The protection happens due to the natural compounds found in cherries - especially juicer varieties like Snowgoose cherries.
Cherries can help with weight loss by helping to reduce belly fat. A single cherry can also help you lower cholesterol and triglycerides, and helps you normalize your blood pressure.
Recipes
What would a holiday season be without recipes using this wonderful fruit? There are so many recipes available.
The Little Pastry Box has a recipe for a chocolate and cherry mince pie. With a 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips and 100 grams of chopped cherries, there's a splash of seasonal flavour with a different twist.
A simple way to enjoy the natural sweetness of cherries is by simply dipping the cherry in some antioxidant-rich dark chocolate.
If you're looking to be a little more adventurous, our gourmet recipe for cherries poached in Mirto with sheep's milk yogurt ice cream is for you. It calls for 500 grams of cherries, sheep's milk yogurt ice cream, and some red mirto.
One little fruit with so much versatility and perfectly ripe just in time to celebrate the Christmas holidays with the whole family.