Our cherished Cherry trees in Northern Michigan’s ideal stone fruit environment beautifully blossom in May. Our lovely lake Michigan keeps our climate temperate and consistent during these tender weeks as trees are just starting to produce the fragile flowers that will grow to our most loved fruit.  Kicking off the start of the cherry season!

After a little visit from pollinating friends, the blossom produces a fruit that grows and ripens into a tart or sweet cherry.  This is the most exciting time as the fruit grows by the day!  Patience is a virtue well rewarded!

When the cherries are ripe, farmers mechanically harvest and hydro-chill their crop to maintain freshness. This insures the best quality of fruit and the maximum preservation of freshness!  The hydro-chilled cherries are then transported by truck to our processing facility in Empire, Michigan.

Upon delivery cherries are carefully sorted and inspected.  The fruit is then thoroughly washed to insure that we have the freshest and highest quality ingredients.

We then remove undesirable cherries and debris collected along the way…ensuring that we are working with the best quality cherries. It’s sad to see the ones that don’t make it, but our products demand the best, and that is what we put into them!

At this stage the cherries may be canned, frozen, dried, or juiced, depending on demand.  This flexibility allows us to take our beautiful crop of cherries and produce the lasting products that then enter the food chain to be used as ingredients in dishes around the world!

Once processed, the cherries are then packaged with care and labeled for delivery to the next stage of their lives, the last one before they make it home to your belly.

Some of our products will show up directly on your local retailer’s shelf. Others will make their journey to a food manufacturer for use in the production of their food items. Think cherry pie!