Utah is the second-largest producer of tart cherries in the country, so the state would normally see a lot of trees popping red right now. And this is harvest time. In a typical year, fruit would rain down as machine shakers jiggle those trees.
But this is not a normal year — not by a long shot.
A spring freeze decimated the entire tart cherry crop. It started with the state’s warm winter, said Utah County farmer Kenyon Farley, when trees thought it was time to wake up and blossom over a month early.
“I think the tree is probably as confused as I am,” Farley said.
He has grown the Montmorency tart cherry since about 1983. Farley’s orchards in Payson were blooming white, but then the spring frost killed them. Total wipeout.
Farley was raised on a fruit farm in Orem, and he said he’s never seen weather like Utah had this winter and doesn’t know if this is the beginning of things to come. His orchard hasn’t had a really good crop of tart cherries since 2012, and since then, there’s been less water. He’s so worried. He has a hard time sleeping at night.
“How am I going to pay back what I borrowed to grow the crop this year?” he wondered.
Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency over the freeze, so the state is offering help with low-interest loans. But money still has to come from somewhere. One option is to borrow more and hope for a better crop next year. Another is to sell land to make the bank happy, something he had to do last year. He called these difficult choices “the plight of a farmer.”
To him, selling farmland for development is not just a loss of local fruit or his beloved nature space.
“People, I've noticed, they come down here, they ride their bikes, they jog, they walk, take wedding pictures,” he said. “People like open space, and it's a loss for everyone, not just fruit farmers themselves.”
The future of a co-op he’s part of is also up in the air.
Payson Fruit Growers is made up of 12 tart cherry family farms mostly within 10-15 miles of their processing plant in Payson. Chad Rowley said they’ve been drying cherries for 30 years, and he’s been there for 20. The former general manager and now board advisor believes they were some of the first people, if not the first company, to dry cherries in the United States. They’ve also started making tart cherry juice in the last few years.
Cherries are the Utah state fruit. In addition to juicing and drying, tart cherries are good for baking, canning, freezing and making jams and preserves. Studies suggest the fruit has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective health benefits.
Rowley greeted every worker he passed in the Payson processing plant with a genuine smile and friendly greeting. Normally the co-op employs around 500 temporary part-time and full-time workers during harvest season, but this year it’s only about 60. They have 100 workers year-round, but had to lay people off with the bad crop.
In an average year, Utah produces 20 to 40 million pounds of tart cherries. Once the fruit is pitted on the production line, it goes into a giant freezer set between -5 and -10 degrees.
“The racks are empty,” Rowley said as he pointed to several huge rows of shelves. “Usually by now they would be almost full or nearly completely full with our crops.”
Rowley’s glasses clouded over, and a billowing fog followed him as he left the freezer. They cleared up on the way to the cherry driers, where there was a wave of delicious aroma — an instant teleportation to your best memories of warm cherry pie.
The smell, however, came from last year’s crop.
With no Utah cherries this year, Rowley is worried about losing customers. So he’s trying to buy from other places. It’s tough because other states lost a lot of cherries, too, which could trickle down to affect grocery store shelves. Michigan is by far the top U.S. producer, and the bulk of their crop froze out, Rowley said.
Payson Fruit Growers was able to get a small amount from Washington State and might have to turn to Europe next. But that might not land with consumers, because the European tart cherry looks and tastes different.
They’ll be lucky if they have 10-15% of what they normally process, Rowley said.
He’s not giving up hope, even as Utah keeps breaking temperature records and the weather gets less predictable.
“You can worry yourself to death, but you got to have faith that it’s all going to work out,” he said. “I don't know how yet, but it's all going to work out.”
But if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, Rowley said they might have to figure out a way to grow something else.
