Life’s simple pleasures include a slice of Eva Quinn’s fresh cherry pie. She uses four cups of tart cherries that are picked from a miniature Montmorency cherry tree in her yard. The Montmorency cherries — perfect for pie baking — are smaller than the cherries you’re likely to see in the grocery store, and they’re ruby red and tart.

Eva’s pie is juicy and not too sugary, and, when paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s a little slice of heaven. She uses a recipe from a 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook.

Her cherry pie is a special treat at the Quinn home, and her husband, Dennis Quinn, a professor of English at Kansas University since 1956, is usually the lucky recipient.

“The pie is my favorite. But sometimes we’ll just eat the cherries (from the tree) with ice cream, have an ice cream sundae. And we do freeze a lot of them,” Dennis, 74, says.

The couple is among the Lawrence residents who are fortunate enough to have a cherry tree or two on their property. Fortunate, because cherries are in season, and if you have a tree in your yard, you can pick them fresh and pop them in your mouth while still warm from the sun.

“First, you’ll have blossoms. We had blossoms four to five weeks ago. Then they start putting on cherries. And it takes about a week for them to ripen,” Dennis says.

“The flavor — there’s nothing like it. And I like their appearance. They’re so gorgeous.”

The Quinns have a Montmorency cherry tree and a miniature one. The smaller tree is having its best year of production.

“The birds left it alone, for some reason. I have no explanation. We put this plastic netting around it, and it really does work,” Dennis says.

Lawrence resident Dennis Quinn picks cherries from his Montmorency tree. Quinn and his wife, Eva, enjoy eating them fresh off the tree with ice cream. They especially like using the cherries in homemade pie.

“This year I know we got many more (cherries) than before. We just go out there with a wicker basket, and we get two to three quarts at a time.”

Tart and sweet varieties

Northeast Kansas isn’t really cherry country.

Sure, cherry trees dot the landscape, but the Wheat State isn’t synonymous with the fruit.

Michigan leads the nation in the production of tart cherries, producing from 70 to 75 percent of the crop each year, according to the Cherry Marketing Institute. Other states with commercial crops of tart cherries include Utah, New York, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

The major variety of tart cherry grown in the United States is the Montmorency. It has been cultivated in this country for more than a century, the marketing institute says.

For 9-inch pie:1 package ready-made pie shells(2 per package)1 1/3 cups sugar4 drops almond extract5 tablespoons Gold Medal Flour1/2 teaspoon cinnamon4 cups fresh, pitted tart pie cherries1 1/3 tablespoons butterMix together sugar, flour and cinnamon. Mix dry ingredients lightly through cherries and add almond extract. Pour cherries into pastry-lined pie pan, and dot with butter. If fruit is dry, sprinkle 2 tablespoons water over it. Cover with top crust and make slits in crust. Bake in 425-degree oven from 35 to 45 minutes, until crust is nicely browned and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust. Serve slightly warm, not hot.Source: Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, copyright 1950; submitted by Eva Quinn, Lawrence. More cherry recipes

Sweet cherries are primarily grown in Washington, Oregon and California. Michigan joins the top four producers, harvesting about 20 percent of the sweet cherry crop each year. Other states with commercial crops of sweet cherries are New York, Pennsylvania, Montana, Idaho and Utah.

Bing is the best-known sweet cherry variety; it’s one of more than 1,000 sweet cherry varieties. Bing cherries are primarily grown in the Northeastern United States.

If you’re going to make a cherry pie, use a tart variety, such as the Montmorency. Tart cherries often are called sour cherries or pie cherries. Bright red in color, with a tangy taste, they’re often used in desserts. The Quinns tend to freeze a lot of their cherries, then use them for baking during the holidays.

“Just wash and pit them. You have to be very careful of the pits; they’re small and slippery,” Eva says.

But she loves to bake pies using fresh-picked cherries.

“It just tastes better if you use them right away, right off the tree.”

Cherries snapped up

The biggest producer of cherries in the Lawrence area likely is Floyd and Becky Ott, of Eudora.

They have about 15 cherry trees in their orchard, and they’ve sold a variety of sweet and tart cherries at the Lawrence Farmers Market, 1000 Vt., and the Community Mercantile Co-op, 901 Iowa, for years.

The Otts, who have about 25 acres of fruit trees, grow seven kinds of sweet cherries, such as Gold and Ranier. And they have some Montmorency trees.

“That’s probably the best pie cherry that you can get, nice and tart. Galaxy, those are good. That’s pretty much what I have (of tart cherry varieties),” Floyd says.

The Otts brought their last load of cherries to town on Saturday. They’re out of cherries for the season, waiting for their apple crop to kick in.

So Lawrence-area residents will have to seek out cherries at the grocery store — or, like the Quinns, turn to the cherry trees in their yards.

“A homemade, cherry pie is good,” Floyd says.

“I’m getting old, and I have to watch my diet. So Becky makes a cherry cobbler; there’s not as much crust. It makes my doctor happier.”