It's Okanagan cherry season!

Like a red and delicious harbinger of summer, Okanagan cherries are just starting their perennial pop-up at fruit stands and grocery stores.

Cherries are the Okanagan's earliest ripening tree fruit with harvest typically starting mid-June in the most southern reaches of the Valley in Osoyoos.

Being first makes for an annual and natural excitement about cherries.

Plus, each cherry is a luxurious, bite-sized orb of mouthwatering tastiness.

As well, the season for fresh cherries is only three months a year, so if you want to get your hands, and mouth, on this incredible fruit you have limited time and will pay a premium for the privilege.

Returning from a long weekend in Osoyoos, my wife, Kerry, and I saw the first of the 'LOCAL CHERRIES ARE HERE!' signs at fruit stands along Highway 97 and simply had to stop at Sandhu Greenhouses & Nursery to buy a quart of the glossy red fruit for $5.

Sandhu has a seven acre cherry orchard right behind its fruit stand and nursery.

That's where I snapped a photo of smiling worker Hardeep Dhillon picking some ripe Chelan cherries.

Consumer demand and good return to growers has spurred a renaissance in the Okanagan cherry industry.

In the past five years, the number of acres in cherry orchards in the Okanagan has grown 40% to 5,000.

There are a bunch of late spring-early summer ripening varieties such as Chelan, Satin, Sonnet, Lapin, Sylvia, Skeena and Van.

But thereis also now an incredible line-up of late-season ripening cherries with names like Sweeheart, Sentennial, Staccato and Sovereign.

It's the late-season ripeners that extends the time fresh cherries are on the market, keeps consumers interested and keeps the price up.