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After a very long winter and spring – the last two months of which we’ve been under a “Stay Home Stay Safe” executive order (currently running through May 28) signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom on the Old Mission Peninsula. Yay!
I took these photos last night at Johnson Farms, my family’s farm on Center Road about a half-mile north of Mapleton. They’re always some of the first trees to bloom, and we’ve so looked forward to that happy event this year.
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These first blossoms are sweet cherries, which will be followed by tart cherries in a week or two, and then apples, which have that lovely pink color. I would expect that peak viewing times for the sweet cherry blossoms will be now through this weekend.
The sweets blossomed right around this same time last year – I posted a photo on May 18, 2019. While we’ve had some chilly nights over the past week, my brother Dean says he’s not seen a lot of freeze in the orchards – just pockets of freeze here and there.
That’s good news, especially since the USDA announced that they will buy $20 million worth of U.S. tart cherries, along with other fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy and seafood products to distribute to communities amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, other parts of Michigan have not fared well with the colder temperatures. Cherry farmers in west and southwest Michigan have seen losses of up to 50 percent of their crop, according to Michigan Farm News.
SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette
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