Essentials: American Spoon Sour Cherry Preserves, Petoskey, Michigan
The pack-‘em-in approach to cherry connoisseurship
There are two traditions associated with the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, which got its start almost a century ago, when northern Michigan farmers crowned a Cherry Queen and arranged to have their trees’ blossoms blessed.
One is to scatter cherries in almost anything that could be eaten or drunk: Every year, July brings cherry pancakes, cherry salsa and cherry beer.
The other is to amass ludicrously large quantities of cherries, such as the thousands of pounds baked into the city’s first record-setting pie. (The 18-foot-wide tin still stands alongside Cass Road.)
American Spoon’s signature sour cherry preserves, cooked in copper kettles, represents the pack-‘em-in approach to cherry connoisseurship. Since 1982, the Petoskey, Mich. company founded by forager Justin Rashid and chef Larry Forgione has filled each jar two-thirds of the way to the top with local cherries. The rest of the space is taken up by cane sugar. No matter when you open it, it’s a blast of Michigan summer. —Hanna Raskin
Hanna Raskin is the editor and publisher of The Food Section, a newsletter covering food and drink in the American South. A Michigan native, she previously served as food editor and chief critic for The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. Her work has been recognized multiple times by The James Beard Foundation, which in 2017 awarded her its first Local Impact Journalism prize.
Kevin Necessary is a freelance illustrator and editorial cartoonist. He is currently the editorial cartoonist for The Cincinnati Enquirer. His cartoons are syndicated by GoComics, and his cartoons have been published in a variety of publications such as The Week and Politico. A Cincinnati native, Kevin will fight to the death defending Cincinnati chili. He lives with his wife, Julie, and three cats, Huckleberry, Grayson, and Bonnie.