The Cherry Harvest Has Begun!

Other than picking a few cherries for nibbling here and there, we didn't really start harvesting until June 9. We've had a few friends collect about 3 gallons of cherries off the tree so far, but there's still plenty left to pick. As best I can determine, the variety is probably Montmorency, as the fruit is never huge or dark, but ripens to a moderately deep red. The taste is sour, but still pleasant to eat off the tree, and makes a wonderful cooking cherry. If any of our readers would like to come pick to their heart's delight, just come on over and help yourself. We have ladders available, and if you come while we're  home, we may keep you company while you pick!

This looks promising...

I don't want to count my cherries before they ripen, but our little tree appears to be ready to bear another large crop this year. Like any crop, lots of things can happen before harvest, but our biggest concern now is probably wind or pests. We've seen previous crops survive freezing weather without much damage at this stage, and the closer we get to summer the smaller our chances of another freeze.

We were blessed with a beautiful show of blossoms about a month ago, which was our first indication that we may get a good crop this year. Less than a week after this photo was taken on April 18, however, we had a couple of consecutive nights in which our thermometer recorded temperatures below freezing. The blossoms wilted and disappeared within a few days, but it wasn't obvious to me at the time whether the flowers were frozen before they were pollinated, or whether they faded because they had been pollinated. Within a couple of weeks the fruit was visible thanks to the diligent work of the bees in the neighborhood, and most of it appears to be faring well.

We'll continue to watch the tree, pray for good fruit ripening weather, and will try to report back here when harvest begins.

A bumper crop of cherries

I'm always anxious each year to see how many blossoms appear on the cherry tree, as that's one indicator of the fruit yield for that year.  A lot can happen between the budding of the blossoms and harvest of the fruit, but without blossoms, there's no hope for fruit.

Imagine our pleasure this year to see the tree covered in flowers like this on May 4.  I'd been impressed for a week before this as the blossoms seemed to proliferate daily, until by the beginning of May I started being anxious about freezing temperatures.  We've occasionally had frozen flowers on the tree, which kills them in short order and eliminates any hope of fruit at that bud.  Once the flower is pollinated, and the fruit begins to set, freezing is less damaging although we've seen some yield reduction at that stage in the past also.

I checked the fruit periodically in May and was disappointed that a noticeable number of blossoms did not appear to have been pollinated.  I hadn't noticed any bees around the tree this year as in years past, but I wasn't watching closely either.  Was I seeing evidence of shrinking bee populations?  Evidently the bees did a better job than I expected, as the fruit proliferated over the months of May and June at a rate not a lot slower than the blossoms.

God blessed us with no freezing temperatures from blossom to fruit ripening this year, so our crop was the largest we've seen on this tree.  This is how the tree looked on June 18 after about a gallon of fruit had been harvested already.  Knowing the amount of work involved in picking and pitting that many cherries, and how there were far more than we normally consume, we put the word out to friends to come help themselves and many helped and enjoyed the fruits of the harvest this year.  Since we didn't measure the yield we can only estimate that over eight gallons have been harvested so far.

This image proves it was not difficult to find cherries to pick this year.  I don't have measurements to prove it, but it appears the fruit is a little smaller this year than in the past.  Is that a reflection of the limited rainfall we received while the fruit matured?  Or maybe the tree can only produce so much volume of fruit, so if there are more cherries, they end up smaller?  Someone smarter than me will have to answer those questions.

Ultimately, this is the goal: fruit safely off the tree and ready for processing or immediate consumption.  In the end, we have enough cherries for our satisfaction and at least six other families will benefit as well.

More food crops around the yard

Most of our readers are probably familiar with the unusual weather we've experienced this spring, and some may have first-hand knowledge of its effects on different crops.  I was especially concerned about our cherry tree as it bloomed in March, about a month earlier than normal.  Our temperatures were especially warm through much of March, but the inevitable freezes hit again in April.  Since our cherry crop was reduced at least 95% last year due to freezing, I was anxious our experience would be similar this year.

As you can tell from the photo above, we have a crop!  The blossoms had faded and fruit was beginning to form by the time the freezes hit our yard, so apparently the fruit is more robust to cold temperatures than blossoms are.  The crop appears to be about 70% of the size of a bumper crop, but we're grateful for even a harvest of that size.  We're hopeful the fruit will continue to mature without further damage from weather or pests.

The hops also got off to an early start this year, reaching heights by the middle of April that required almost three months longer last year.  As you can see in this image, the freezes damaged many of those early leaves, and even killed off the central leaders on many of the longer bines.  Because many of those early bines were stunted, I've allowed additional later bines to continue to grow in case the early ones die off.

Amazingly, some of those early bines are already producing cones in May.  We didn't see cones until late July last year, so I'm not sure if this is a consequence of a stunted bine, or an early start.  Regardless, the bines in general are more abundant and vigorous than last year, so it should be interesting to see if that correlates into cone production.

Finally, a stop at the raspberry patch shows some promise of fruit as well.  I haven't watched this fruit develop in the past, so I can't comment on how it's progressing relative to other years, but we are understandably hopeful for a decent harvest.  Thanks for visiting!