Are glace cherries red when they're picked - or are they dyed

A. Glace cherries come from the white-fleshed Napoleon cherry, which isn't used as an eating cherry because of its lack of flavour. The fruit is pale yellow, a bit like Mirebelle plums, when its picked. The fruit is then washed and the stalks and stones removed. The stalks are rotted down to make compost, which goes back to the orchards, and the stones are burned as fuel. The cherries are sorted by size - there are five different grades, from the size of a large pea to a damson.

The washed and sorted cherries are blanched before being given their characteristic red colour, using either artifical dye or red grape juice.

Q. How are they candied

A. The candying process is fairly lengthy - these cherries have been chosen to look good, to stay firm during the week-long candying process and have a long shelf life. The cherries are immersed in a warm sugar syrup of ever-increasing concentration as their own juice is gradually replaced by the syrup. Once the candying process is complete, they are drained and boxed.

Q. Where are they mostly made

A. They are principally sourced from southern France. Apt, a town in Provence, is surrounded by vineyards and cherry orchards, and its candied fruits - particularly glace cherries - have been famous since the Middle Ages. They were discovered there by the British in the second half of the 19thC, when it became fashionable to migrate south to winter on the Riviera. A British traveller, Matthew Wood, discovered the sticky fruit and began importing them to the UK. Larger fruits such as apricots, plums and figs were traditionally served at the end of meals, but the cherries were added to British cooking, in particular, the fruitcake.

Q. How many cherries are produced each year

A. The operation now operates in Provence on an industrial scale. Most make all sorts of fruits noble - plums, melons, pineapples, figs, pears and mandarins. One orchard, the Maison Leoppold Marliagues, produces 1,200 tonnes of cherries a year, and 80 per cent of its output is cherries exported to the UK.

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by Katharine MacColl