PowerPoint Presentation Michigan Cherry

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Michigan Cherries
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Michigan Cherry History

• Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian missionary, is
  credited with planting the first cherry orchard
  and founding the cherry industry as a commercial
  enterprise in the Midwest.
• Against the advice of local Indians who had grown
  other fruits in the area, Dougherty planted a
  cherry orchard in 1852 on the Old Mission
  Peninsula, a narrow strip of land that juts into
  Grand Traverse Bay near Traverse City, Michigan.
• Today issues are about farm preservation against
  sprawl

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Cherry Growing conditions
Which crops like which soils? Clay-wheat,
timothy, bluegrass Silt loam-corn, apple Loam-red
clover, alfalfa, field beans Sandy soils-potato,
field peas, turnip, barley, rye, peach,
cherry Calcareous- white clover Muck soils-
celery, cabbage, lettuce, onions

• Winter hardiness similar to apples
• Trees flower early in spring and highly
  susceptible to spring frost damage
• Cherry type soils
• Sweet
• Eastern U.S. - Sandy soil, hilly terrain for
  frost protection, preferred growing on east side
  of large body of water.
• Western U.S. - Rich, volcanic soil, hot days,
  cold nights, preferred growing in shadow of
  mountain ranges.
• Tart
• Sandy soil, hilly terrain for frost protection,
• preferred growing on east side of large body of
  water.

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Kinds of Cherries Michigan's cherries are
predominantly the tart varieties.

• Two kinds of cherries
• Sweet (larger and often darker, as Bing)
• eaten raw by the handful
• grown mostly in California and the Pacific
  Northwest
• tart "sour," cherries, (the smaller Montmorency
  and Morello),
• canned, frozen, juiced and made into jams,
  jellies and pastry and pie fillings.

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Sweet CherriesPrunus avium

• Most of Michigan's sweet cherries are turned into
  maraschino cherries. Maraschino, by the way,
  comes from the Italian word for a pungent liqueur
  - distilled in Croatia and Italy from a bitter
  Dalmationa wild cherry called the "marasca" - in
  which cultivated cherries were once steeped until
  appropriately fortified. Today, commercial
  maraschinos owe their fiery glow to food
  coloring.

• The majority of Michigan's sweet cherry crop is
  processed. The main product made with sweets is
  maraschino cherries.

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Sweet cherry crop 2002

• The Pacific states are the primary producers of
  sweet cherries but Michigan still ranks in the
  top four, producing about 20 percent of the
  annual crop.

• Sweet cherries are failing, with the state
  projected to produce 4 million pounds vs. an
  average of 50 million pounds.
• Sweet cherries were hard hit by April's Arctic
  winds, May freezes and later heat during
  pollination, which denuded fruit statewide.

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Tartsour cherry pie cherry tart cherry red
cherry

• Sour cherries don't transport well, so they're
  difficult to find fresh. They generally are
  canned or frozen shortly after harvesting. Canned
  sour cherries, though, are almost as good.

• The main variety of tart cherries is called the
  Montmorency. It has been in the U.S. for more
  than a century because it is best for pies,
  preserves, jellies, juice and other products.

Prunus cerasus
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• Average tree has 7,000 tart cherries
• About twenty-eight pies worth

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Tart acreage
Northwest Michigan - the nation's No. 1 tart
cherry region

• There are 36,000 acres of tart cherry trees in
  Michigan about 55,000 acres nationwide
• The Grand Traverse Region produces over 50
  percent of Michigan's annual tart cherry crop, or
  about 100 to 120 million pounds.

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June 2002"At this point in the season, you'd
expect to see a red hue to the orchard, and all
you see is green."

• The region's 320-some tart cherry farms are
  facing the worst year in the industry's recorded
  history.

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2002 Crop

• Michigan expects to harvest a tart cherry crop of
  less than 15 million pounds, down 95 percent from
  last year. Spring frosts with prolonged
  temperatures below freezing greatly damaged the
  crop.

• That compares to 183 million pounds last year.
• This year's is the smallest cherry crop since the
  Michigan Department of Agriculture began keeping
  records in 1925.

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Economic impact

• Some 120 million pounds of stored cherries, many
  from last year's overabundant crop, will be
  released to the market, providing some income to
  growers and processors.
• Last year, growers were paid about 20 cents per
  pound. They pay processors about 9 cents per
  pound annually for surplus storage.

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Economic impact

• Farmers still must pay this year for orchard
  upkeep.
• The average 100-acre farm pays about 30,000 per
  year for pesticides and fertilizers, 7,500 to
  replant old growth, and carries about 150,000 in
  farm equipment debt.

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Economic Impact30 million loss

• Labor crews aren't going to be hired. They're not
  going to be buying equipment. They're not going
  to be buying supplies. All the labor that's used
  to harvest crops, they're not going to buy
  groceries.

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• The nation annually consumes about 200 million
  pounds of tart cherries.

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• Utah, the nation's second leading tart cherry
  producer, also is facing crop failure.

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• Climate is very important which is why Michigan
  orchards are located primarily along the Lake
  Michigan shoreline. Lake Michigan tempers the
  Arctic winds in winter and cools the orchards in
  summer.

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Climate

• Bodies of water such as lakes are quite helpful
  in modifying temperatures and reducing crop
  damage, especially when located on the north and
  northwest sides of orchards.

• The Great Lakes are well known for their
  beneficial effects on protecting fruits grown
  along the southwest coastal area of Michigan.

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Processing

• Both tart cherries and sweet cherries ripen in
  July, and peak harvest time is usually the third
  week of July. Most tart cherries are
  mechanically harvested, using a shaker to drop
  the fruit onto canvasses where they are placed in
  tanks of water.

• Sweet cherries that are to be marketed fresh are
  picked by hand.

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Medical claims

• Michigan State University has found cherries to
  be an excellent source of compounds with
  antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
• They have been shown to help prevent
• cancer cardiovascular disease
• Alleged to reduce the pain associated with
  arthritis and gout
• antioxidants may slow the aging process.

• Tart cherries also contain natural
  anti-inflammatory compounds, which laboratory
  tests indicate are at least ten times more active
  than aspirin. Further, tart cherry components are
  suspected to have the ability to inhibit the
  enzymes that ultimately cause joint pain.

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Cherry festival

• Cherry season is celebrated in Michigan with the
  well-known Traverse City Cherry Festival, held
  every July and attended by some 500,000 visitors
  over eight days.

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Michigan applesthe 1 fruitWinter hardy to
-40F.

• Michigan produced about 1.4 billion pounds of
  fruit in 2000 including apples, tart cherries,
  sweet cherries, peaches, blueberries, grapes,
  strawberries, pears and plums.
• More than 60 percent of that amount was apples,
  which totaled 850 million pounds.
• Apple volume alone equals more than the volume of
  all the other fruits combined.