While the size of Door County's cherry harvest was significantly impacted this year due to unfavorable spring weather conditions, local cherry growers were still predicting a harvest of more than 700,000 pounds of cherries according to Terry Sorenson, President of the Wisconsin Cherry Growers, Inc.  That's more than enough to supply the retail outlets in Door County that sell fresh cherries in the summer, along with other cherry products year round.

"The perception with many of our visitors has been that we don't have any cherries this summer," said Jack Moneypenny, President of the Door County Visitor Bureau. "That's just not true, and we've been telling visitors since late June that there are fresh cherries available for sale at a variety of retail outlets throughout Door County."

Cherry growers have been harvesting this year's crop both mechanically and by hand since early July.  Supplies of fresh cherries should be available in Door County at local roadside markets and orchards through this weekend, with fresh late season cherry varieties remaining available for possibly another 2 to 3 weeks according to at least one grower in the county.

Fortunately for cherry lovers, even when this season's last fresh cherry has been picked there will still be many different cherry products available for sale in Door County as local markets have diversified their inventory to offer things such as cherry salsa, cherry jam, cherry pie filling and dried cherries throughout the year.
(Story and photo credit, Door County Visitor Bureau)