We bought our house in West Richland in 1998, and quickly learned that the previous owner was a real green thumb. She planted all kinds of plants and bushes (some quite exotic) around the property, plus several fruit trees — an apple tree and an apricot tree on the side of the house, and two cherry trees in the front yard, one on each side of the driveway.
Every summer, we invite our West Richland neighbors to come pick as many cherries as they want from our trees. But our weather has been very strange this spring: colder than usual, and a couple very late freezes overnight. There have been a bunch of news stories about the weather and its impact on cherries in Washington, like this one from the AP:
Fresh cherry pie on the Fourth of July? Maybe not on the East Coast this year, and consumers can blame freezing spring temperatures in the Northwest.
An April cold snap damaged pockets of the five-state cherry-growing region, and farmers are estimating their crop will be down 15 percent to 20 percent this year. Even more significant: The harvest will fall later in the season, which could make it more difficult for East Coast supermarkets to get a full supply in time for the midsummer holiday.
On the bright side, the article goes on to say that this situation usually leads to bigger cherries. We’ll take that, and I’m sure our fellow West Richlanders will be happy, too. I took the photo above last night and our trees look fine. Not a lot of damage from the weather, at least as far as I can tell. They do look a little small right now, but that could be because they’re behind schedule. We usually start picking around the 2nd week of June, but these won’t be ready for another month at least. Such is life in West Richland when you’re an amateur cherry grower dealing with cold spring weather!
