Two cherry pioneers
The Cerisa has a truly sublime taste, a dark red-purple color and is shining towards you. That’s anything but coincidence, we learn from the growers: Rob Janssen and Sjaak Walraven.
Two men with a passion: growing the very best cherries. Building a roof over the trees and having many sleepless nights, doesn’t scare those flavor fanatics. Only the very best is good enough here, and that’s something you can definitely taste.
Two men, one motive
‘We wanted to create the very best cherry there is. Growing a cherry with such high and sonsistent quality, the chefs actually don’t want to work with any other cherry. That’s where we went all the way for and succeeded. By working very intensively with the cherry. For example, we wanted to pick the cherries when they were fully ripe. But when a nearly ripe cherry gets a rain shower, it will burst open and be worthless. So we completely covered our Cerisa orchard. Everything has to be right.’
A true top-level sport
Growing Cerisa cherries is a true sport, we learn from the men. It’s February and they are sleeping ahead: ‘Later on in April, we have a stressful month. Then we need to watch over our blossom and will be staring at the sky to see if we need to take action against frost with a stove or a sprayer. The flowering determines very much. Not just whether we have frost, but you also need to have the right bees between the trees: a strong colony that’s buzzing it’s way outside.’
‘After years we’re at a very high level now with our Cerisa cherries. It’s the childhood dream of two cherry lunatics that became truth. The gastronomy has discovered our products and appreciates our quality, continuity and reliability. Meanwhile, we’re still optimizing the margin.’
Nothing but the best
The cherries are presently, between late June and mid-August, picked by hand and piece by piece, checked and then placed in a special packaging. Only the first choice in the covered orchard makes it to the Cerisa boxes and that’s about five percent. These cherries are used one by one in the gastronomy and in that case you can definitely not afford a failure.
‘Working with chefs has really enchanced our profession. Rungis has paved the way to the top restaurants for us. With those chefs we find passion, focus and drive. These are the things we definitely recognize within ourselves. Together we go for the very best.’