It's cherry-picking season in Jabal al-Zawiya, in the southern Idlib countryside, but grove owners can take no joy in it, because the area has been under heavy air and ground attack by Russian-backed Syrian government forces since early May.

Grove owners are not only being hit hard by the military strikes, which are reducing their ability to harvest their produce, but they also face marketing difficulties, with overripe cherries and prices in a nosedive.

Jabal al-Zawiya and Harem are known for their cherry groves across vast swathes where skilled farmers have cultivated the land for generations. The locals use sweet cherries in many of their meat dishes, such as cherry kebab, a sharp contrast to the rest of the region, where residents pair meat with sour cherries. They also use sweet cherries to make juices and jellies or mix them with sour cherries to make jam.

“Cherry-picking season is a joyful period of time, more of a rite, especially within my family,” Alia Hussein, a cherry orchard owner from the city of Ariha, in the southern Idlib countryside, told Al-Monitor. “During harvest time, we cook the favorite meals of every member of our family, mainly cherry meat, where we slowly cook lamb, seasoned with cumin and cinnamon, with ripe cherries. A part of the crop is for sale, and the other part is used to make cherry jam and juice.”