History of the Dried Red Tart Cherry

The History of the Dried Red Tart Cherry in the Western United States
Home Shopping Events Recipes Pictures Contact us Links	In the late 1970’s an experiment was done on the campus of Utah State University. A group of food scientists along with some faculty and staff from the Horticulture department decided to see if they could dry some tart cherries in one of the ovens located in the food science department on campus. It was a very small scale operation but yielded some very promising dried cherries. The group rolled them in sugar and called them snow cherries. They began to hand out samples of these snow cherries around campus to see if the reaction to them was positive. It was. Soon after one of the professors from Utah State University attended a Payson Fruit Grower board meeting to introduce the “snow cherry” to the board. I was on the board and was impressed along with the other members of the Payson Fruit Grower board. Payson Fruit Growers at that time was one of the newest members of Cherry Central, a marketing co-op for cherries and other fruits and was based in Michigan. One of the members of Cherry Central was drying cherries at the time in Michigan. He was using a steam generated oven dryer. The Payson Fruit Grower board flew out to visit with this man. He was having a difficult time drying tart cherries to a consistant moisture content and was experiencing some molding and product rejection in the marketplace. He did have an extra oven that he was not using and agreed to sell it to Payson Fruit Growers. During the next few months the new oven dryer was installed at Payson and drying cherries began in earnest. It soon became apparent that the quality of the dried cherries were inconsistent similar to the problems that were being experienced in Michigan. We had originally thought that the dryer climate of the western United States might yield better results than what was being done there. All of our efforts to dry the cherries to a consistant moisture level failed. They were either very dry and hard or too moist with mold growing in them. Soon the board of directors at Payson Fruit Growers stopped the drying process. The equipment stayed in place for a while until room was needed for expansion and the drying equipment was either sold or scrapped . A few year later red tart cherries had fallen on hard times. The prices were low; grower returns were almost non-existent. I began to wonder if we had really given the dried cherries a chance. I approached the board of Payson Fruit Growers and suggested that we might want to try drying cherries again. I was serving as a board member at the time but could not get any support from my fellow board members. The previous attempt to dry cherries had left a bad taste and had simply wasted a great deal of money. They were adamant that drying cherries was not for them. I couldn’t stop thinking about dried cherries and began to wonder if it was possible at all to dry red tart cherries. I recalled a trip I had taken with one of my nephews a few years earlier to California. As part of that trip we went on a tour of prune and apricot dryers. I thought if anyone in the world knew about drying fruit the answers would be found in California. I began to make telephone calls and eventually was able to contact a man at U.C. Davis that was one of their dehydrating experts. His name was Jim Thompson. After several calls in which he assured me that dried cherries, even though they were problematic could indeed be dried. I decided to pack my family into the car and make a trip to U.C. Davis to talk to Dr. Thompson. I was instantly impressed with his willingness to help. He shared with me the basic philosophy behind dehydration of fruit. We spent several days in California and when I left to return home I had a plan for a prototype dryer that I was going to build. The dryer that I built was a small tray dryer. It had room for three sets or stacks of trays that could be put into a drying area. It was fueled with a propane burner and had a large fan in place that blew hot air over and through the trays of cherries. After some experimentation with the small dryer I was astounded at the quality of the dried cherries. The only negative reaction to the product was that they were a little flat because they had to sit on the trays when drying. I was so excited I began to think that what I needed was several of these small type of dryers working at the same time. I took some of the dried cherries to the Payson Fruit Grower Board and they were impressed with the quality but were not convinced that the small dryer that I had built could become a commercial venture. As I began to contemplate building more of the dryers I decided I needed to address the flatness of the cherries. There had to be a way to dry this soft fruit without having them be so flat. One day I sketched out a drawing of a dryer with a continuous belt that was moving through a heated area with hot air passing over the fruit. I took my sketch to a friend of mine who owned a welding business and asked him if he would help me build such a dryer. He looked at the sketch and thought it looked a lot like a IQF (individually quick frozen) machine that he had repaired for another local processor. I decided to see if I could find that IQF machine. After several inquiries and detective work I finally found the machine in Oregon where it was being used to freeze raspberries. I called the owner of the machine and he informed me that they had just discontinued the use of that machine and he had moved it out of his shed just two days before I called. This time I took my wife and youngest son (a few months old) and my parents and off we went to Oregon. We arrived there and looked the machine over and decided to buy it from the owner. It would take a crane to load it on the truck for the trip to Santaquin. Once we got the IQF machine home and in the shed in Santaquin, I began to rebuild it. I installed new doors, a burner, a large fan, new bearings, an exit belt and a lot of sheet metal to make it into a continuous belt dryer. Then came the big day to actually try some fruit on the new (refurbished) dryer. When the first fruit came out I couldn’t believe how round and perfect they were. This time when I showed the finished product to the board at Payson, they too were impressed and supportive. Soon Cherry Central got the word of the successful drying operation and were very interested in the product. The Michigan drying operation was still struggling with inconsistently dried fruit and for a while we were the only drying operation in the country that was having any success with drying red tart cherries. During the next while we were drying cherries and buyers were continually asking for the western dried cherries. It wasn’t too long after, that we combined our efforts with Payson Fruit Growers and moved the dryer to Payson where the freezers and storage capacity could be utilized. Payson Fruit Growers continued to use the dryer for a couple of years until demand was so great that another dryer needed to be built. This time we built the dryer from scratch and made it two and a half times as large. Since those early days we have built 8 of the new large size dryers and dry almost all of our red tart cherries. I have always been grateful to have played a key role in the development of the dried cherries. It was challenging and rewarding to be a pioneer of this healthy delicious fruit. The board at Payson Fruit Growers have also been very supportive and have continued to develop and improve the drying process. The cherries grown in Utah have proven to be suited very well to the drying process. They are consistently of good quality and are respected and accepted in the marketplace.
©2007 Rowley’s South Ridge Farms

