Saturday, June 13, 2009

This week I was in Washington State, U.S.A. and British Columbia, Canada inspecting cherry orchards. In Washington the harvest will begin in a couple of days and wind its way north into B.C. which will start in approx. 11 days till about the middle of August. The Pacific Northwest and B.C. produce some of the world's finest cherries and a large percentage will be exported to Asia and Europe at a premium dollar.

At the beginning of the season quite a few cherry growers will pick their fruit immature because of the high demand and even higher dollar that early fruit always commands. This can often turn off consumers and retailers can lose their clientle by buying poor quality fruit in the race to be the first. I've always been a stickler for good quality. It's best to wait until the 2nd week of the harvest to buy fruit, the quality and price will be much better.

As a grower and exporter of fruit in different parts of the world I get to see and taste some of the best fruit in the world. Lucky me!

I've posted a few photos of the Okanagan Valley and I will add more photos of stonefruit (peaches, nectarines, apricots, & plums) growing in the orchards as the season progresses and also the best varieties to eat and can. These pics are of a latter variety of cherries that will be ready to harvest in about 4 weeks.

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This 48 minute documentary by the National Film Board of Canada documents Quebec students that migrate to British Columbia each summer to pick cherries. Interesting film if you have the time to watch it.


QUEBECERS PICKING CHERRIES IN B.C.

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