A look at the 2024 fruit harvest in Southwest Michigan

 

BERRIEN SPRINGS, Mich.-- April weather hit cherry growers hard in Michigan, so much so that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is seeking emergency federal aid to help out those farmers.

Whitmer wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, which states, "Michigan is experiencing a natural disaster for sweet cherry production."

Her letter blamed rains, winds, bugs, and disease that caused Michigan counties, including Berrien and Van Buren, to lose 30 to 75 percent of their sweet cherry crop.

Kenny Stover is a fifth-generation owner of Stover's Farm Market. He said their sweet cherry crop was at about 50 percent this year, which he said is pretty decent.

"Cherries were early on this year. We actually started our sweet cherry season June 5th this year, which is almost two full weeks ahead of when we would normally start," Stover said.

But the crop hit hardest in Southwest Michigan this year is peaches.

Stover showed ABC57's Annie Kate rows of "empty" peach trees.

"We had a cold snap back in January, where we were averaging 36 degrees, and 10 hours later, we were at 6 below," Stover explained.

"I'm not saying it's becoming more common," Stover said. "It's just some of these cold patterns, the way they're moving around the country, normally they come from the Dakotas, from Canada, and so we have plenty of Lake Michigan to insulate us and buffer us from hitting these critical temperatures. but the last couple times that we've had these critical temperatures, these massive cold air fronts have come out of Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas and move towards the northeast. And there's just not enough lake south of us."

Stover's is not alone, Jollay Orchards in Coloma posted the following on their website: "Due to cold spring temperatures, our peach crop was severely damaged. Unfortunately, this means that we will not have u-pick peaches this year."

"I don't think anyone within a 140-mile radius from here has enough peaches that they could open their doors to let people come out and pick," Stover said.

But the good news is its nearly apple season, and Stover said they'll be swimming in apples this year.

"It needs to be a good-- I mean, we have the apples, just now we need the right weather through apple season," Stover said. "Which means not a lot of rainy weekends, nice sunshiny days so people want to come out and pick."