Press Release
June 17, 2010

AMHERST, Mass. – If those wonderful summer cherries traveled thousands of miles to reach your table in Boston or Springfield, it’s time to try some local cherries, grown right here in Massachusetts and ripe right now. Jon Clements, extension tree fruit specialist at UMass Amherst, says that local cherries will be perfect from now until early July this year.

Now, don’t expect Massachusetts cherries to be quite the equal in terms of sweetness and size to those West Coast cherries. However, according to Clements, a growing number of Massachusetts orchards are planting and harvesting locally grown cherries.

“The typical Massachusetts grower only has an acre or two of cherries, and grows both sweet (for fresh eating) and tart (for baking or canning) cherries. We don’t grow the ‘Bing’ variety as it is too difficult to grow here. Instead, we grow varieties with such beautiful names as Black Gold, Jubileum and Regina. Often they are a bit smaller and tarter than the Bing, but locally grown fresh and allowed to mature, they are equally delicious.”

“They are arguably the ‘problem child’ of all tree fruit—apples are much easier to grow,” says Clements. “But, if a Northeast fruit grower wants a challenge, and is prepared to tackle the onslaught of birds, rain-induced fruit cracking and canker disease, a locally grown cherry is also the ‘poster child’ for early season locally grown fruit.” Because birds like to eat the cherries as much as we do, growers usually have to cover their cherry orchards with netting to keep the birds out, and some even put plastic tunnels over their orchard to keep the rain off the fruit so it won’t crack before harvested.

At UMass Amherst’s Center for Agriculture and the UMass Cold Spring Orchard Research and Education Center in Belchertown, Extension researchers including Clements have been evaluating dwarfing rootstocks for cherries (a relatively new invention), different sweet and tart cherry varieties, and new planting systems (such as planting trees in a very high-density orchard). “The objective of this research is to help the Massachusetts grower be successful in harvesting and selling a crop of cherries every year with reduced risk from crop loss because of rain cracking and disease as well as making orchards more pedestrian-friendly,” says Clements. “In addition, the intent is to nurture a fledgling number of growers producing locally grown cherries and encouraging more orchards to try growing this technically-difficult tree fruit.”

If you are a connoisseur, now is the time to seek locally grown cherries out this year. You can support Massachusetts orchards by buying local and reduce the environmental impact of shipping fruit from far away. “Maybe your demand for locally grown cherries will encourage more growers to plant them and we can grow the crop together,” Clements added.

Contact: Joe Shoenfeld, 413/545-5309, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Photo of ripe Black Pearl cherries available at: www.umass.edu/newsoffice