Market's the pits for cherry growers

Harvest is in full swing for most cherry orchards in the Flathead, which means some growers barely have time to snag an evening meal before collapsing into bed.

Others, however, are sitting idly. Erratic weather and a superabundance of cherries from the Pacific Northwest have taken a significant bite out of this year's Lambert cherry market. And with no one to buy the cherries, some growers see no reason to pick them.

"For the most part, the cherries will hang on the trees until they fall," said Tom Mitchell, who has a small orchard in Yellow Bay.

About 45 percent of local growers have Lamberts, said Dale Nelson, president of the Flathead Lake Cherry Growers association. Most of them also grow other varieties, he added.

But Lamberts are the primary cherries grown in the Flathead. In 2004, more than half the cherries Monson Fruit Co. processed at its Finley Point warehouse were Lamberts. It's also one of the most popular varieties in the United States, second only to Bing cherries.

Trouble for the valley's crop began in June, when storms hurtled heavy rain and hail on orchards on the east side of Flathead Lake. Yellow Bay bore the brunt of the onslaught, but the storms' effects were felt farther north.

Laila Proffitt, who has an orchard in Woods Bay, said her fruit suffered in the rain and hail.

"The cherries just aren't as good," she said. "I don't think the crop's going to last as long."

Proffitt "lost quite a bit" in the storms.

"There's a lot less than there were in years past," she said. "I would think it would be 25 percent less."

In most orchards, less than 20 percent of the crop was damaged during the storms earlier this season, Brian Campbell, Monson's field representative for Montana, told the Inter Lake in June. Very few orchards suffered significant damage, he added.

Those that did were concentrated around Yellow Bay. Despite the damage, growers still hoped that, come harvest time, there might still be cherries to sell. Not all the fruit was damaged; some was perfectly fine.

Unfortunately, the damaged fruit is intermingled with the good, so the packaging and cost of separating the fruit isn't profitable, Nelson said, adding that his perspective must be what is beneficial for the co-op as a whole. As a result, growers won't be shipping from Yellow Bay this year.

But it wasn't just the hail that damaged crops. This year, the market was flooded with cherries by the time Montana growers started harvesting.

"What happened is the market collapsed," Mitchell said.

Typically, Montana has no competition during harvest because its growing season is later than states farther west, Nelson said. This year, however, overlap has crowded the market.

"The market is tight. This is due to the fact that Washington is 10 days late, and we're five days early," he said.

But overlapping growing seasons aren't the only influence on the market. The fruit from Washington was small and mediocre, a turnoff for buyers, Mitchell said. Too much fruit at too low quality translated into no market for Montana growers, when the Monson warehouse at Finley Point stopped accepting Lambert cherries.

"Monson was having trouble selling fruit, so they said, 'We can't afford to take your fruit,'" he said.

Monson, based in Washington, processes fruit from across the Northwest and buys cherries from about three-quarters of the orchards in the Flathead. Although some growers also set up roadside stands and allow customers to pick their own fruit fresh off the trees, most rely heavily on selling their cherries to Monson.

Lois Dupuis is one of the few who got her Lamberts in before Monson stopped taking them. She and her husband, Oliver, have had an orchard on the south end of the lake since the 1960s, and their cherries ripen a little earlier than many orchards farther north.

Their orchard has been fortunate all around, she said.

"We didn't get the rain that came through, nor did we get the hail," she said. "So that's been a blessing."

Even the orchards that did take a beating have some fruit that survived.

"We have hail-damaged fruit in Yellow Bay, but there is still a lot of good fruit," Nelson said.

It simply wasn't profitable to sort and package the fruit, he said, and there was some concern that the recent 100-degree heat has softened the Lamberts.

"Lamberts are still great to buy on roadsides. They still taste great; they still look great," Nelson said. "It's just by the time you pick them, haul them to the plant, sort them, package them and haul them to the retailer, by the time you get to the retailer, there's some concern that they may be soft."

Proffitt, too, is a little concerned about the high temperatures the valley is experiencing.

"I don't think we've ever had a year like this that I can remember where it's been so extremely warm," she said. "It softens them Lamberts. If you don't get them picked right, early in the morning, if you leave them until later in the morning, they get soft."

But there is more to the Flathead harvest than Lambert cherries, Nelson said. There are many other varieties available, all of which still are being picked and shipped.

"There's a ton of good fruit," he said.

In addition to lower profits for cherry growers, having fewer cherries has resulted in fewer migrant workers in the area.

The "backyard growers," those who aren't big commercial growers, might be having a difficult time finding pickers this season, Nelson said. Most bigger orchards, however, tend to hire the same crew year after year. Nelson says he has used the same people for the past 30 years.

"But I have fewer people knocking on my door," he said.

Fewer people isn't a problem for growers such as Mitchell, who aren't going to pick cherries at all.

"We'll just watch them fall, I guess," he said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.