The handful of fresh-picked shiny red cherries Patrick Sullivan admired Thursday showed all the qualities he looks for in good fruit.
"Medium to dark mahogany with good size and good condition," said the partner in Sullivan Orchards north of Pasco. "No bird pecks, no scratches."
The sweet red Chelan cherries were some of the first to ripen and come off the orchard's trees at the front end of a harvest that could break a state record.
Harvest is under way for Washington's crop, which is projected at 200,000 tons, according to the Washington Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. That would be 19 percent larger than the previous record of 168,000 tons set in 2006.
Recent sunshine and dry weather is making for good quality as well as quantity, said Andrew Willis, promotions director for the Washington State Fruit Commission.
"The trees are happy," he said. "We've got a nice crop on the trees."
The Tri-Cities is generally one of the first areas to start harvesting cherries, followed by the Yakima Valley, Wenatchee and other areas, he said.
Harvest of Chelan cherries started Monday at Sullivan Orchards, seven to 10 days later than normal, Sullivan said. Workers have been picking about 200 bins per day, each weighing about 320 pounds.
Once the red Bing cherries ripen, pickers will harvest about 600 bins a day, Sullivan said.
The 130 acres of cherry trees also produce yellow and pink Rainier cherries, a variety that was developed at Washington State University in Prosser in the 1960s, according to the school's website.
Farmworkers seem to be plentiful this year, Sullivan added.
Not all the workers he signed up came to work the first day, but Sullivan said he has been able to get the laborers he needs since then.
"It may be only for a few weeks to a month, but we'll have close to 250 people out here," Sullivan said. "That's a lot of groceries, a lot of gas. It's a boost to the economy."
July usually is the peak month for seasonal employment in cherry work, said John Wines, an agriculture economist for the state Employment Security Department.
Last year there were 19,400 seasonal workers picking cherries in July, compared with 27,500 in July 2007, Wines said.
The 2008 crop was hit hard by spring frosts, which decreased the number of workers needed to bring in the cherries, he said.
About 80 workers were out in Sullivan's orchard Thursday morning, deftly pulling the plump, juicy fruit off the leafy green trees.
Once a bin is full, it gets trucked with others to a packing facility where the cherries are cooled with water "to get the field heat out," Sullivan said.
After the packing line, it takes three to four days for the fruit to make it to market, which could be anywhere in the world.
Sullivan said Monday's crop went to Japan. Korea and Taiwan also are good buyers, he added.
Cherries also get shipped all over the U.S.
Because the season is behind this year because of a cool spring, prices aren't yet available for this year's cherry crop, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Marketing Service.
But Sullivan was happy on Thursday. As he walked between rows of trees, he noted visitors wouldn't be able to see most of the work happening because the pickers are hidden among the leafy trees.
But empty branches are a telltale sign.
"What a grower likes to see is empty trees. That means the crop is down the road," he said. "A lot of empty trees. I like it."
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