High expectations for cherry harvest

Demand for Flathead cherries is expected to be high this year and local growers are ready to harvest a bumper crop, Dale Nelson, president of the Flathead Lake Cherry Growers Association, said.

An overall shortage of fruit in the nation should help boost demand for the local fruit, Nelson said, and good weather conditions add to the quality of the produce.

Fruit stands should be up and operating this weekend around Flathead Lake, Nelson said, as the early harvest begins.

“Locals can come down and buy fruit any time after Sunday,” Nelson said. “Some places will probably be open on Saturday.”

The first fruit should arrive at the cooperative’s plant at Finley Point on Monday and by Wednesday or Thursday Nelson anticipates harvest to be in full swing.

This year’s harvest is about six days late, compared to past years — and in the cherry business, later is better, Nelson said.

“The later you pick, the better your price,” Nelson said. Because the Flathead cherry harvest is about a week later than in a normal year, other cherries will have already been harvested and sold, creating higher demand and price for the Montana crop.

About 2.5 million pounds of fruit are expected to be harvested from the Flathead region, he said. “That’s about an average crop.”

This year’s harvest will likely wrap up in about two weeks, Nelson said. “People are motivated to get the crop off the trees.”

Growers around Flathead lake “from the South Shore to the East Shore and even the West  Shore all had pretty good conditions” this year, Nelson said. “All in all I don’t have anything negative to report.”

A concern for the next two weeks as the harvest occurs is rain, Nelson said.

“We keep an eye on rain because that’s bad for the fruit.”

Rain can cause the fruit to split. If it does rain, cooperative members have access to helicopters whose pilots are on standby to come in and blow the rain off the trees.

“We’re really happy when the helicopter guy is bored to death,” Nelson said.

Once the cherries are picked, the fruit is hauled to the cooperative’s plant at Finley Point at Flathead Lake where it is blasted with cold water through a hydrocooler process, Nelson said. Cherries then go to a cold room and the next day are loaded onto refrigerated trucks and driven to the Monson Fruit Co. in Selah, Wash., for processing. That cooling process ensures high-quality fruit, Nelson said.