I’M NOT ALONE in thinking that Bing is the best tasting, most satisfying cherry variety. The California Rare Fruit Growers, an organization made up of horticulturists, botanists, hobbyists, farmers, and other fruit-minded folk, occasionally organize fruit tastings. They recently held a cherry tasting, and Bing topped the list. Bings are a purple-skinned variety of sweet cherry with a rich, sweet, wine-like flavor. They originated in Milwaukie, Oregon, in 1875 through the work of an orchardist named Seth Lewelling. He named this exquisite fruit after a Chinese laborer named Bing who worked for him.

One day back in 1973, I visited a friend who had three mature Bing cherry trees on his property, each a good 35 feet tall, with thick trunks and widespread limbs laden with fruit. I climbed up to where a limb forked into two smaller limbs. All around me, burnished burgundy-black cherries hung within reach, and I perched there happy as a bird, gobbling my fill. It was one of those moments in life that seem so natural and usual when it’s happening—just me in a tree with some cherries—but in retrospect becomes an extraordinary pleasure when I realize it is never to be repeated.