Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 7.20.16

COVER
CHERRIES
AMONG PICKERS, GROWERS AND consumers alike, Flathead’s iconic cherries have a reputation stretching far and wide.
Dating back to the rst orchard planted in 1893 in the favorable micro- climate along the east side of Flathead Lake, the sweet cherry harvest has been a beloved tradition. Flathead’s cherries — large, juicy and ruby-red — have a unique identity made from an ideal recipe — gla- cial waters, clean soil and the temperate, sunny climate along the largest natural freshwater lake in the West.
Over 120 growers boast orchards along Flathead Lake, and the area has produced as much as 7 million pounds of cherries in a season.
A good year will hit 3 million, but it all depends on Mother Nature. The season typically starts in late July and ends in early August. But so many factors come into play that can help or hurt growers and pickers.
An extreme example occurred in the late 1980s when a severe frost swept the region in winter, killing groves and forc- ing growers to replant their orchards. It took several years before Flathead cher- ries made a comeback and produced even somewhat of a normal crop.
Last year’s dry, hot summer led to a brutal crop that o ered only a few days of work for pickers and created a nan- cially painful harvest for growers.
This summer’s season started a few weeks early — around July 9 — because of spring’s abundant sunshine and favor- able weather, but the rainstorms that swept the valley in the last week didn’t help the cherries, which can split easily with precipitation.
Yet the rst week of the season went o with a fairly good harvest, according to many growers.
Many of these Flathead cherries stay local and are sold at stands along the highway or in towns across the state, although quite a few growers ship their harvests north to Canada or west to Washington, where they are loaded onto
planes or trains destined for supermar- kets across the U.S., Europe, Asia and beyond. For the last 16 years, the Flat- head Lake Cherry Growers Association, encompassing roughly 70 producers, has shipped about 80 percent of the sea- sonal crop to Selah, Washington, where the cherries are packed and sold through Domex Superfresh Growers, which sup- plies fruits to stores across the West.
The cherries are so prized that a new juicing facility is being established at Finley Point that could use upwards of 600,000 pounds of cherries that are typ- ically picked but thrown away for minor Ddefects, such as splitting.
URING THIS BRIEF WINDOW OF
a season, skilled pickers are in
high demand. Many orchards have established working relationships with migrant families from across the Paci c Northwest. These workers travel the West Coast for the various fruit and vegetable seasons before coming to Mon- tana for the region’s nal cherry season of the year.
The in ux of temporary workers is so signi cant that 35 years ago Mon- tana Rural Employment Opportunities, a statewide nonpro t that helps under- employed and unemployed farm work- ers, established a site at Finley Point with food, medical and education ser- vices during the roughly two-week sea- son. The program began by o ering food and gas vouchers to the migrant workers in need, and it has grown to now include a full o ering of training programs, food and health services.
Sta ed largely by volunteers, the REO program annually orders roughly 30,000 pounds of food to be given to the workers in organized packages when they arrive.
Will Bodle, the manager of REO’s Flat- head Lake services, said the goal is to help the families settle into a new place before they start receiving payment for their work. In a typical summer, the pro- gram will serve roughly 200 individu- als and 350 families, with most families
“IT’S REWARDING TO SEE THEM ALL AND TO SEE ALL THE KIDS GROW UP. THEY COME AND ENJOY WHAT THEY DO.”
- JESSE BONILLA
consisting of four people.
“Until you’ve actually sat across the
table from these people, these are some of the people who have the least,” Bodle said. “They are extremely hard working. For the most part, they are fairly poor but they are some of the most giving people I’ve ever met in my life.”
A migrant worker is de ned by the fed- eral government as someone who leaves home for 24 hours for his or her job. Any migrant worker who receives food or other services through REO must ll out an application, which requires them to be a legal U.S. citizen or have a proper work- ing visa or green card.
Most of the migrant workers who arrive to pick cherries are Hispanic. They often come from families that travel a network of states where fruit harvests can stretch throughout the year.
Gomez, who arrived here with his two young children last week, began work- ing as a commercial picker when he was a teenager, following the work of his father and mother and other extended family.
“Most of my family start down in Cal- ifornia and they work their way up here,” he said. “We travel a lot. But I think it’s pretty cool.”
Migrant workers are paid in a variety of ways. Some are paid by the hour, ranging roughly $9.60 to $11 an hour, according to
REO sta . Some orchards pay their work- ers by the bin — roughly $40 a bin — and a good picker can ll 10 to 15 bins a day. The average worker picks from daylight until 1 p.m. or when the temperature hits 80 degrees.
“If the cherries are good, they can make good money,” said Jesse Bonilla, who has worked with REO along Flathead Lake since 1992. “If the cherries aren’t good, they don’t make good money.”
Bonilla said he has seen generations of families come to pick cherries in the Flathead.
“One of the rst families I met when they were young in the early 90s, the kids are now all grown up and still coming. It’s rewarding to see them all and to see all the kids grow up. They come and enjoy what they do,” Bonilla said.
Many of the workers sleep in tents in the cherry groves where they work. Some stay in trailers or campers.
While the adults are working, children are enrolled in the Flathead Lake Migrant Education Program, the largest migrant education summer program in the state. The site-based program at Polson Middle School provides an educational experi- ence that helps children make up for lost classes and other learning shortfalls that result from repeated moves. It also pro- vides a safe place for children while their parents are working.
John Johnson has worked with the Migrant Education Program since 1994 and has enjoyed seeing the annual arrival of families from across the region.
“It’s hard work,” Johnson said. “Sometimes there is an idea to look down at people in farm work, but we wouldn’t be eating if we didn’t have good farm workers. We should all appreci- ate them. We need to appreciate people who work hard.”
For more information about Montana REO or to volunteer, visit http://reomon- tana.org or call Bodle at 406-274-4172 or email [email protected].
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JULY 20, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
LEFT Cherry harvest at Bigfork Orchards.
BELOW Daniel Dircio picks up food for his family at REO in Finley Point.
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com