Bing Cherries, Goat Cheese, and Greens

how Bing cherries derived their name

Greetings,

Glistening purplish-red Bing cherries are abundantly displayed in grocery stores during this time of the year. The Bing cherry is America’s most popular variety, and the state of Oregon is the largest producer of the fruit. The fruit from far away paired with local lettuce from the farmer’s market in my Jersey town makes for a refreshing lunch. The history of the Bing cherry is a bit of American history that sheds light on our relationship with immigrant populations.

Seth Lewelling (also known as Luelling) was a Quaker farmer living in Ohio in the mid-1800s when he packed up his family and headed West with 700 small fruit trees. During this same time period, famine and the Second Opium War (Great Britain and France against China) were forcing hundreds of thousands of Chinese to flee their homes and find work elsewhere, many on the West Coast. They helped our country lay track for the railroad, worked in mines during the Gold Rush, and labored in agriculture and lumber mills. Seth Lewelling employed a man named Ah Bing, originally from Manchuria, as the foreman of his successful orchard. Bing propagated this delicious new breed of cherry that Lewelling then named after his foreman. For thirty years Bing worked in agriculture sending money home to his wife and children. Anti-Chinese sentiment and violence against the Chinese began in the 1860s when whites felt that their jobs were threatened. In 1882 The United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, repealed in 1943, which severely limited immigration from China. Ah Bing returned to China and his family in 1889, hopefully not pushed out by anti-Chinese sentiment, but to a peaceful retirement in his homeland.

Illustration and photo by Vicki Smith

Bing Cherries, Romaine, Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Romaine lettuce, about 10 large leaves, torn into bite-sized pieces

Bing cherries, about 16, pitted and halved or quartered

2 T. olive oil

1 T sherry vinegar

salt and pepper

2 oz. goat cheese at room temperature

1/4 cup pistachios

Directions

Place lettuce and cherries in a salad bowl. Whisk together olive oil, sherry vinegar, a dash of salt and a twist of the pepper grinder, and softened goat cheese to make a creamy dressing. Pour dressing over the lettuce and cherries. Mix well with your bare hands. Top with pistachios.

Two servings make for a light lunch. Other types of greens would work equally well, I just happened to have an enormous head of romaine from the farmer’s market. I could barely fit it in the refrigerator.

Note: I found the story of Ah Bing to be quite fascinating and gleaned most of the information recorded here from 1859oregonmagazine.com and tastingtable.com. An online interview with a member of the Lewelling family who had recollections of Ah Bing can also be accessed.

Thanks for reading!

Vicki