Fresh, Gourmet Hood River Cherries hand picked for you - Streich's Orchards

Stories from the Orchard

Ever wonder how an orchard gets its start? In our blog, Stories from the Orchard, we’ll share the behind-the-scenes details on how Streich’s Orchards began more than 15 years ago and how we manage the orchards today to make sure our cherries are top quality.

Stories from the Orchard will feature Hup and Judy Streich, founders of Streich’s Orchards, and their adult children, Hup Jr. and Hauna, who are both active in the business. We’ll post a new story every month and updates from the orchard during growing season.

Harvest

2011 harvest will begin Monday August 1st. This will be the latest harvest so far. Our whole family and loyal employees work so hard to bring beautiful cherries to cherry lovers all over the world.
The cherry crop this year is good size and taste great!

Frost Time

Spring temperatures are the most crucial in growing fruit. From early March through the first few days of May, nighttime temperatures frequently drop below freezing. Depending on the stage of development, from first bud to small fruit, these chilly temperatures can ruin an entire crop.
From late March through May, we spend many wee hours of the morning driving through the orchards. Along with trying to stay awake, we are constantly monitoring temperatures, lighting smudgepots, and starting wind machines. Smudgepots burn fuel to warm the air near the trees. Wind machines are used to keep the air circulating, which can raise the temperature a few degrees.
The critical temperature at which damage to the cherry crop will occur changes as the crop matures.
In the springtime when you see your trees and flowers starting to bud and bloom, just cross your fingers for us to give us a little extra luck – we might need it! We will thank you with some beautiful, delicious cherries in July and August. Don’t forget to preorder your cherries

Ready For Hood River Cherry Harvest

Ladders and buckets out and ready for Bing Cherry harvest, workers will start at 5 am friday morning July 17th. Order your Bing cherries today and pre order for Rainiers, Skeenas, and Sweethearts.

We are looking forward to harvest and providing fresh cherries right out of our orchard. Our cherry boxes make a wonderfull unique gift to share with friends, family, and business associates. Treat yourself to the best farm fresh cherries in the Northwest.

Helping in the Orchard

Hauna Rogers and Bella, the second and third generation of the Streichs family, help out in the cherry orchard.

Hood River Streichs Orchards Blossom Update

Cherry Blooms are appearing in the Orchard. There have been some cold nights and due to the stage of the cherry buds, the Orchard Fans have been started at early hours in the morning. The Orchard Fans help circulate the air flow, so the frost isn’t absorbed by the cherry bud. If the frost is absorbed, that could cause the bud to not grow and produce the cherry.

The Streichs have placed bee hives in the orchard to help with the pollination that is critical for the cherry to develop. Bees work the best when the weather is at least 60 degrees during the day. If you were to visit Streich’s Orchard today, you would hear the Bees buzzing in the air from blossom to blossom.

It is a busy time of the year at the Streichs, with some early morning hours monitoring the temperatures and placing the Bee Hives at the appropriate time of bloom.

Easter Morning in the Orchard

Easter morning was beautiful at the orchard, with all the cherry trees in bloom.

Streich Family First to Grow at Higher Elevation

Fifteen years ago, when Hup and Judy bought their property, growing cherries at high elevations was not done. Pears were okay at the higher elevations, but cherries were only grown further down the Hood River Valley.

“Some friends of ours had a cherry orchard in Odell, which is 7 miles closer to town, down the hill farther. They were encouraging, and they really helped us to be more positive about it until we just finally said, we’re going to do this,” Judy says.

What the Streichs didn’t know is that more established growers in the area thought they were, well, nuts!

“We never heard them then, but we heard them afterward – ‘Everyone was laughing at you.’ They thought we were crazy to plant cherries this far up, it’s too cold,” Judy says. “And now there are cherry blossoms all over – in fact, there are some up from us – at a higher elevation.”

Is there a benefit to growing cherries at higher elevations? Yes, the Streichs say, because the cherries are just as delicious as their counterparts grown at lower elevations, but they are ready later in the season.

“The benefit is, it comes later. In other words, California has them in June, then Oregon has them in the first of July, then we’ll have the same variety in the middle of July,” she says. “The market is especially good at the very beginning and the very end, because you’re getting close to when you can’t get them anymore.”

Cherry Orchard has Origins in Alfalfa

When Hup and Judy bought the property that became Streich’s Orchards, there wasn’t a cherry tree in sight. The entire acreage was planted in alfalfa, making the Streichs’ dream of owning an orchard a real challenge.

“Everything was so expensive to buy an orchard already planted. So we bought an alfalfa field,” Judy says. “We had to make a choice at that time to keep it in alfalfa – we had to buy more equipment for the alfalfa if we were doing that – or plant trees.”

The Streichs started small, farming the alfalfa for a couple of years before beginning to plant trees.

“We really wanted to plant trees – pears for sure, but nobody had cherries,” Judy explains. “Pears like cooler climates, but cherries are much more of a gamble.”

By planting their Rainier and Bing cherry trees in smaller numbers, the Streichs could assess how well they did before committing to more. So 12 years ago they planted about 15 acres with the 3-foot-tall saplings and waited until six years ago to plant the rest of their cherries.

“We didn’t plant the other side until we had a good feel for how the cherries were doing,” Judy says.

Now Streich’s Orchards has four varieties of cherries – Bing, Rainier, Skeena and Sweetheart. The process of planting and tending the cherry trees over time has been invaluable for the Streichs, allowing them to produce some of the best cherries in Oregon.

“We just asked a lot of questions and went to extension agencies,” Judy says. “We had friends we could go to, and they would tell us things.”