Short answers, pulled from the story.
The English word cherry derives from Old Northern French or Norman cherise from the Latin cerasum, referring to an ancient Greek region, Kerasous near Giresun, Turkey. This linguistic journey traces back to the 72nd year before the Common Era when Lucius Licinius Lucullus brought a cultivated cherry from northeastern Anatolia to Rome.
Cherries were introduced into England at Teynham, near Sittingbourne in Kent, by order of Henry VIII, who had tasted them in Flanders. All the cherry gardens and orchards of Kent are said to have been stocked with the Flemish cherry from a plantation of 105 acres in Teynham, made with foreign cherries, pippin apples, and golden rennets apples, done by the fruiterer of Henry VIII.
Most cherry varieties have a chilling requirement of 800 or more hours, meaning that in order to break dormancy, blossom, and set fruit, the winter season needs to have at least 800 hours where the temperature is below freezing. Low chill varieties requiring 300 hours or less are Minnie Royal and Royal Lee, requiring cross-pollinization, whereas the cultivar, Royal Crimson, is self-fertile.
The cherry kernels contain amygdalin, a chemical that releases the toxic compound hydrogen cyanide when ingested. Symptoms would show only after eating several crushed pits, 3 to 4 of the Morello variety or 7 to 9 of the red or black varieties, while swallowing the pits whole normally causes no complications.
In 2020, world production of sweet cherries was 2.61 million tonnes, with Turkey producing 28% of this total. Other major producers of sweet cherries were the United States and Chile, while world production of sour cherries in 2020 was 1.48 million tonnes, led by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Serbia.
A cherry tree will take three to four years once it is planted in the orchard to produce its first crop of fruit, and seven years to attain full maturity. The dual utility of the cherry tree, providing both a delicious fruit and a prized timber, has ensured its economic importance for centuries.