Weather poses challenges for cherry growers

The dark red sweet cherries the Flathead is famous for have made their appearance. About a week and a half ago, cherry stands in Polson and along the east shore of Flathead Lake began selling local cherries.

“The Flathead cherry crop is a good crop — good and bad,” said Brian Campbell, field representative for Monson Fruit in Selah, Wash., and a cherry grower himself.

Since the fruit set up so heavily on the trees, the cherries aren’t as large as usual. Small fruit sells for about half of what large cherries bring.

Weather was also an issue. “Last week some growers had hail, and there was a horrible windstorm, really severe on the east shore, last Tuesday,” Campbell said. “Then things were looking pretty good until this rain came in” referring to Monday’s downpour.

The forecast sent pickers and growers to the trees Sunday and Monday, “but then they had to quit when it started raining too much.”

The weather forecast indicates it might be a two-day wait to see what the damage to the cherries will be, he added. Rain can cause ripe cherries to “split,” or absorb moisture through their skins and burst.

There are some preventative measures cherry farmers can take, Campbell said. A certain type of calcium or a biofilm-type product can be applied to the cherries, and some growers use an air-blast sprayer to blow moisture off the fruit.

Cherry pickers were slow coming to the Flathead this year, he said, not so much out of fear of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and increased deportations of migrants, but because growers were waiting for the price to rebound.

Washington had a bumper crop of the dark sweet fruit, with more than 20 million 20-pound boxes of fruit flooding warehouses. Since cherries are perishable, the fruit had to be sold, Campbell said, lowering the price just as Flathead growers were ready to begin harvesting.

“I know folks who haven’t come”

Jamie Ortiz and her husband, Luis, travel to Polson from their home in Yakima, Wash., every summer. Luis brings a six-man crew of pickers while Jamie, who injured her back five years ago, sells local cherries from a stand along Hwy. 93.

 She buys her fruit at a discount from various orchards around the lake to sell from her stand next to the Polson Bay Golf Course. On Saturday, she was selling Lapins from Last Best Place Orchard on the east shore.

She said the recent uptick in immigration raids conducted by ICE has frightened off some cherry pickers. “I know folks who haven’t come,” she said. “They’re scared – they don’t feel safe coming, which has given us a lot more work.”

She also says the harvest is more robust this year.

Last year, due to an untimely freeze, the harvest often amounted to just a few cherries per tree – Jamie holds up a handful to demonstrate – and her stand was only open four days. This year, her husband and his crew are picking around five 30-pound lugs per tree, or 150 pounds, and she anticipates staying open a full month.

Jamie, who reserves her space every year for a month from the City of Polson, was selling two-pound bags for $8 each, or $4 per pound.

“These are the first Flathead cherries I’ve found,” exclaimed a woman as she bought two bags. Jamie responded that lots of stands are now open on the East Shore and that she started selling July 12.

Luis has picked fruit for 25 years. His crew is comprised of people from Washington and Oregon. Their season typically begins each May in California; they head to Yakima in mid-June and land in the Flathead for a month, beginning in mid-July.

Hopefully the rain abates, and the much-anticipated cherry harvest continues to grace growers, pickers, sellers, eaters – and this weekend's Flathead Cherry Festival.