I’m getting excited about the upcoming harvest. This time of year is always bubbling with anticipation as we gear up for another harvest — recruiting volunteers, identifying tree owners who have excess fruit, etc. And as part of that I always wonder what kind of crop we’ll get this year. Last year, we had a record amount of plums. What will it be this year?

Things don’t look so good  in Michigan — at least not beyond a good blueberry production. Looks like the apple crop will be down 53% due mainly to early spring warm weather followed by cold. They’re expecting a lower-than-normal cherry crop as well. And even though New Hampshire had similar conditions (including a frost May 10), they anticipate a good apple harvest.

Since we had similar conditions here in Washington, I was wondering if we’re in for a similar trend. Like everything, the answer isn’t quite cut & dry.

From the same article about Michigan, there’s a reference that Washington apple crop should actually grow this year — 140 million bushels estimated, up from 132 last year. But I just read that several WA counties were designated “natural disaster areas” by the USDA because of how the weather impacted the apple & cherry crops. This allows farmers access to emergency loans to help them offset the cost of losses due to the weather. Although, if you read this from Fruitnet.com, it sounds like there’s a strong crop of cherry’s ready to go.

Getting a read on what the Seattle harvest will be like is even more difficult so it may just be a case of wait-and-see. Our pear trees are producing less than they did in 2009 — but they had a huge crop last year, so that’s kind of expected. I guess we won’t fully know until we start harvesting. We should start on the cherries, red plums, and transparent apples in July — so we’ll have a much better sense then.

And just to get you in the mood for the upcoming harvest season, which kicks off pretty much with cherries, here’s a video that tells you the proper way to harvest cherries: