"First day cars are lined up all the way from the road (West Ridge Road) to the subdivision (near Ethel Drive)," Pangratz said. Pangratz has found customers eager to buy the cherries his orchard has produced. Spotting wing fruit fly: New fruit fly threatens Minnesota berries "As long as you don’t find any of those you're good, so hopefully we can get through the season before they come around." "You can also check your cherries by putting your finger where you’d pick it and squeeze it and see if there’s juice coming out. "Nobody likes spraying but nobody likes biting into a cherry and have half a worm there," he said. Both insects are known to lay eggs in fruits, even when they're ripe, so Pangratz makes sure to spray his cherries with insecticides to hopefully prevent the problem. One thing Pangratz has learned over the years has been to watch out for fruit moths and most recently, the spotted-wing fruit fly. It’s little things you learn over the years." There’s no magic thing to do, it’s just experience. "This year, we had a lot of sweet cherries but we had a light sour cherry crop.
"Last year we had no sweet cherries at all because it’s mostly weather-related and depends on the blossoming time," he said.
'A tricky crop'ĭuring cherry season, which usually runs from the end of June to the first couple of weeks in July, Pangratz checks his four acres of sweet and sour cherries daily. "When I was young, my dad would get real upset if he got one bad year in 10, now I’m really happy if we get one or two really good years in 10," he said. His cherry crop tends to be a wild card - producing some years but not others -but said he had a better-than-average harvest this year. Both kinds will be available in the Northwest from now until late August, so make sure to stop by one of our markets to try them out! Don’t be afraid to stock up, either, as cherries can be stored long-term if you dry, can, or freeze them.On Pangratz Fruit Farm, 5210 Daggett Road in Girard, Pangratz grows various produce, from plums and peaches to cabbage and butternut squash. Sweet cherries are best for eating raw-they make a wonderfully refreshing snack during these hot summer days! In comparison, tart cherries are best eaten cooked with sugar to take the edge off of their tartness, such as in pies, cobblers, jams, or jellies. In fact, the Bing cherry is so well-known and favored, that other varieties of sweet cherry are often described by comparing their qualities to those of the Bing cherry.Ĭherries come in two categories: sweet and tart. Unfortunately, not much is known about Bing, but his name lives on over 140 years later in the world-class cherry he helped to create. Bing cherries were first created in 1875 in nearby Milwaukie by Oregon pioneer and abolitionist Seth Lewelling and his Manchurian foreman, Ah Bing, for whom the Bing cherry is named. One of the most popular cherries in the country is the Bing cherry. That means plenty of cherries for everyone at the markets! If you love cherries as much as we do, you’ll be excited to know it’s cherry season! Oregon is the third largest sweet cherry producer in the United States, behind Washington and California.
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