In Door County, cherry orchards line the road sides almost like wallpaper. Limbs bend under the weight of the beautiful red fruit that’s visible from the car.

The county’s temperate climate and the unlikelihood of late frosts due to the lake effect from Green Bay and Lake Michigan, has led to the growth of the cherry industry. The cherry trees thrive in the shallow soil which is only a few feet deep and which sits on top of bedrock providing natural drainage and inhibiting the effect of root rot.

Early growers experimented with different cherry varieties and found the greatest success with the tart Montmorency variety. Today, approximately seven million pounds of cherries are produced annually!

Cherry Fun Facts:

• The world record for spitting a cherry pit is 93 feet, 6 1⁄2 inches set by Brian Krause at the International Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship in Michigan in 2004!
• Cherry trees are a member of the rose family.
• They may help relieve the pain of gout by lowering uric acid thereby reducing inflammation.
• One serving of frozen tart cherries provides 25 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A.
• Tart cherries contain melatonin, a hormone secreted by the brain that regulates the sleep cycle.

Gone are the days when 12-15,000 hand pickers would migrate to Door County for the harvest. Today, a mechanical harvester shakes 7,000 cherries off an average tree in about seven seconds and can shake 60-100 trees an hour! Shaking a tree shortens the average lifespan by about 15 years, but new trees are continually planted to keep production at peak levels.