The Time Capsule: Like it or not, corn beats cherry trees

 Back in the 1970s, a Montgomery County farm couple picked a pleasant slope near their home, dug half a dozen holes in selected locations and planted four apple and two cherry trees. Throughout the next few decades, the little orchard had thoughtful and generous caretakers.  

While the apples were good, one of the cherries was exceptionally so.  I don’t know the variety, and neither did the owners. Although red of flesh, like the North Star, it was a larger tree—not the Montmorency, nor the Gisela or any other pie cherry I’m familiar with. This one may have been the chance result of a random seed or the experiment of a local amateur horticulturist.  Regardless, those who tried them agreed they were the finest.  

Our daughter-in-law asked and received permission one year to pick a gallon to take to her family in Nebraska. She was requested to get more the next year. A cobbler or crisp made with cherries from that particular tree was a treat like none other.  

Their deep taste and rosy-red color made superb cherry wine. Four pounds to a gallon of water, a balance of sugar and packet of Montrachet yeast yielded a few bottles of Iowa vintage worthy of special occasions.     

Sadly, there will be no more.  

A man died a couple of years ago. His widow held on for a while, then decided to sell the land and move south. She cashed the check and a bulldozer moved in.  

We see this happening all over. If the choice is between a tree and a stalk of corn the tree has no chance. I don’t know that mega-farmers of today are basically much different than the little guys of years ago, but they are more efficient. They’ll not let anything stand between them and an extra bushel of ethanol.  

Progress, I suppose, but it does disappoint me that taxes I pay, whether I want to or not, fund subsidies that inflate corn prices and brought about the bulldozing of that fine cherry tree.  

I planted one in our back yard this spring, but it’ll not be the same.  

Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.