#LoveFreshCherries

When I was a child, I always remember enjoying my Gran’s Cherry pie.  It was deliciously sweet and sharp, sugary and with a crumbly buttery pastry.  Now, I sometimes grab one from the local bakery for a treat.  I am no mean baker, so I have never attempted to bake a cherry pie.  But Britmums have set the challenge of how we as a family enjoy our cherries.  I wanted to think of a new way to enjoy them.  Something that the children could get involved in creating, and enjoy the flavours of the juicy and plump fruit.

Cherries – The Facts

The cherry season is now upon us, so most of us can find them lining the shelves of our local supermarkets right up until early September.  What I wasn’t aware of is that there are several varieties of cherries.  There is the ‘Merchant cherry, which is distinguished by its darker red skin and larger size.  There is also the ‘Penny’ ‘Kordia’ and ‘Sweetheart’ (my favourite!)

What’s great about cherries is that they also have a number of health benefits.

• 100g of cherries provide 25% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C
• Cherries are a rich food source of the hormone melatonin.  Melatonin promotes healthy sleep patterns (so I definitely need to eat more cherries then!)
• Powerful antioxidants called anthocyaniins are found abundantly in cherries.  Cherries are the richest source of anthocyanin 1 and 2, which give them their ruby colour.
• Legend has it that you can trace the route of old Roman Roads in Britain by looking out for wild cherry trees. It has been suggested that Roman legions spat out the stones from the fruit as they marked through Britain.
• Britain’s biggest cherry tree is 45 feet tall!

This is why we should #lovefreshcherries!

Our #LoveFreshCherries Challenge

I decided to make our very own cherry ice lollies – homemade of course!  The kids were super excited to make these as not only do they love ice lollies but we are having a fantastic summer, so the idea of cooling down seemed appealing.   To make our cherry ice lollies, we simply needed some cherries, a cherry de-stoner, empty yoghurt posts, some squash and some wooden sticks.

We started off by de-stoning some cherries.  B and W really enjoyed doing this and fought over the de-stoner (of course!)  They even enjoyed eating some too.  W described them as being so sweet!

We then popped a cherry (and some additional fruit if you wish) into the bottom of the yoghurt pots.  Then, we used our wooden lolly sticks and secured it by sticking into the cherry.  We poured in the squash, fruit juice or yoghurt (frozen yoghurt is amazing!) into our pots.

Now, these #lovefreshcherries ice lollies are ready to pop into the freezer for a couple of hours.  Which, to W especially, seemed to last an eternity!

Thankfully, with this delightful warm weather we have been experiencing, the kids enjoyed these out in the sunshine.  I think you can see from their faces that they enjoyed them!  What’s not to love about homemade #lovefreshcherries ice lollies.  When Baby K woke from his morning nap, he also enjoyed some action on the lovely cherry lollies we had made.

We had so much fun taking part in the Britmum’s #LoveFreshCherries challenge.  Do you and your family eat cherries?  How do you eat yours?!

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*This post is an entry for the BritMums #lovefreshcherries Challenge, sponsored by Love Fresh Cherries (instagram: @LoveFreshCherries)*