Cherry Pie for Washington's Birthday

February 6, 2025 - George Washington's birthday is celebrated every year on the third Monday in February as part of the federal holiday known as "President's Day". While in Alabama, "President's Day" is celebrated by the state offices as "George Washington/Thomas Jefferson Birthday". And this year, President's Day falls on Monday, February 17th, 2025.

As such, George Washington's home of Mount Vernon has issued the "2025 Cherry Challenge" which is currently underway in Alexandria, Virginia. In the 2025 Cherry Challenge, various restaurants in Alexandria are offering cherry-inspired dishes in honor of the legend of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree as a little boy. Customers get to vote on which cherry-inspired dish is their favorite. With the various restaurants vying for a coveted spot in the George Washington's Birthday Parade to be held in Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday, February 15th, 2025.

The legend of George Washington and the cherry tree relates how when George Washington was six years old, he was given a hatchet as a gift. As any young boy who has received a new gift, Washington was eager to use his new hatchet and he proceeded to damage his father's favorite cherry tree with his new gift. When his father discovered what George Washington had done, his father was naturally upset. However, even in the face of impending punishment for his actions, George Washington admitted to his youthful exuberance when his father confronted him with the statement of "I cannot tell a lie . . . I did cut it with my hatchet." Taking solace in the fact that even though his son had damaged his favorite cherry tree, according to the legend, Washington's father's anger abated and his father embraced him with the declaration that his son's honesty was "worth more than a thousand trees."

Since the legend of George Washington and the cherry tree did not appear in print until 1806 in the fifth edition of "The Life of Washington" by Mason Locke Weems, historians for the past couple of decades have discounted the legend as having zero basis in reality. However, the legend recently received new life into it when in April of 2024 archaeologists discovered two 250 year-old glass bottles filled with cherries in them under a brick floor from the 1770s during a renovation of George Washington's Mount Vernon. This was followed by the discovery in June of 2024 of 35 glass bottles from the 18th century in five storage pits in the cellar of George Washington's Mount Vernon with 29 of the bottles containing perfectly preserved cherries and berries.

Modern microscopy indicates that the Mount Vernon cherries were harvested by snipping them from trees with shears with the stems being neatly cut and purposefully left attached to the fruit before bottling. Which makes the cherries likely candidates for DNA extraction. And researchers are exploring whether some of the seeds might grow after 250 years. The cherries are likely of a tart variety which has an acidic composition that has aided their preservation over the centuries.

In the meantime, until Washington's cherries sprout into trees after 250 years, those who cannot participate in the 2025 Cherry Challenge in Alexandria, Virginia, can still celebrate the nation's victorious general and first president with cherries. As in accordance with American tradition, one celebrates George Washington's birthday by eating a slice of cherry pie. For, not coincidentally, National Cherry Pie Day is celebrated on February 20th, purposefully close to the date of Washington's birthday. Which is marked on the calendar as being on February 22nd, 1732. Although, when Washington was born, the colony of Virginia was still on the Julian calendar and Washington's birthday under that calendar was on February 11th, 1731.

This year marks Washington's 239th birthday. And for those seeking a colonial era cherry pie recipe to commemorate the day with, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union offers one here: https://www.mountvernon.org/inn/recipes/article/cherry-pie

Luisa Reyes is an attorney in Tuscaloosa with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Judson, a master's degree in library science, and a law degree from Samford's Cumberland School of Law. She is also a piano instructor and vocalist.