I spent the weekend up in picturesque Door County, Wisconsin (motto "Man, there are a lot of people from Chicago here."). Door County is just entering cherry season, and the cherry trees are everywhere. Pictured are the fruits of our journey - strawberries, two types of cherries (one sweet, one tart), and fresh rhubarb.

At the farm where we picked up the cherries, there is a cherry pit spit pit. That's not a typo. Once you've sampled the fruit of the cherry, you are encouraged to try to spit the pit for distance. The men's record is 95' 9". I'm not qualifying for the Olympics in pit spitting anytime soon, but I had a pretty respectable go.

The darker cherries in the picture above are the usual sweet dark Bing cherries you often see in the supermarket. They are perfect for pies with a little added lemon juice, and require very little added sugar. I like to eat them straight, savoring the dark juice that stains my teeth.

The little red cherries are Montmorency cherries and they have a kick to them. More tart than sweet, Montmorency cherries have the bright saturated color that people think of as "cherry red". I'd never understood why that color was called cherry red until I saw these fruit. I like to eat these straight as well and enjoy the tart pucker.

Yes, TMC is a cooking blog, but sometimes you gotta just enjoy great ingredients as is.