Our Chefs' Summer Cherry Orchard Visit
This year, the Molly Moon’s chefs left Seattle the second weekend in July to go visit the orchard where we get our truly unique cherries. Near Royal City, Washington, hidden within 220 acres of vineyard is Alberg Cherry Orchard. Owner, Dave Alberg, planted these cherry trees on 20 acres of land with his father back in 1970. He was only 14 years old at the time!
The orchard has no address; just some instructions via text from our host, and Dave’s cherry-picking partner, Mark. We followed the text instructions and after driving for a bit, rows and rows of unripe wine grapes passing by us, the road finally veered us up to a pavilion where we met Mark and Dave. We all exited our cars and walked to the clearing to get our first look of the valley. Fields of green and gold created remarkable patterns across the valley with a backdrop of purple and pink mountains, glimpses of irrigation ditches swirling and sparkling through the grasslands and orchards. This is where we would spend the night under the stars.
The next morning, we headed out to pick some cherries. Alberg Cherry Orchard is totally wild. This was the first year in 48 years that the grass had been mowed. There’s an old camper that is the residence for a hive of bees. The orchard’s trees have never been sprayed with chemicals. Dave just installed some irrigation recently, although he’s very cautious about making sure they get just enough water, so that his trees produce intensely flavorful cherries.
When we arrived, Dave was up in a tree and had already been picking for a couple of hours. To keep the cherries juicy and plump, Dave usually picks his cherries at night. The heat of the Eastern Washington sun makes them shrivel up during the day, and it’s easier to stay cool in the summer heat. Unlike many chefs, at Molly Moon’s we work during the day, so we figured we would try our luck picking between 10am and noon – we needed to earn our keep by picking our week’s cherries.
We slung the cherry buckets over our shoulders and got to work. We were astonished by the number of gem-like cherries dangling from these nearly 50-year old, gently-watered cherry trees. Dave had a specific method of picking cherries. You cup a cluster of cherries in both of your hands, and carefully pluck the entire cluster off the branch, allowing them to drop directly into the bucket sitting on your waist. We moved quickly, cleaning one tree before moving to another, all the while eating as many cherries as we could.
Dave’s cherries are incredible. He grows Bing, Lambert, Rainier, and Van cherries. They are amazingly sweet, with a perfect touch of tartness, and each tree has a unique flavor, even among the same variety. After we impressed Dave by picking 300lbs of cherries in 2 hours, we moved to a specific Lambert tree that had exceptional flavor and picked some for ourselves to bring home.
On the 20 acres of land, Dave has about 500 cherry trees. Each year, every tree produces about 100lbs of cherries. Dave, and his partner Mark, pick just enough cherries each year to sell at Pike Place Market, and to us at Molly Moon’s. After that, Dave will pick some for friends and family to enjoy. All the other thousands of pounds of cherries become delicious fertilizer for the trees, producing rich cherries for next year’s harvest. Dave likes working with us and he agrees that our cherry chunk ice cream is special. He says it’s because we allow the cherries to be themselves – fresh, juicy and complex. We agree!
Next year, when cherry season is upon us the chefs at Molly Moon’s won’t just be thinking of washing, pitting, and churning cherries into velvety ice cream – we will also remember picking intensely flavorful and ripe sun-warmed cherries from Dave’s organic cherry trees. Maybe next year, we’ll just have to head out to Royal City and do it all over again.
