Who Discovered Cherries?

The produce section at a grocery store is truly a remarkable place. You’re surrounded by fruits and vegetables that are literally from all over the world, each with a storied history to match.

Consider the cherry, a ruby-red, luscious orb that comes with the summer and leaves at the first signs of fall.

Who discovered cherries? And how did they come from their place of origin to every grocery store across the country?

The Birth of Cherries

There’s no simple answer when it comes to asking who discovered cherries. That’s because cherries are a naturally occurring drupe, as opposed to a manmade invention. Their history can be traced back to Asia Minor before they came to Europe, traveling by birds and into the hands of the Greeks and Romans.

English colonists brought them to America in the 1600s. Two hundred years later, a man named Henderson Lewelling traveled cross-country towards western Oregon with what would turn into the first cherry trees in the Northwest.

To this day, the West remains the top supplier of sweet cherries in the United States.

So Who Discovered Cherries?

That’s still more easily asked than answered. The discovery of cherries predates recorded history. In fact, it could be said that the discovery has happened over and over again throughout time.

Cherries first moved by birds that fed on the fruit and journeyed with the pits. Then, they went through empire after empire, through the rise and fall of countless civilizations. Europe discovered cherries and took them along as they colonized a new land. Then America found out about cherries, slowly and over the course of travel and effort.

There’s no way to know for sure how long cherries have been around. What we do know is that, now, every time you bite into the juicy ruby flesh, you can discover cherries for yourself all over again!