The unseasonal warm winter of 2011 – 2012 is already bumping up harvest times and production cycles. According to strawberry growers in Santa Barbara County, California the warm weather has allowed the fruit to come early. According the some of the strawberry growers, they even had strawberries available for Valentine’s Day. A harvest this soon in the season is very uncommon since the regular harvest season is usually April to June. This county of California produced $350,000,000 worth of strawberries in 2010, so much like the cherries of Northern Michigan fruit is an important crop for the area. While some talk has started about the how the warm weather will affect the 2012 cherry crop, it’s still unknown on the final affect the warm weather will have on the tart cherry crop. By looking at the cycles of other crops, it does provide insight to the 2012 cherry harvest and production cycle. However, no matter what the crops yield, people will still need to maintain healthy joint function and the Michigan grown fruit and cherry juice will still be the first choice for many.
