Bad cherries

Before I moved to Michigan, I'd never eaten fresh cherries. I'd had cherry pie and maraschino cherries (yuck), but as for fresh cherries, they were unavailable in the Deep South when I was growing up. My father had eaten them and raved about how delicious they were. A few summers ago, my husband and I were driving north to see the Upper Peninsula, and we stopped near Traverse City to purchase fresh cherries. I didn't expect to like them, but oh, my gosh, I loved them. Since then, I try to buy fresh cherries every year around this time. However, despite the huge crop of cherries available just a few miles north of here, the only cherries I ever find in the grocery store are the ones imported from California. Still, they were just as delicious, so we'd get some each June.

The other day at the grocery store, I was delighted to see cherries. Of course I bought some. But each time that I have eaten some of them, and each time that my husband has eaten some of them, both of us have been afflicted with diarrhea (the so-called "runs," if I may be so gross). We're rinsing them off before eating them, so I don't know what is causing the problem. We've never had this issue before. Did I just get a bad batch of cherries? Is there some kind of poison or insecticide on them? Do I need to cook them before eating them? It's taking all the fun out of cherry season, for sure.

I really hate to throw the rest of the bag away, but I don't want to die from eating cherries. And I don't want to lose another night's sleep, the way I did last night. Maybe if I put them out for the birds, at least something would get some use out of them. (Do I want to risk poisoning the birds?) It goes against my "religion" to throw away food unless it has green mold on it. S.