A wonderful sweet cherry, a close 2^nd in the 2013 FGI taste tests. Dark purple, almost black, firm, medium to large, sweet, yet with amazing complex flavor. Bore a huge crop on a very healthy tree in 2013, succumbed to late frost in 2014, with no fruit, but rebounded with a very large crop in 2015, and in 2017 produced a med-large crop. Ripens late June to early July at 2800'. Likley will produce a larger crop when planted with another cherry variety. This variety was chosen by the Slow Food Ark of Taste in 2014 to be honored and saved for posterity.

The grandmother tree is a very healthy, non irrigated, non pruned, non sprayed 100+ year specimen growing at 2800’ on an old stage stop near Camptonville, Yuba County, a vibrant mining town of the mid 1800s, still populated with many Gillet trees. Camptonville was also the home of Lester Pelton, who in 1870 invented the Pelton wheel. Lester changed the course of human evolution by inventing the device for making hydroelectric power. Camptonville is a fascinating old mining camp, with many Gillet trees. Camptonville is a fascinating old mining camp, with many Gillet trees. Remember the tune "Camptown ladies sing this song, doo dah, doo dah..."? That's Camptonville. We will be introducing more from this area in coming years.