Final cherry harvest totals 2.75 million pounds

More than twice as many pounds of Flathead cherries were harvested by members of the Flathead Lake Cherry Growers Association in 2010 as last year, Monson Fruit Co. Field Representative Brian Campbell said.

Cooperative members delivered 2.75 million pounds of cherries to the warehouse at Finley Point this year, up from 1.2 million in 2009.

Last year, market conditions prevented all of the cherries grown in the Flathead Valley from being delivered to the warehouse, Campbell said. There are years that not all the crop is delivered, he said, but probably two out of three years growers deliver their full harvest to the warehouse.

“I think we picked every single cherry in the orchards,” Campbell said Wednesday.

Campbell termed the 2010 crop “optimal.” If cherries get too big, quality can decline, he said. That wasn’t the case this year.

“We had some weather issues this year,” Campbell said, “but overall we had a good year.”

Campbell pointed out that not all cherry growers in the valley are members of the co-op, so the total valley harvest exceeds 2.75 million pounds.

While pleased with the 2010 crop, Campbell said it was far from the bumper crop of 4 million pounds harvested a few years ago.

The last shipment of cherries left the warehouse on Aug. 13, bound for the Monson Fruit Co. in Selah, Wash.

After the seven-hour drive to the processing plant, the cherries are processed and packed and shipped out to retail outlets the next day, Campbell said.

That last shipment was “considerably later” than it occurs in most years, he said. This year’s crop matured later than normal mostly because of a cool June and a lack of hot summer weather.

But the later harvest means better prices for the fruit, because the Montana cherries hit the market after Washington cherries were sold out.

The harvest totals ended up a bit higher than predicted by growers association President Dale Nelson at the start of harvest. In July, Nelson estimated the harvest would be about 2.5 million pounds, which he said is a normal harvest.