FINLEY POINT — Highway 35 on the east shore of Flathead Lake is home to dozens of cherry orchards, including Pilot Knob Orchard in Yellow Bay.
Pilot Knob co-owner Debra Covington said her family has been selling cherries in front of their home since the 1960’s.
WATCH: Flathead Lake cherry harvest in full swing
“We do them by basket. The small ones are $5, and then the larger baskets are $10, and they're all washed and picked the same day and ready to eat,” said Covington.
Covington said they’ve had people from all over the world stop by to try Montana cherries.
“From Germany, we’ve had Russian, we’ve had Italy, we’ve had Copenhagen, I mean people just come because of Glacier and they will stop and get the cherries,” added Covington.
J.T. Crepps and his family stopped by O’Dell Orchards in Yellow Bay to pick cherries on their way back to Missoula from Glacier National Park.
He said his 4-year-old and 2-year-old daughters had a blast.
“It’s a quintessential Montana experience that we wanted our daughters to experience, especially the U-Pick aspect of it,” said Crepps.
Eighty-six orchards in the region are part of the Flathead Lake Cherry Growers Cooperative on Finley Point, which is operated by Monson Fruit Company and ships cherries all over the country.
Monson Fruit field representative Brian Campbell said this year’s crop is off to a great start with more than 500,000 pounds of cherries already picked.
“Yeah, we’re looking at close to a 2-million-pound crop which will be the best we’ve had in years,” Campbell.
Campbell said the market demand for Montana cherries is high due in part to Washington having a smaller-than-average crop because of freezing spring temperatures.
He expects cherry harvest to remain busy into early August.
“And we’re going to hit our peak in a couple days where we will be shipping seven semi-trucks per day for about four days and then will hit the top of the bell curve and it will start slowing down a little bit,” said Campbell.
