Cherry Time

High summer is the middle of the cherry season throughout Europe. By late June the trees are full of ripening fruit. In and around Fougerolles in the Franche-Comté sour cherries, griottes, are being harvested to make kirsch and maraschino, highly fragrant distilled white spirits, and to be preserved as griottines. French markets are piled with trays of cherries from the Tarn and Garonne valleys, and in the Basque country the curé of Itxassou will, with luck, not have to go over the border to buy cherries in Spain for the village’s Fête des Cerises. A local chef once told me that this is what sometimes happens if the cherry season is late.