| keyword:scratch cherry pieswinecherry crop | | | | wondering whether her family's business has cherries. |
| At Seaquist Orchards Farm Market in Door County, | | | | "They just seem to think there's no cherry product |
| you can buy fresh tart cherries for baking, frozen | | | | to be found,"she said. |
| cherries, baked-from-scratch cherry pies, cherry jam, | | | | Seaquist assures callers there are plenty of cherry |
| dried cherries, cherry pie filling, cherry nut bread mix, | | | | products in stock, including many of the 12,000 or so |
| cherry syrup, cherry barbecue sauce and cherry salsa | | | | cherry pies baked annually at Seaquist Orchards. |
| - including one variety with jalapeno peppers. | | | | Those pies are prepared with cherries frozen from |
| Seaquist even has fresh sweet cherries, imported | | | | last year's bumper crop. |
| from Michigan and elsewhere after this year's local | | | | Seaquist Orchards estimates Door County's tart |
| crop of sweet cherries was wiped out by bad | | | | cherry crop this year will be around 100,000 pounds - |
| weather. | | | | roughly 1% of last year's crop of 10.4 million pounds. |
| But news coverage of the sweet cherry crop's | | | | That's the result of a three-month drought last |
| demise may be leading some vacationers to assume | | | | summer, followed by a January that brought rain and |
| that Door County, one of Wisconsin's most popular | | | | wild temperature fluctuations. |
| tourism destinations, is without cherries and cherry | | | | The sweet cherry crop, popular at roadside stands, is |
| products. For a place that boasts such attractions as | | | | completely gone because those trees are more |
| Cherry Hills Golf Course, the Cherry Train Tour and | | | | susceptible to weather extremes. |
| the Cherry Hut, a belief that Door County has no | | | | Along with selling locally grown tart cherries, Seaquist |
| cherries is like someone thinking France has run short | | | | Orchards and other Door County businesses have |
| on wine. | | | | supplemented their stock with sweet cherries bought |
| "We have cherries. That is the message," said Kristin | | | | from growers in Michigan and other states. |
| Seaquist, whose family operates the orchards and | | | | Few cherries to pick |
| market near Sister Bay. | | | | One segment of Door County's tourism industry that |
| The annual cherry harvest has just begun, and Door | | | | will take a direct hit are orchards that offer |
| County's markets should have plenty of locally grown | | | | pick-your-own cherries, said Bob Lautenbach, of |
| fresh-picked tart cherries for roughly the next two | | | | Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market, |
| weeks, said David Schartner, of Schartner's Farm | | | | near Fish Creek. There are few cherries for visitors |
| Market, near Egg Harbor. | | | | to pick, he said, and that might cause a drop in day |
| That's important to Door County's tourism industry, | | | | trippers from places such as Appleton and Green Bay. |
| which last year generated an estimated $404 million | | | | But there remains an abundance of other cherry |
| in traveler spending, according to the state | | | | products, including the wine and juice sold at |
| Department of Tourism. "Cherry time," when the | | | | Lautenbach's Orchard, and jams and pies sold at |
| fresh fruit is harvested, is among the peak periods | | | | Bea's Ho-Made Products, near Gills Rock. |
| for visitors to flock to the peninsula between Green | | | | Business has been slower this year, said Jeni Tveten, |
| Bay and Lake Michigan, famed for its shoreline, state | | | | Bea's general manager. |
| parks, shopping and other attractions. | | | | But, she added, "I don't know if it's so much the |
| Seaquist said she's taken several calls from people | | | | cherry crop as the economy. |