Cherry Harvest Begins Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. We’ve yet to see a heat dome like we had last year, but the cooler and wetter spring weather has been less than ideal for growers here in the Pacific Northwest.That said, Northwest Cherry Growers President, BJ Thurlby says don’t despair … there will still be cherries …
THURLBY … “And we still think we’ve got, you know, between 13 and 15 million boxes, which is a lot of fruit. You know, a normal crop is 20 million boxes now days. But still, we’re going to have plenty of fruit and people in the Seattle area are going to be the first recipients of that fruit.”
Thurlby says, yes, the numbers will be down a bit, but otherwise …
THURLBY … “We think we made it through okay. There’s certainly some growers who have significant damage, but for the most part people are talking about 5% damage from the rains. So that leaves still quite a bit of early crop out there.”
So overall, Thurlby says, things look pretty promising …
THURLBY … “Yeah, and we were looking at some this morning and the fruit was excellent. So far, the fruit looks really good so let’s hope that harvest is able to continue forward and there’s still a lot of cherries left out here.”
As for the weather, Thurlby says, it’s where we live …
THURBLY … “So, it’s kind of unique to see that, but that’s the state of Washington. We’re the Evergreen State and we have lots of natural beauty and one of pieces of beauty are Northwest Cherries.”
You should be able to find the first shipments of Northwest Cherries in grocery stores now.