Local sour cherries ‘not that plentiful’ this year

From left, sisters Olivia, Charlotte and Abby Waddle welcome customers to their family’s pick-your-own cherry farm, Cherry Tree Lane Farm in Simcoe. Eleven-year-old Olivia tells shoppers to get high into the trees in search of the sweetest fruit. “They’re always better at the top, because they get more sun,” she said.

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

There are so few sour cherries in the orchards of Norfolk County that one of Ontario’s largest growers says it’s not worth picking a crop this year.

“We’re not going to harvest anything. We’re not going to process anything,” said Ryan Schuyler, production manager at the Norfolk Cherry Company, a division of Schuyler Farms.

“The blooms didn’t really come this year,” he said. “There won’t be enough (fruit) to even bother doing anything.”

Last summer, eight million pounds of Ontario-grown cherries moved through the packing and storage facility in Simcoe. This year, not a single cherry will be pitted, and the 120 migrant workers who normally keep the plant running will be deployed to other farms or have their arrival to Canada delayed until the fall apple harvest.

After surveying the spotty fields, the company decided to save the expense and effort of opening the processing plant, which will sit idle like it did when a spring frost froze out the cherry crop in 2012.

“This is part of the deal if you want to grow sour cherries. It’s very up and down,” Schuyler said of the “cyclical” crop.

He suspects a “frost event” in late April, followed by other cool nights in May, zapped the blossoms.

“That’s likely what did it,” he said.

Farmer Rob Waddle from Cherry Tree Lane Farm has another theory.

“I blame it on this past winter,” said Waddle, who grows four acres of sweet cherries on his Simcoe farm.

Temperatures that dipped to -30 C likely froze the seeds inside the flowers on the cherry trees, Waddle explained.

“(The cold) burns it, then it’s dead for this year,” he said.

Waddle said his orchard produced 30 to 40 per cent less fruit than usual.

“We’re way down,” he said. “They’re just not that plentiful this year.”

Many of the cherries on his trees have split bottoms, which Waddle said is weather-related.

“When they get cold rain on a tight skin, that’s when they split,” he said.

Split cherries are safe to eat and can be ideal for juicing into smoothies, but they do not last as long as whole cherries, he explained.

Cold cuts into strawberry, blueberry yields

Sour cherries are not the only fruit in Norfolk to record a light harvest this year.

The combination of a bitterly cold winter and frosty spring also did a number on local strawberry yields and left some blueberry patches unable to produce a crop.

“Strawberries were hit hard. I’ve heard apples are down too,” Waddle said.

Customers who turned up to pick cherries at Cherry Tree Lane Farm had to work harder than last year to fill their baskets.

“It’s not the easy picking that it normally is,” Waddle said. “You have to wander around a bit more.”

Waddle halted pick-your-own sales for the season on Tuesday (June 30), saying he is worried about customers’ safety up on the high ladders as they search for the few remaining cherries in the sparse trees.

Some farm markets in Norfolk have a limited supply of locally grown sweet cherries still available, but sour cherries - popular in jams, pies, tarts and other baked goods - are “pretty much wiped out in this area,” Waddle said.

According to the 2021 Census of Agriculture, Ontario is tops in Canada with 1,383 acres of sour cherries out of 1,916 total acres nationwide.

Schuyler Farms is the largest sour cherry grower in Ontario, with approximately 700 acres accounting for more than half the acreage in the province.

With this year’s harvest cancelled, Schuyler said the few berries that made it past the frost will end up eaten by birds.

The Norfolk Cherry Company still has frozen inventory left over from last year to sell to customers who bake on an industrial scale and purchase cherries at “significant volumes,” he said.

And while he said “there’s no quality difference” between frozen and fresh cherries even after a year or two in cold storage, Schuyler admitted some home bakers who prize fresh fruit may be disappointed.

He has his fingers crossed next year will be a bumper crop to replenish the company’s inventory and take advantage of what will likely be higher prices due to the dearth of fresh fruit available this year.

“That’s what we’re hoping for,” he said.

Sour cherries in Canada

Total acreage in Canada: 1,916

Total acreage in Ontario: 1,383

Top grower in Ontario: Schuyler Farms in Simcoe (approximately 700 acres)

Used in: Jam, compote, baked goods, liquors, juices, glazes, salad dressing

Also known as: Red tart cherries

Sources: 2021 Census of Agriculture, Norfolk Cherry Company

J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.