WENATCHEE, WA - Stemilt cherries are back! It’s national picnic and ice cream month in July, and what better way to enjoy the summer than a cherry pie or cherry ice cream? Or, just plain as it is? Stemilt has its premium Kyle’s Pick® cherries available now, and I gotta tell ya, I’m pretty excited.

“July is a big month for selling cherries,” said Brianna Shales, Communications Manager. “Kyle’s Pick is a signature program at Stemilt that helps retailers encourage impulse purchases of cherries. People buy with their eyes, and Kyle’s Pick packs stand out because of our commitment to ensuring the cherries inside are big, fresh, and have deep colors to stand out.”

As the press release states, Kyle Mathison is a fourth-generation cherry grower and the namesake behind Kyle’s Pick cherries. For more than four decades, he has grown cherries at the renowned Stemilt Hill near Wenatchee, Washington, personally approving them himself in terms of size and quality.

“Kyle’s approval of cherries isn’t easy to acquire, and that’s what makes Kyle’s Pick cherries so special,” said Shales. “He is known for scouring the world to find new cherry varieties worthy of growing. His personal mantra of building ‘memory and trust’ with consumers guides his harvest and means that many of the delicious cherries you’ll find in Kyle’s Pick cherries are grown by Kyle himself.”

So what exactly goes into these cherries? The standards are: dark and rich color, size, and taste. Stemilt reserves select dark-sweet cherries—like the Skeena and Sweetheart varieties—that have experienced longer ‘hang time’ on the tree, helping the fruit grow big and boast full of dessert flavors. Putting his name on the line, every cherry is inspected and selected by Mathison himself, even if it takes a little while longer.

“It’s Kyle’s first week of harvest for the 2019 cherry crop, and he is already zeroing in on exactly what fruit should be in Kyle’s Pick packs,” said Shales. “Mediocre doesn’t make the cut. The cherries must be big and have deep red to mahogany hues. No one wins if the cherries are picked before their prime. Kyle knows that and will wait to harvest until his fruit meets his expectations of World Famous.”

These premium cherries come in random-weight pouch bags as well as 1lb and 2lb clamshells. Consumers will know the quality and effort put into each package due to the Kyle’s Pick emblem stamped on top. Stemilt’s continuous harvest in July means that these cherries are available all month, but not a moment more. In early August, Mathison will transition his harvest to high-elevation orchards for the A Half Mile Closer to the Moon® cherry packs. If you happen to miss the Kyle’s Pick season, you can still enjoy more premium cherries celebrating how the lunar cycle and elevation can create a memorable cherry eating experience.

“These signature programs are designed to showcase cherries with flavors that wow shoppers,” said Shales. “After all, a memorable experience will bring shoppers back to the store to purchase cherries again, and that’s how we collectively can make a big impact on cherry sales during the final two months of the season.”

If I could just walk along by Mathison’s side as he’s taste testing these cherries, that’d be perfectly fabulous. To stay on top of all produce-related news, keep following AndNowUKnow.

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