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Article posted Thursday, June 6, 2013 4:29pm

Is there something wrong with me? I’m a born and bred Door County native, but I dislike cherries. I’ve tried them raw, dried, cooked. I’ve tried all my home county’s cherry-based concoctions – cherry pie, cherry salsa, cherry jam, jelly, wine, chocolate, ice cream, coffee – but I’d much prefer blueberries or apples, raspberries or rhubarb.

How do embrace my county’s love of cherries, when I can’t stand them?

Signed,

Not Quite A Native Son

Fish Creek, WI

Dear Not Quite A Native Son,

This is unfortunate, but perhaps there may be a solution to your issue. I’m not exactly known as a “health nut,” however, even I recognize that cherries are very good for you (mind you, not as a whole pie at a time, but in a fresh-cherries-in-a-salad kind of a way).

Tart cherries are commonly referred to as a super food. Since you like blueberries and other fruits, have you ever tried making smoothies with some of your favorites and adding cherries to the recipe? You can find all kinds of recipes online as well as all kinds of nutritional information too. Any search engine will give you hundreds of smoothie recipes. This might be the winning formula for you finally being able to enjoy cherries.

Remember that you don’t have to be a fan of cherries on a personal level to appreciate how much of our local economy depends on them. Even though I prefer key lime pie to say cherry pie or cherry crisp, I know how much our visitors love cherry pies and just about any other dessert you can make with cherries. And happy, well-fed visitors are what we locals thrive on.

You don’t need to love the taste of cherries to appreciate just how sweet they are to our history and our livelihood.

Good luck,

Mary Pat