Looking out over the orchards to a nice sunset on Mt. Hood.
Pierce Martin / Flickr
This weekend, Hood River County will host its annual Cherry Celebration Weekend. That's great news for cherry lovers, but if you were hoping to hit the U-Pick, don't get too excited; Farmers warn that the guest of honor will be notably absent from local boughs.
Cherry trees throughout the region bore fruit nearly a month ahead of schedule this season, and most have already been picked and packed.
Craig Mallon, quality control manager at Duckwall Fruit Company, says that the crop has been lighter than average.
"What that means for growers is that there is just not enough time to market all the cherries," Mallon said.
"Even though it was a fairly small crop, total volume wise, it meant that all those cherries had to be harvested and marketed in a similar time period... prices were depressed because of it."
Jean Godfrey, executive director of Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers says that with the fruit blooming all at once, fieldworkers are needed in multiple crop areas at once.
"We just don't have enough people in the valley," Godfrey said. "It potentially means that some cherries don't get off the trees."
Cherries are not the only fruit blooming early. The Hood River Valley is a hotspot for apples and peaches, and it supplies more than half of the nation's winter pears. This year, crops across the valley are coming to fruition weeks earlier than usual.
"It's just been one of those years that a lot of things have happened and you hope it's not a trend," Godfrey said.
"But you have to be prepared in case it is."