Cherries

Grown in the orchards of the Kentish Weald around Tonbridge, where Roughway Farm works the soil that has made Kent England's cherry county for centuries. Poisel is one of the first to crop, the opener of the home-grown season: dark, glossy and firm, with a clean snap when you bite. Picked by hand with the stalks on, when the colour has gone deep but the fruit still holds its shape, the sugar just settling in. These are the first English cherries of the year, weeks ahead of the main Kent crop. Until last week ours came over from France, so this is the bridge we wait for, imported fruit giving way to home-grown high summer. Eat them at room temperature, from the bowl, stones in, never cold from the fridge: the only honest way to start. The other move, the French one: pit a handful, macerate in red wine with sugar and a strip of lemon peel for an hour, then spoon over vanilla ice cream. Or pan-roast a duck breast, render the skin slow, deglaze the fat with red wine and sherry vinegar, drop the cherries in for thirty seconds. Restaurant dinner at home in fifteen minutes.