Weather ruins Door County cherry crop
24.06.2008 05:01
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- Source: JS Online
Extreme weather has virtually wiped out Door County’s cherry crop for this year, which not only means slim pickings in orchards that attract thousands of tourists each summer, but also a loss of an estimated 350 to 400 seasonal jobs for workers who harvest and process the iconic scarlet fruit. At a time when epic rains and flooding have wiped out berries and vegetables in other parts of the state, Door County’s loss may seem surprising because it is attributed to an opposite extreme: a three-month drought last summer, followed by a January that brought rain and wild temperature fluctuations. The county’s 2008 cherry crop is expected to be an all-time record bust, taking a nosedive of at least 98% from last year’s bumper crop. Door County agriculture officials are exploring seeking a federal disaster declaration in hopes of receiving aid for orchards, many of which do not carry crop loss insurance. The good news is that there should be enough cherries in reserve from last year’s crop for the legendary cherry pies that accompany Door County fish boils, though supplies could be limited and prices likely will be higher, orchard owners said Monday. The bad news is that there will be few cherries for tourists to pick. Roadside farm stands will still be open, but they won’t feature many fresh cherries, if any. “It’s devastating,” said Jim Seaquist, a partner in his family’s Seaquist Orchards in Sister Bay, which produces more than half of the county’s tart cherries and about one-tenth of the lesser-known sweet cherries. “My family has been in the cherry business for close to 100 years, and this has never happened before.” While the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates 200,000 pounds of tart cherries will be harvested, starting in mid-July, Seaquist estimates it will be closer to 100,000 pounds — roughly 1% of last year’s crop of 10.4 million pounds. “We’ll be competing with the birds to get much of anything,” Seaquist said. The sweet cherry crop, popular at roadside stands, is completely gone because those trees are more susceptible to weather extremes, growers said. “There’s no crop out there,” said Glenn Musil, manager of Choice Orchards, five miles north of Sturgeon Bay on County HH just off Highway 42. “There’s not one sweet cherry on our trees, and there’s maybe half a pound of tart cherries per tree.” Normally, there would be at least 20, if not 40 pounds of cherries on a tree, depending on the year’s crop. Cherries have been integral to summertime in Door County for nearly a century. At one time, the county had 10,000 acres in cherry orchards. The number dropped in the mid-1960s and early 1970s to about 2,500 acres. Few mom-and-pop cherry orchards remain today, as modern, larger operations run by fewer farmers have made cherries go the way of Wisconsin’s dairy herds. Seaquist, the fifth generation of family ownership, said his family will find a way to take care of Door County bakeries and restaurants that depend on local cherries. “We’re part of a larger cooperative in Michigan. What we don’t have, we’ll find somewhere,” he said. Several other top cherry-producing states are also expecting smaller crops after harsh weather last summer and winter, but Wisconsin appears to be hit the hardest, based on federal crop projections. “I feel for the growers, because the cherry business is a difficult business to begin with,” said Andy Coulson, who with his wife, Jan, owns The White Gull Inn in Fish Creek. “The cherry industry is a big part of Door County’s tourism, and anything that hurts one sector of tourism is felt by all of us. When people come to Door County, they may not experience a fish boil, but they see cherry pie everywhere.” In addition to capping fish boils with cherry pie, The White Gull Inn features cherries in breakfast pancakes, coffee cakes and its signature cherry-stuffed French toast. “We’ve been concerned since we heard about the crop losses,” Coulson said. Flower buds for this year’s crop formed last July and August. And when the flower buds opened this spring, most of them were empty, growers said. Seaquist estimated his family orchard’s loss at $1 million, and said he expects insurance to cover maybe 40% of that. The orchard also will not be able to employ about 20 local high school- and college-age students who traditionally depend on orchards for summer income, as well as 55 migrant workers from Texas, many of whom have worked at Seaquist orchards and its processing plant for the past 25 summers, Seaquist said. Seaquist estimated the county’s seasonal cherry industry work force at 350 to 400. What’s left of the tart cherry crop will be handpicked to supply local markets, or left on trees for tourists who swamp Door County looking for a cherry-picking experience, growers said. There won’t be much, if any, machine-picking, which is how the crop traditionally is harvested. That would cost more than the yield would produce. The decline of this year’s crop is being attributed to several weather events. A severe drought last July through September weakened the trees as they were forming flower buds for this year’s crop. Then extreme fluctuations in January temperatures, plus unusual January rainfall, further harmed them, said Richard Weidman, superintendent of the Peninsular Agricultural Research Station near Sturgeon Bay. Cherry grower David Schartner, of Schartner’s Farm Market in Egg Harbor, might have been the first grower to realize disaster was imminent in April. He had knee surgery and wasn’t able to work much around the farm, so he started examining his trees on a four-wheeler just to have something to do. Schartner said he picked a few dormant branches from his 40 acres of cherries, mostly tart. “When you put dormant wood in water, you can see flowers bloom out,” Schartner said. That’s when he realized the buds were empty. There have been other years of extreme temperatures, but for whatever reason, the past year’s weather spelled disaster, Seaquist said. “The only saving grace we’ve had is timely rainfall this spring to keep the trees alive and growing for next year,” Weidman said. “There should be cherries next year.”
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