GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- The National Cherry Festival is now just days away.
While late frosts and chaotic weather have made the past two years harder than many farmers would like and while they don’t want to jinx it, it sounds like this year’s crop may even be ahead of schedule.
“It’s night and day, right? Night and daylast year was really tough due to the frost,” said Randy Lord, owner of Empire Cherry Orchard.
“So again, a little sensitive talking about the weather because it can come and bite ya so but you know it’s a great year for all fruit, all vegetables, all farming is off to a great season,” Lord said.
Lord has a good feeling about the season in Leelanau County.
And farmers across northern Michigan seem to agree. This year's crop may not be a bumper, but it’s better than the past two years by a mile.
“We’re just coming off a double-crop failure in tart cherries and a single crop failure in sweet cherries. Right here, we’re looking at sweet cherries,” said Jack King, manager at King Orchards.
“We’re very excited about the crop, there's a lot of fruit on the trees, it's ripening up very nicely and there’s going to be a lot out here for people to come out and pick,” King said.
Right now, King and Lord say the only thing their crops could use would be a little rain.
“So, we could definitely use some rain,” said Nikki Rothwell, a fruit specialist with MSU extension.
“But the thing is we don’t want rain too close to sweet cherry harvest, because then we can get cracks in the fruit,” Rothwell said. “So probably our sweet cherry guys would say probably no they don’t need rain right now, but it would help size up the fruit.”
So will we see local cherries at this year’s Cherry Festival
“It's going to kind of depend on what we think is local, so if we want Northern Michigan cherries, yes we’re going to have them for the festival,” Rothwell said.