Did you know the over 70% of all cherries grown in the United States are grown in the Traverse Bay Farms region of Michigan? You can find the Michigan cherry theme throughout Northern Michigan.
Learn more about Michigan Tart Cherry Juice for Arthritis Pain
Car dealerships with the word "Cherry" in the name. A number of local restaurants offering great tasting recipes and meals made around this tiny-red fruit. In addition, the National Cherry Festival is celebrated during the month of July in Traverse City, Michigan. Cherries are everywhere!
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Let's learn more about Michigan cherries and the health benefits cherries offer.
Cherry Varieties
Montmorency Tart Cherry
This is the most popular type of sour cherry used for baking, cooking, used to make cherry jam and cherry juice concentrate. When compared to the sweet cherries, the Montmorency, Michigan cherry is smaller in size, contains less sugar and bright red in color.
Many northern Michigan cherry farms offer the option of U-pick of this sour cherry. Best of all, once customers pick these tasty tart cherries, the can easily wash and pit them and place them in the freezer to make a delicious cherry pie or other tart cherry treat. Learn about studies on concentrated cherry juice
Check out just these great tasting cherry products made with Montmorency, Michigan cherries offered by Traverse Bay Farms:
- Tart cherry juice concentrate - Helps ease arthritis and gout pain
- Dried tart cherries
- Cherry salsa – Nationally award-winning cherry recipe
- Chocolate-covered dried tart cherries
- Fresh, Michigan-grown tart cherries – Available during the summer cherry harvest.
- No-added sugar dried cherries
- Cherry concentrate
- Cherry capsules
- Tart cherry powder
- Maraschino cherries
- Traverse Bay Farms Home Page
- Cherry Juice and Arthritis Pain
Make sure to check out our website to see all of the Montmorency, Michigan cherry products we offer. Learn how to buy 100% pure tart cherry juice.
Check out this great video on the Northern Michigan cherry harvest
Balaton Cherries
Over the past decade, some Northern Michigan cherry farms have begun planting the Balaton cherry. This is a tart cherry variety originating from Hungary. The Balaton cherries are a little larger and firmer that the Montmorency cherry.
Sweet Michigan Cherries
Sweet cherries are larger in size, deeper purple in color and natural contain more natural sugar then the sour cherry. The sweet Michigan cherries are also called black cherries or snack cherries. The sweet variety is type of cherry that is usually found at your local farmers market or in the produce section of your local grocery store.
Many Michigan cherry farms and orchards off U-pick for the sweet cherry. Call us in mid-July for our picking options!
Michigan Cherry Picking Season
The Michigan cherry picking season starts in mid-July and lasts until about mid-August. It is during this time of the summer that you’ll see the cherry farms buzzing with activity. You’ll see the flat-bed trucks loaded with cherry bins. These cherry bins are filled with water, which is used to cool the recently picked cherries. After the individual bins are filled with water, the freshly u-picked cherries are gently placed into the water-filled bins. These bins are then stacked a top numerous flat-bed trucks. These trucks take the freshly picked cherries to the processing plants.
As the trucks travel from the Michigan cherry farms to the co-ops, the water is splashes from the bin and a number of cherries are randomly tossed out of the top of the bin. As you drive through Northern Michigan during cherry harvest, enjoying ice cream or another tasty treat, you’ll usually see piles of fresh cherries tossed along the road. Now you know why you see Michigan cherries on the side of Northern Michigan roads!
Interested in picking your own fresh cherries? Call us or visit in mid-July for current information!
Michigan Cherries and Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate
One of the more popular products made from sour cherries is tart cherry juice concentrate. It takes the juice of about 100 tart cherries to make just one ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate. The tart cherry juice concentrate is a supercharged way of getting the natural health benefit of cherries.
Here are a few of the health benefits of tart cherry juice concentrate:
- Helps maintain healthy joint function
- Helps ease joint pain
- Helps soothe sore muscles
- Aid in a more restful night’s sleep
- Cherry Nutrition Facts
- And more…
Wrap Up…
Michigan cherries, especially the sour cherry variety is packed full of amazing health benefits. In addition, no-added sugar cherry juice is also vital to those watching their sugar in take, too. In fact, just one ounce of no added sugar cherry concentrate delivers an amazingly low amount of just 15 grams of naturally occurring sugar.
So the next time you are looking to enjoy great taste combined with natural health benefits reach for some Michigan cherries or a glass of Montmorency tart cherry juice.