Pennsylvania Tart, Sweet Cherry Crop Will Be Light This Year

Cherry growers in York County, Pennsylvania, are suffering the sting of a light crop this year according to a news report in the York Daily Record.

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Stanley Brown of Brown’s Orchard and Farm Market in Loganville, PA, tells the newspaper a few cold nights in April — when the temperature dipped to 24°F — are to blame.

“The trees weren’t in blossom yet, the buds were just swelling, the temperatures dropped to the low 20s, and local cherries were pretty much wiped out,” Brown says in the article.

Jane Raab Lehman of Raab Fruit Farm in Dallastown, PA, tells the newspaper that the tart cherry crop fared even worse.

“This is the first time in a long time that I can remember not having a sour cherry crop. They are almost non-existent,” she says in the article.

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Other orchards report a reduced crop, but not a total loss.

“We’ll have more sweet than sour cherries, but not too many of either, certainly not a complete crop,” Nancy Blevins of Blevins Fruit Farm in Hopewell Township told the newspaper.

By the end of this week Julie Flinchbaugh of Flinchbaugh’s Orchard in Hellam Township expects that the orchard’s cherry crop will be over.

“We barely have any cherries, no sour cherries and a very, very few sweet cherries. We should have some the middle of next week or the weekend and that will be about it,” she said in the article.

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