Cherries

Harvest was the worst ever. Not because there were no cherries or that the cherries were damaged by rain or hail. Because everyone had the best harvest ever. So by the time we began picking cherries, the packing houses were full and we had no where to send them. There was one estimate that 100 tons of cherries are falling off the trees right now. Just in our orchard. And there are dozens of other ranchers in the same situation. There was no where to sell them so there was no money to pick them so there will be no income from harvest this year. Instead of a 10 to 14 day harvest, ours lasted 4 days before the packing house closed us down. Will we even make enough to cover the expenses incurred for the picking we did? For the upkeep of the orchard? To cover the expenses of caring for the trees until next harvest, which we hope will be a great (financially speaking) year. We don't know yet.

It is blasted hot here, over 100 for the last week and predicted for the next week. Right now we really are in rancher's hell. More fruit than we've ever had. No way to get it off the trees and to the consumers.

Dad says: "Next year. Maybe next year."

I didn't come here to...

When I came here to earth, I’m sure I was one of those spirits who thought she was going to be amazing and be able to meet and greet all challenges with grace and integrity and be 100% honest and honorable. But it seems I’m much more fallible, fragile, and foolish than I thought I would be before I left heaven. And it’s so hard sometimes. There is such a difference between studying and observing something and living it. The Theory versus Reality thing.

I’m not whining. I’m just trying to figure out this whole spiritual being/ human being paradox.

One thing I know for sure:

Two days and counting

Harvest officially begins for us on Thursday. But it may be over by Saturday. There are so many cherries, the price is down. If the price for the fruit is so low that it costs more to pick and pack then we earn in income, we obviously can't afford to continue with harvest. What does that mean? I guess it means the fruit will hang on the trees until it falls to the ground and we'll try again next summer.

bad day to irritate the grandma

Counting down

Cherries are getting riper. Next week we'll start picking. The crop is HUGE. Unfortunately, everyone's crop is huge and the packing houses don't have room for it all. Some orchards are leaving part of their crops hanging on the trees--there's no room for them at the packing houses. They have so much fruit, they are only accepting really big, really fat cherries. The smaller cherries will go for freezers or brine. Last year, the crop was damaged by hail. This year, the price is damaged by abundance.

Farmers are the biggest gamblers on the planet.