Life's a jar of cherries Loretta Robertoy, owner of HyLine Orchard in Fish Creek, creates a wide array of tasty treats with cherries as a base, including spaghetti sauce and numerous jams and fellies. Find a variety of locally made goods, but cherries are king By Donna Marie Pocius For The News-Chronicle Clearly, cherries rule at HyLine Orchard, where you can find locally made cherry barbecue sauce, cherry salsa, cherry mustard and even cherry spaghetti sauce. "That is my newest. I started it last year," says Loretta Robertoy, owner of HyLine Orchard, Fish Creek. "I had a lot of tomatoes from the garden and I thought why not cherry spaghetti sauce? The cherries take the place of meat." Robertoy, who creates products from cherries harvested on the 200-acre HyLine Orchard, believes cherries punch up recipes with unique flavor and are rich in healthy antioxidants to boot. "We try to stay with the cherry theme," she says. "I make a lot with cherries." Robertoy and her husband, Marvin, established HyLine Orchard in 1958, just two years after they married. The couple started with 32 acres, and over the years acquired nearly 170 more - all within three miles of their retail shop at 8240 State 42, just north of County EE. Now, 170 acres showcase 18,360 blossoming cherry trees each spring. And there are 30 acres of apple trees offering up these varieties aplenty: McIntosh, Cortland and Red Delicious. Also, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Empire, McCoun and the newest apple - Honeycrisp - are harvested on HyLine Orchard each fall. "Honeycrisp is the latest craze," Robertoy says. "It is in demand, and they are good because they are on younger trees. It is kind of tart - people really like them. They can be used as a baking apple. But I use mainly McIntosh and Cortland (for baking)." Buy homemade or pick your own Each week, Robertoy bakes nearly 80 apple and cherry pies for sale in the rustic shop. She dips apples in taffy - sometimes adding nuts, sometimes not - and sells each delicacy for $2. She calls on her daughter, Cindy Enigl, for help in creating 40 different jams and jellies that line the store's shelves. Another daughter, Nancy Delsart, handles gift items sold in the store, while son Paul works in the orchards with his father. The family's jelly-jam product line, which started with cherry jam, now includes apple cider jelly, white grape jelly, boysenberry jam, raspberry jam, cherry-pineapple jam and others. "We are very happy with our business here," Robertoy says. "There are things I started that I had no idea what they would turn to. I was just going to make cherry jam. Now we have 40 different kinds. You have to have what the customer wants." And she has learned many customers want to pick their own cherries and bake their own pies. Top sellers here include frozen and canned cherries and cherry pie filling. Orders with a credit card can be made by phone at 1-888-433-2087. Each summer, when cherries are ready to be harvested, HyLine Orchard welcomes families to "pick your own." A five quart pail of cherries, picked from the orchards, sells for $4. "It has become a great pastime - a family thing to pick cherries together with children. They can all go out. Each child wants a pail - I think that is the most important thing to them," Robertoy says. Families get the "first pick" before two cherry shaker machines move through the orchards, harvesting the remainder of the crop for wholesale and retail sales. Ninety percent of HyLine Orchard's cherry crop is sold wholesale through Cherrco, a Michigan-based marketing cooperative. "You need both wholesale and retail to balance," Robertoy said. "They work together. Sometimes, the crop is light and you need the retail end of it." The grounds are also home to a syrup house, where the Robertoys transform sap from maple trees into syrup each March, a cherry pitting room and a canning area. In the spring, a greenhouse stands on the south side of the shop with perennials, annuals, cherry and apple trees for sale. And how did the Robertoys come up with the HyLine Orchard name? "People could not remember our name - Robertoy - so we needed an easier name," Robertoy recalls. "We are on the highway, and on the Egg Harbor and Gibraltar line."