"On weekends in May, the cars usually spill out of the dirt parking lot at Villa del Sol Sweet Cherry Farms and along both sides of the two-lane road. Yes, they grow cherries in Southern California - in the Leona Valley, in the high desert west of Palmdale. For a few weeks, hundreds of families flock there during the U-pick season. Not this year."
""Sad news," orchard owner Gary Shafer said on an outgoing voicemail he left for would-be pickers. "We had such a warm winter this last year that we did not get a cherry crop this year. It's the first time in 23 years.""
"In Los Angeles County, average temperatures in the six months from October through March were 4 degrees warmer than the 30-year average, and the warmest on record in 131 years. The winter brought unprecedented warmth across the western United States."
"He and his wife, Maxi Case, have 3,600 cherry trees on 25 acres at Villa del Sol, which their says is the largest U-pick cherry orchard in Southern California. They filled with blossoms as usual this spring, so Shafer rented about 100 beehives and the bees went to work pollinating. But the trees never bore fruit."
In May, families typically visit Leona Valley orchards for an annual U-pick cherry tradition, but this year orchards have no fruit due to an exceptionally warm winter. Villa del Sol Sweet Cherry Farms usually draws hundreds of visitors on weekends, with cars filling nearby lots and roads, yet the trees produced no cherries. Orchard owner Gary Shafer reported the first missed crop in 23 years, noting he could prune in a T-shirt and saw wildflowers bloom extremely early in January. Average temperatures in Los Angeles County from October through March were about 4 degrees warmer than the 30-year average and the warmest on record in 131 years. Despite normal blossoms and pollination using rented beehives, the trees never set fruit.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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