The History of the Dried Red Tart Cherry

in the Western United States

In the late 1970’s an experiment was done on the campus of Utah State University. A group of food scientists along with some faculty and staff from the Horticulture department decided to see if they could dry some tart cherries in one of the ovens located in the food science department on campus. It was a very small scale operation but yielded some very promising dried cherries. The group rolled them in sugar and called them snow cherries. They began to hand out samples of these snow cherries around campus to see if the reaction to them was positive. It was.

Soon after one of the professors from Utah State University attended a Payson Fruit Grower board meeting to introduce the “snow cherry” to the board. I was on the board and was impressed along with the other members of the Payson Fruit Grower board. Payson Fruit Growers at that time was one of the newest members of Cherry Central, a marketing co-op for cherries and other fruits and was based in Michigan. One of the members of Cherry Central was drying cherries at the time in Michigan. He was using a steam generated oven dryer. The Payson Fruit Grower board flew out to visit with this man. He was having a difficult time drying tart cherries to a consistant moisture content and was experiencing some molding and product rejection in the marketplace. He did have an extra oven that he was not using and agreed to sell it to Payson Fruit Growers. During the next few months the new oven dryer was installed at Payson and drying cherries began in earnest.

It soon became apparent that the quality of the dried cherries were inconsistent similar to the problems that were being experienced in Michigan. We had originally thought that the dryer climate of the western United States might yield better results than what was being done there. All of our efforts to dry the cherries to a consistant moisture level failed. They were either very dry and hard or too moist with mold growing in them. Soon the board of directors at Payson Fruit Growers stopped the drying process. The equipment stayed in place for a while until room was needed for expansion and the drying equipment was either sold or scrapped .

