Cherry farmers across the Northwest are probably going to churn out a record crop this summer. That’s as long as it doesn’t rain as Richland Correspondent Anna King explains.

In the next month Northwest cherry farmers could make millions, or lose their entire crop. It all depends on Mother Nature. If it gets too hot, cherries ripen cherries faster than workers can pick. Even a small amount of rain can get absorbed into the cherry’s tender flesh and split the fruit.

Kent Waliser organizes about 300 workers on one of the biggest cherry ranches in Washington State. He told me during harvest he gets up before the sun.

Waliser: “Anna, when you are having this much fun in cherry harvest you just don’t need as much sleep. Cherry harvest is fun, fun because compared to the rest of the year you are actually making money.”

Waliser says harvest is already winding down where he is near the Tri-Cities and along the Columbia River. But there are plenty more cherries to be picked in higher elevations. Cherry farmers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho expect a bigger than usual crop of fresh eating cherries; 18 million 20 pound boxes.

Copyright 2009 Northwest Public Radio

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