The Cherryville Chant - thud, thud, thud
By Tom Peterson
As you walk under the dark green leaves and red and yellow bulbous fruit this morning, you can hear the thud.
The incessant thud hitting the bottom of plastic bins like a thumb on a coffee can. Ladders, three-legged, move about in rapid succession, and hands walk through leaves like spiders.
Cherry Season is on.
Harvest is ramping up and is expected to hit a fevered pitch by week’s end if temperatures climb as predicted.
Ramiro Ortiz and Jay Wilson wash and stack cherries at the Monson Fruit Company transfer station at Steel and Three Mile Roads this morning, June 16.
There are some 10,000 acres of fruit trees to be picked in Wasco County.
Millions hang in the balance both in dollars and cherries as the race to harvest and get them to market is in full gear.
You could feel the sense of urgency this morning as Lourdes Baeza made fast work of some Rainier Cherries at Orchard View Farms on Three Mile Road. The orchard is just south of the International Order of Odd Fellows cemetery.
She flew through branches with both hands, filling the bin hanging around her neck.
Fruit farm operators and warehouse folks are saying more cherry pickers are expected to arrive this week as a late harvest in California has staggered their entrance. Help wanted signs hang at orchard office headquarters as you drive southeast of town.
Some 4,000 laborers that will swell our area are just part of the 174,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers and related family members that support Oregon’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry, according to Oregon.gov.
Sweet Treat - Black Pearls ripe and red
Just north, forklift drivers Jay Wilson and Ramiro Ortiz shuffled bins of Black Pearl and Chelan cherries at Monson Fruit Company’s transfer station at Three Mile and Steel roads.
The facility was built this spring and offers the company a hub for shipping cherries to their plant at Selah, Washington, about 100 miles away.
On average, growers reported receiving between 58 cents and 60 cents a pound during the harvest last year.
Retail prices for cherries in California started relatively high this year at $4.34 a pound, according to a story in producebluebook.com. Read it here.
Cherry Prices, however, are fickle, dependent on quality, size and availability, so it is too early to know what local cherries will bring in domestic and international markets.
Major buyers include South Korea, Japan, Canada and China.
