Cherry can vary by harvest region and we buy ours from as far north as we possibly can. Our cherry lumber generally comes from Pennsylvania. The color and grain tends to be quite even. It is a beautiful furniture grade wood, a bit pricey, but not like the exotics from across the ocean. The salmon undertones of the wood when freshly machined, and the fact that the wood will darken strikingly with age, usually requires that the wood be stained with a relatively dark stain. With age, its character deepens along with its color. If left without stain, it can become quite dark. If you can recall seeing an antique piece of cherry furniture a century old and marveled at its deep, dark color, rest assured that depth of color is not the result of stain, but time and UV light.