Summer in Montana? Not Without Enjoying This Local Favorite.

They say good things come to those who wait—however, a poet once said that "the waiting is the hardest part." That has certainly been the case this summer.

On Friday, my wife and I were driving down 19th, running some errands to get ready for the weekend, when we spotted the sign I'd been looking for all summer long. There it was, bright red letters on a big white sign.

"Flathead Cherries".

Get our free mobile app

I'll admit, I got a little excited when I saw the sign, and mentioned to my wife that we needed to buy some. We went ahead and ran our errand, and then I made sure to get some cash out just in case they didn't take cards (they did by the way) when my wife asked me if I was really going to spend 20 bucks on cherries. My response?

"Well, these aren't just cherries, these are Flathead cherries, and yes, I am."

Credit: Derek Wolf

First, you might be surprised to know that Flathead cherries aren't a specific type. According to Montana Cherries, there are many different types of cherries that are grown, Flathead just refers to the region that they're grown in. The different types include:

Lapin
Sweetheart
Rainier
Van
Stella
Lambert
Skeena

Cherries are big business in Montana, and according to Montana State University, Montana produces about 2 million pounds of cherries each year. So, if you're looking for a real taste of Montana, don't wait, the cherry season doesn't last very long, and it's just not summer without some delicious Flathead cherries.

LOOK: Food history from the year you were born

From product innovations to major recalls, Stacker researched what happened in food history every year since 1921, according to news and government sources.

50 Most Popular Chain Restaurants in America

YouGov investigated the most popular dining brands in the country, and Stacker compiled the list to give readers context on the findings. Read on to look through America's vast and divergent variety of restaurants—maybe you'll even find a favorite or two.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Source: Summer in Montana? Not Without Enjoying This Local Favorite.

Filed Under: Flathead Cherries, Montana, summer

Categories: Featured