Sour Cherry, Pie Cherry 'Northstar'

We planted this tree at my mom's house in the late 70s to replace a Montmorency cherry tree that produced one year, then died. Despite be...Read Moreing labeled as a 'semi-dwarf' tree it got fairly large, but not quite as tall as other pie cherry trees (but the spread was pretty good).
The cherries are smaller than Montmorency, but the pit isn't, so the overall yield per cherry is less. But our tree more than made up for it in quantity. And it never took a year off, we always had plenty of cherries, up until 2003. In 2003, we lost a large branch in a storm, and in 2004 we lost 2 more large branches thanks to the Hallam tornado. But the tree is surviving, and this year we're going to get a fair crop on the remaining branches.
When the cherries start ripening, they'll get red, and the juice is a light red (not clear like Montmorency). They're not ready yet - in a couple more days, they'll turn deep wine red, and the juice will look like burgundy. THEN they're ready for picking. Makes wonderful pies and kolaces.