Northwest News Network’s Anna King recently visited Chukar Cherries to get a behind-the-scenes look at the company’s cherry drying and chocolate making processes.
A regional version of the story, “Chukar Cherries: Making Dried Cherries While the Sun Still Shines,” aired July 25 in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and is available on NPR’s Web site in both audio and text form in the Arts & Life section.
The national version of the story will air on NPR’s special series “Americandy: Sweet Land of Liberty” on or around Aug. 11. The series gives a pan-U.S. tour of nostalgic candies from unique regions.
“Don’t mistake Chukar Cherries for those syrupy chocolate-cherry candies that people hand out for Valentine’s Day,” King explained in her broadcast. “Think chocolate raisins, but a lot richer.”
Chukar’s Bing and Rainier cherries are dried without sugar and then coated in chocolate by hand in large copper kettles. This process, known as “panning,” is an Old-World method and something the chocolatiers at Chukar have mastered over nearly 25 years.
July is prime time for drying fresh cherries from local orchards. During a few brief weeks, 250,000 pounds of cherries arrive at Chukar’s headquarters in Prosser, Wash., to be washed, pitted and dried without additives, sulfites or preservatives.
Chukar Cherries began on a Yakima Valley cherry orchard in 1988. Since the early days of drying cherries on window screens, the company has steadily grown to carry a variety of cherry preserves, pie fillings, energy mixes and its famous dried and chocolate-covered cherries.
Chukar’s dried cherries and its full line of all-natural treats can be purchased year-round from Chukar’s storefronts in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, factory headquarters in Prosser, its new store in Leavenworth, Wash., and online.
