Since I couldn't find fresh tart cherries at the time, I decided to settle for tart cherry juice. The first sip was horribly disappointing. I had expected something nice, but this juice tasted terrible, worse than medicine.
Despite the taste, I forced myself to continue drinking it, reminding myself that it was good for me, but eventually I gave up. Or shall I say, my taste buds couldn't take it anymore.
With summer around the corner, I did some research where I can find fresh tart cherries and guess what ... I've been eating tart cherries all my life, I just didn't know it.
English not being my first language, the name tart "cherries" misled me. As it turns out, tart cherries aren't cherries at all, they are something else.
Let me explain ...
In Flemish cherries are "kersen" and tart cherries are "krieken". Kersen en krieken look almost the same, but they taste very different.
This is a cherry (kers) ...
In my younger days, I used to steal tart cherries. Not from a store but from a farmer. The farmer in question had lots of tart cherry trees and their branches would hang over the walls of his land.
As kids we would risk our necks being lifted up and standing on each others' shoulders to reach the fruit.
Sometimes the farmer wouldn't see anything and we would manage to get away with pockets full of tart cherries, other times he would notice and come after us with a pitchfork.
If you ever wondered how fast kids can run, you should have seen us go.