A few year later red tart cherries had fallen on hard times. The prices were low; grower returns were almost non-existent. I began to wonder if we had really given the dried cherries a chance. I approached the board of Payson Fruit Growers and suggested that we might want to try drying cherries again. I was serving as a board member at the time but could not get any support from my fellow board members. The previous attempt to dry cherries had left a bad taste and had simply wasted a great deal of money. They were adamant that drying cherries was not for them.

I couldn’t stop thinking about dried cherries and began to wonder if it was possible at all to dry red tart cherries. I recalled a trip I had taken with one of my nephews a few years earlier to California. As part of that trip we went on a tour of prune and apricot dryers. I thought if anyone in the world knew about drying fruit the answers would be found in California. I began to make telephone calls and eventually was able to contact a man at U.C. Davis that was one of their dehydrating experts. His name was Jim Thompson. After several calls in which he assured me that dried cherries, even though they were problematic could indeed be dried. I decided to pack my family into the car and make a trip to U.C. Davis to talk to Dr. Thompson. I was instantly impressed with his willingness to help. He shared with me the basic philosophy behind dehydration of fruit. We spent several days in California and when I left to return home I had a plan for a prototype dryer that I was going to build.

The dryer that I built was a small tray dryer. It had room for three sets or stacks of trays that could be put into a drying area. It was fueled with a propane burner and had a large fan in place that blew hot air over and through the trays of cherries. After some experimentation with the small dryer I was astounded at the quality of the dried cherries. The only negative reaction to the product was that they were a little flat because they had to sit on the trays when drying. I was so excited I began to think that what I needed was several of these small type of dryers working at the same time. I took some of the dried cherries to the Payson Fruit Grower Board and they were impressed with the quality but were not convinced that the small dryer that I had built could become a commercial venture. As I began to contemplate building more of the dryers I decided I needed to address the flatness of the cherries. There had to be a way to dry this soft fruit without having them be so flat. One day I sketched out a drawing of a dryer with a continuous belt that was moving through a heated area with hot air passing over the fruit. I took my sketch to a friend of mine who owned a welding business and asked him if he would help me build such a dryer. He looked at the sketch and thought it looked a lot like a IQF (individually quick frozen) machine that he had repaired for another local processor. I decided to see if I could find that IQF machine. After several inquiries and detective work I finally found the machine in Oregon where it was being used to freeze raspberries. I called the owner of the machine and he informed me that they had just discontinued the use of that machine and he had moved it out of his shed just two days before I called. This time I took my wife and youngest son (a few months old) and my parents and off we went to Oregon. We arrived there and looked the machine over and decided to buy it from the owner. It would take a crane to load it on the truck for the trip to Santaquin.

Once we got the IQF machine home and in the shed in Santaquin, I began to rebuild it. I installed new doors, a burner, a large fan, new bearings, an exit belt and a lot of sheet metal to make it into a continuous belt dryer. Then came the big day to actually try some fruit on the new (refurbished) dryer. When the first fruit came out I couldn’t believe how round and perfect they were. This time when I showed the finished product to the board at Payson, they too were impressed and supportive. Soon Cherry Central got the word of the successful drying operation and were very interested in the product. The Michigan drying operation was still struggling with inconsistently dried fruit and for a while we were the only drying operation in the country that was having any success with drying red tart cherries. During the next while we were drying cherries and buyers were continually asking for the western dried cherries. It wasn’t too long after, that we combined our efforts with Payson Fruit Growers and moved the dryer to Payson where the freezers and storage capacity could be utilized.

Payson Fruit Growers continued to use the dryer for a couple of years until demand was so great that another dryer needed to be built. This time we built the dryer from scratch and made it two and a half times as large. Since those early days we have built 8 of the new large size dryers and dry almost all of our red tart cherries.

I have always been grateful to have played a key role in the development of the dried cherries. It was challenging and rewarding to be a pioneer of this healthy delicious fruit. The board at Payson Fruit Growers have also been very supportive and have continued to develop and improve the drying process. The cherries grown in Utah have proven to be suited very well to the drying process. They are consistently of good quality and are respected and accepted in the marketplace.