Cherry harvest hits high gear

Roadside cherry stands on the east shore of Flathead Lake are hopping with activity, as cherry lovers finally are able to purchase Flathead cherries.

The harvest still is picking up steam in this late-ripening year, several growers say.

But cherry harvest remains a short season and in about two weeks consumers should expect to see cherry stands begin closing and the space now occupied by cherries in grocer’s produce sections replaced with another product.

The majority of the lambert cherries grown in the Flathead already have been picked, Flathead Lake Cherry Growers President Dale Nelson said. Lambert picking began Aug. 1 at most orchards, although a few growers started picking a day or two earlier, he said.

The harvest of lapins, the next variety to ripen, began about five days ago, he said.

Flathead growers also raise Rainiers, sweethearts, skeenas and Kootenays. Most Rainiers have been picked but the other varieties ripen a little later and are just getting into the pipeline.

The helicopters used to blow rain off cherry trees have been in the orchards a couple of times this season, pushing away water deposited by two heavy rainstorms in the last 10 days.

Some cherries have suffered hail damage this season as spotty storms have passed through the valley, but overall extensive hail damage hasn’t been reported.

Gary Hoover’s Orchard Estates on Montana 35 near Yellow Bay was hit by hail twice.

But Bowman Orchards, a couple miles north of Hoover’s orchard, escaped hail this season, owner Jerry Bowman said. Until Wednesday night, not a lot of late-season rain had fallen either.

Bowman, a Flathead native who has been working in cherry orchards his entire life, said a lot of nice fruit was grown this year in the valley, despite the late harvest.

Nelson reminds people not to wait long to visit their favorite roadside stands to buy cherries. Because local orchards are harvesting later than in a normal year, few cherries remain on the market throughout the United States, he said, pushing demand for the already-popular Flathead cherries even higher.

“Every day we’re getting calls from customers. They are bugging us to get fruit to their stores,” Nelson said.

For the first time, this year the growers’ co-op hired Charlie’s Produce of Spokane to distribute Flathead cherries to 280 grocery stores all across Montana.

Overall, Nelson expects the total weight of this year’s harvest to be a bit below normal. He’s estimating the 105 co-op members will deliver just under 2 million pounds of cherries to their warehouse at Finley Point this year.

An average harvest is 2.5 million pounds. Last year, co-op members delivered 2.75 million pounds to the warehouse. Members typically take 80 percent of their crop to the warehouse and can sell the remaining 20 percent as they choose.

Peak production should continue for the next 10 days or so, Nelson said. Sweethearts, the latest cherry to ripen in the valley, won’t be picked until about Aug. 20, he predicts.

“Those are the latest cherries available in the country and most are already spoken for,” he said. The last batch of cherries always becomes especially popular for overseas shipment, he said.

The Hoovers opened Gary’s Cherries roadside stand on Aug. 6 and have sold out every day so far. Gary and Susan Hoover pick cherries every evening and sell that fruit the next day at the stand. They expect to keep the roadside stand open for about two more weeks.

Gary is fussy about which cherries they pick every day. “I sell sweet cherries,” he said. So he culls through the trees making sure the cherries are absolutely ready before they’re picked.

The Hoovers sell only lapins at the roadside stand for $1.50 a pound.

The Hoovers have 180 trees in their well-manicured orchard. In the 11 years they’ve owned the orchard, their biggest crop weighed in at 32,000 pounds.

In an exceptional year, each of his lapin trees produces between 150 and 200 pounds of fruit. Most years, a tree produces between 100 and 150 pounds. Last year, an especially good year for Hoover and most Flathead growers, he actually had to put stakes under 85 tree branches because the heavy fruit nearly snapped the branches.

This year, Hoover expects to harvest about 12,000 pounds of cherries. His trees didn’t bear as much fruit as they do in a record year, but this year’s cherries are big, he said.

Hoover stresses that his orchard is relatively small, but that affords him the opportunity to spend plenty of time among his fruit trees.

He paints the bottom stretch of his trees’ trunks white. His reason is two-fold: to reflect the sun and because “it looks good.”

Hoover fertilizes his trees with worm juice, an organic fertilizer, four times a year. Every week he applies Miracle Grow and each spring he applies a 16-16-16 fertilizer.

Hands-on care matters to Hoover. It appears to pay off. He planted about a half-dozen apple trees this spring and they’re already bearing fruit. The tiny branches have begun to bend under the weight of the apples and he checks the trees’ health at least once a day.

Hoover has cultivated a solid mail-order market for his cherries and ships boxes through the post office nearly every day.

“They know when I walk in the door that I’ll need their cart and they just direct me to the right place,” he said of the postal employees.

Most of his mail-order customers are repeat customers and many of them direct their friends to Gary’s Cherries, continually expanding his customer base.

He tucks a personal note inside each box before shipping it out. It includes an update on the current year’s harvest and outlook.

“People call me up and tell me they love reading about how the cherries up here are doing,” Hoover said.

Up the road a couple of miles from Hoover’s orchard, the Bowman Orchards warehouse has been selling Washington cherries for several weeks. The Bowmans own orchards in Washington in addition to six orchards in the Flathead.

They started selling Flathead cherries around Aug. 1.

A lot of customers opt to wait for the local cherries, Jerry Bowman said.

“They come in and ask if we have Washington or Flathead cherries,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago when we only had Washington cherries, they’d say, ‘We’ll come back.’”

The Bowmans process only their cherries at their warehouse.

They grow mostly three cherry varieties, including lamberts, “the cherry that made the Flathead famous,” Bowman said.

After the big freeze of 1989, when many cherry growers lost their trees and had to replant, the Bowmans planted a fair number of lapin trees, which ripen later than lamberts. And, they grow Rainiers, which are proving a “very popular” cherry, he said.

“We often don’t have enough to meet customer demand,” he said of Rainiers.

The Bowmans also grow pie cherries. His employees keep a list of pie cherry customers and call them when the fruit is ready.

The Bowmans own a cold facility where cherries are cooled, sorted and dry-packed for shipping. They sell most of their product to fruit stands and to wholesalers who in turn sell to retail customers.

Their warehouse on Montana 35 doubles as a retail outlet, too. In addition to selling fresh cherries, the Bowmans sell canned cherries, fruit wine and huckleberry products. The Bowmans own a winery in the Flathead and another in Moses Lake, Wash.

Tour buses frequently stop at their warehouse and Jerry will hop on board and explain the cherry business.

They have their own trucking operation, too, including one semitrailer and several smaller trucks.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.