07/03/08 Cherry Crop Down But Great Taste

Cherry Crop Down But Great Taste. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Cherry growers are still picking fruit but due to a long, cool spring it appears the overall total boxes picked is falling far short of expectations according to Northwest Cherry Growers, BJ Thurlby. THURLBY: It's just so sad because we're a million boxes behind the lowest total we were ever going to ship in June anyway and now we're at 2 million boxes. This goes back to literally the 1960's that we had such a small amount of fruit in June. Interestingly the size was anticipated to be smaller but Thurlby says fortunately that isn't the case. THURLBY: You know it's not showing up to be down too far. I think there's definitely a lot fewer 9-row than we had last year but the 10.5-row averages of fruit being shipped is right where it was last year. 66% of the fruit is 10.5-row and larger which in my book is decent sized fruit. BJ says that the taste though is excellent and would be perfect for all the backyard picnics this holiday weekend. THURLBY: We've got a great 4th of July coming up. We got  I think  a lot of people are just going to stay home over the 4th and hopefully eat some cherries. But at the same time a lot of retailers here, they're feeling like we've got our stores set up for the 4th  let's see what happens. And I think there's a big wait and see attitude from the retailers out there as to whether or not they're going to come back in and really order next week heavy and that's what we really need. So as you head to the store for all the picnic goodies, pick up a couple of pounds of those delicious Washington grown cherries for the holiday and enjoy! That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.