Seaquist Orchards



		Cherry Facts Millions of Pounds of Cherries
	Cherry Facts • Wisconsin grows about 5% of the nation’s cherry crop. • The total U.S. tart cherry crop is 275-400 million pounds of cherries! • The major variety of tart cherry grown in the U.S. is Montmorency. • Door County is a great area to raise cherries because the lake tempers the winter winds and cools the orchards in summer. • Tart cherries are mostly sold frozen or canned. • Cherry pie filling is the Number One canned pie filling seller in supermarkets • The U.S. leads the world in sweet cherry production - the total production is about 370 million pounds. • Most sweet cherries are sold fresh during the summer. • The most famous sweet cherry variety is the Bing Cherry. • Seaquist Orchards has the largest acreage of cherries in Wisconsin and processes about 1/3 of the state’s cherries.


	Millions of Pounds of Cherries First the blossom, then the fruit, then...What does happen to all those cherries? At Seaquist Orchards, it actually begins long before the blossom. In the spring of the year, the acreage where we will plant those cherry trees is first prepared. That means whatever was planted previously is removed, the soil is cleaned up. the stones are picked out, and the land is carefully marked off and measured, so that the trees are spaced evenly. Then the planting takes place. Once the trees are in the ground, we need to make sure they get watered, pruned and after 3 years of growing, they produce their first crop. The first few years that the young trees yield cherries, the fruit is harvested by hand, so as not to damage th trees, but after that watch out! The Seaquist harvesting crew moves in, and can harvest up to 3 trees a minute with our two mechanical harvesters.

Seaquist Orchards - Door County, Wisconsin
11482 Hwy. 42 • PO Box 204 • Sister Bay, WI • 54234
920-854-4199 • 800-SEA-8850 • FAX 920-854-9722