Sigh…straight to the point…we have healthy trees; we have numerous leaves, and we have NO cherries. March brought several days of much too warm of temperatures then April brought days and days of freezing temperatures [talk to us about climate change!]. Out of 36 years in cherries, never had three back-to-back years of crop failure that was out of our control.
There will be no machine harvest [no organic frozen IQF or dried cherries] and no U Pick available to our glorious customers.
Some may think we ‘have the summer off”. Quite the contrary, we have received and spread our semi load of custom blended compost, the orchard floor needs constant attention, young trees are pruned, rose chafers hand picked off by the thousands, the sprayer sprays, old trees removed, pollinator habitat renewed and so much more. The work and expenses truck right along and so do we. We will be here next year with the optimism expressed in our 2020-year post.
Gratefully we, our family and nearest friends all endured and survived COVID-19 and our sympathies for those who faced greater pandemic challenges.
