Life really is a bowl of cherries at The Great Hall of the Republic at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor, Michigan. Bowls of dried cherries, chocolate covered cherries, nut-and-cherry mixes, cherry flavored gummy candies, cherry salsa, cherry jam, cherry barbecue sauce and almost any other cherry infused product imaginable await shoppers for sampling.
Cherry Republic’s “World Headquarters” sits in the world’s largest tart cherry-growing area and serves as the most visible part of an ambassador-like effort to spread the gospel of the humble red fruit’s sweet versatility to the rest of the world in the form of over 150 products made from locally grown fruit.
We try to visit the northern Michigan area near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at least once each year, and we make it a point to stop by Cherry Republic at least once during each trip to northwestern Michigan. I particularly love making an afternoon of the trip by popping open the sunroof of my car, cranking up the radio and making the drive up M-22 along Lake Michigan from Frankfort to Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor for shopping and a snack.
Visiting Cherry Republic at Glen Arbor during the summer is a special treat as the property’s gardens are in full bloom, and I can always get a tall cup of my favorite cherry ice tea. But the store, as well as the bakery/café and winery outlet at the Glen Arbor property, opens year round to visitors.
Want to send an “edible postcard” home? Send friends a literal “taste of Michigan” by getting a small box filled with a packet of dried cherries or a chunky cherry cookie, addressing it and having Cherry Republic stamp it and mail it out from their special post box for you.
Our shopping trips to the Glen Arbor store usually result our filling a bag full of chocolate covered dried cherries, Sour Patch gummy candies, cherry salsa and dried cherries to take home.
If cherry supplies run low before our next trip north, we can always check out Cherry Republic’s quirky catalog and Web site to see what’s new at “North America’s fourth largest country”, where “citizens” celebrate the joy of cherries.
You can place an order online or by phone. I call each year around Christmas to replenish my own cherry stock and order a gift box for my cousin in California, who always loves visiting northern Michigan every few years when she returns to her childhood home to see family.
While you’re online, be sure to check out some of Cherry Republic’s denizens in the funny little movies posted on the company’s web site, or check out recipes using Cherry Republic products like dried cherries, cherry salsa or cherry wine.
I appreciate Cherry Republic’s dedication to locally grown cherries as well as their advocacy of other northern Michigan food products, area tourism and “green” efforts like their Cherish Earth initiative.
But right now, I’m trying to decide what to send my cousin this year! And I’m pretty sure I need to order more dried cherries, salsa and Sour Patch candies for me, too!
© Dominique King 2008
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