Rainier cherries cling to the branch in the Ray French Orchard in Richland, Washington, on Monday. (Credit: Anna King / Northwest News Network) Listen (Runtime 3:26) Read The French family […]Read More
Jim Willard shows “bud break” on an old block of concord grapes eight miles north of Prosser, Washington. The baby leaves and buds start pushing out to become grown vines […]Read More
Serafin Rodriguez Cortes of Kennewick, picks cherries in a greenhouse at night outside the Tri-Cities.(Credit: Anna King / NW News Network) Listen (Runtime 3:45) Read The cherries you’ll find at […]Read More
Celestino Mendoza, 68, of Kennewick, says it’s been a lot of work to harvest a giant push of asparagus with the record-warm spring weather across much of the Northwest. [Photo: […]Read More
Rainier cherries in the Northwest bloomed after the snow, so the crop should be stronger. (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Fruit Commission) Listen Snow fell throughout the Northwest in […]Read More
From The Dalles, Oregon to Brewster, Washington, Northwest cherry growers are checking their orchards now, just before harvest. Infected trees have to be cut down. And the disease can spread like wildfire from tree to tree until an entire orchard is just stumps. Read More
Right now, all sorts of products aren’t reaching the U.S. because of the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China. Reciprocally, many U.S. agricultural and forestry products aren’t shipping back into China and other Pacific Rim countries. Global trade watchers say backed-up trade is building up on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Read More
Retaliatory tariffs levied by China on U.S. goods are taking a toll on Pacific Northwest farm exports. Details about cancelled orders came out this week at a state Senate committee hearing in Seattle.Read More
The housing shortage in Yakima is coupled with a farm labor shortage. When workers do come, where do they live? The largest farmworker complex in the state opened in Yakima this month. The revamped FairBridge hotel now hosts 800 beds for temporary farm workers. As it opens, critics think it may set a dangerous precedent: Other farmers might start buying up area housing for Read More
American fruit growers are starting to ship more containers of fresh fruit into China again. In recent weeks, some fruit shipments were stuck in customs in China. Public radio has learned that special flights to bring Northwest cherries to China had even been canceled. But that squeeze now appears to be lessening.Read More
So how do you convince a Chinese customer to pay a bit extra for already-expensive fresh Northwest cherries this summer?Read More
