For more than 50 years each, three Leelanau County residents have been driving forces in maintaining Leelanau as the nation’s No. 1 cherry-growing county.
In movie form, they might be called “Titans of Cherries.”
The names of Jim Nugent, Jim Bardenhagen and Don Gregory have been constant sources of information about the industry far beyond the pages of the Leelanau Enterprise. They also have been thoughtful policy makers while serving on a slew of industry boards, and they’ve been cherry farmers in their own right.
Bardenhagen, 81, has been a voice in the Michigan Cherry Producers Association and the Leelanau County Horticultural Society, which played a lead role in establishing the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research (Hort) Station in Bingham Township. He served 20 years as county extension director, and is a founding member and president of Mi Farm, a highly successful CSA (community supported agriculture) co-operative representing 25 farms.
Nugent, 75, has served as chair of the Michigan Cherry Commission (MCC), vice chair of the Cherry Industry Administrative Board (CIAB), and the leading voice, founder and chair of the Michigan Tree Commission. He was county extension director from 1976-87 and coordinator of the Hort Station from 1992-2007.
Gregory, 77, was instrumental in creating the MCC, which led to establishment of the CIAB. He served as chair of both organizations. His career has been contained in the private sector as a partner with his brother, Bob, in establishing Cherry Bay Orchards — one of the largest cherry producers in the state — and Shoreline Fruit, whose cherry products can be found both locally and nationally.
With all that knowledge among our neighbors, we asked Nugent, Bardenhagen and Gregory to reflect upon the path taken by their favorite fruit during their careers. Of course, they agreed. There are few things they enjoy more than talking about cherries.
We directed the conversations through four questions:
Why has the cherry industry struggled?
NUGENT: The owner with his wife, Toddy, of Sunblossom Orchards in Suttons Bay Township, set up the answer with a history lesson.
“Part of it is a function of new plantings and their effect on production and prices. A lot of cherries were planted in early 1900s, which led to some lean years in the 30s. In the 40s and 50s the price of cherries got high again, which resulted to more plantings. In the 60s the price fell, got down to a nickel a pound. That was tough and there weren’t as many plantings. We had short crops in the early 70s with good prices and more plantings. In 1995 the price fell down to 5 cents again. Through all that time it’s been a 30-year cycle, peak to valley.”
Of late, through — say the last two decades — the valley has dominated, Nugent continued. A drop-off in the popularity of confections; increased imports, especially in juice products whose consumption has actually increased, and a decrease in local processors competing to buy cherries from local growers have all hurt the industry.
“My goodness, when I grew up we didn’t eat dinner without dessert, and it was often a juicy pie. Things have changed in the market, in imports, and in the industry itself,” Nugent said.
BARDENHAGEN: “The basic reason is (growers) haven’t made money. The cost of production is sometimes greater than the revenue we get back. Which is one reason I decided to change (diverting his orchards into a range of specialty crops). What we are facing is an import situation, and the current tariffs are not enough to dissuade. The industry is trying to find a way to put a placemarker name on our Montmorency cherries so people know they’re from the United States … We are going through an effort to make sure the public knows what cherries are produced here. This is a bright spot to focus on,” he said.
GREGORY: “I think the American stomach continues to change, and that’s a key to what’s happened. The per capita consumption of cherries hasn’t gone up. I think it came down,” Gregory said.
As someone who clearly understands the retail side of cherry marketing, he’s often disappointed on shopping visits.
“I can recall in February (National Cherry Month) when every store had end caps with cherry pie filling or cherry pies. I can remember when there was 12 to 20 feet of space in grocery stores with fruit filling, with the majority being cherry pie filling,” he continued.
While marketing and consumer interest in cherry juice and dried cherry markets have helped offset the drop in cherry desserts, they have not buoyed the prices paid Leelanau cherry growers.
“Juice and dried markets aren’t nearly as profitable, and the majority of imports has been in juice. They don’t return the dollars. Meanwhile input costs (such as fertilizer and pest control) have gone up,” Gregory said.
Of your experiences holding offices in support of cherries, which one — or ones — was the most impactful?
BARDENHAGEN: “I thought my extension position did that. I tried very hard to let growers know about all the new studies and information coming out about cherries. We put on a lot of seminars, and I talked to a lot of growers to explain what was happening with cherries. Then after retiring from extension I was appointed to the (National Crop Insurance) Board, and we were instrumental in getting crop insurance available for cherries. You have to have skin in the game, but that crop insurance is a safety net that helps a lot of people. Now our son Chris (with his wife, Jan) sits on the board representing specialty crops.”
NUGENT: “I was on some boards, but I played a much more significant role in the organization of the Michigan Tree Commission. That doesn’t mean it was the most impactful in the industry, but that was it for me. We formed a program bringing together growers of cherries, apples, peaches and plumbs who all gave money to rebuild the infrastructure of MSU Extension. I had an understanding of how the university worked, and I was a grower. I was in a unique spot to get the organization off the ground,” he said.
Extension offices and research stations were subject to staff shortages and even closings. Part of the commission’s success can be attributed to having an unhindered mission based purely on science.
That plays to Nugent’s strong hand.
“I’m a science nerd, there’s no doubt. I enjoy and appreciate what we do with good research,” he said.
GREGORY: “Probably the best of times was when we had the CMI (for marketing), the CIAB (for controlling production levels) and Cherrco (the grower-owned Cherry Growers cooperative, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017). We worked on behalf of the Leelanau market, on producing, and we had a good run with the crop. Now times have changed, and those things don’t have the impact that they once did,” Gregory said.
What change that you’ve been part of has most improved the bottom line of cherry farms?
GREGORY - “We (Don and his wife, Ann) began at the time of mechanical harvesting. It was being at the right place at the right time. Growers had always hand harvested, but you could no longer hand harvest and make money. So along comes these foolish college kids who didn’t know better, and they bought this equipment. Other growers needed those machines.
“For Bob and me, when we started we were harvesting 24 hours a day and people thought we were crazy. But we had to make payment on that equipment, and the only way was to keep it running. So we were hired to harvest all the farms around.”
NUGENT: Pest and disease control rose to the top for Nugent, who served four years as integrated pest management (IPM) specialist at the Hort Station before becoming its manager.
“Over my whole career, one of the impactful things we introduced through research was IPM. We really did change how we managed insects and diseases. With SWD (Spotted-wing drosophila), we’ve had to take a hammer to it because we had to use more spraying than we would have liked. Now we are facing a pest that can have a generation in seven days. At first we were spraying way earlier than we needed because we were killing the pest before it started to reproduce.”
BARDENHAGEN: The East Leland grower followed Nugent’s logic.
“We focused a lot in extension on integrated pest management, IPM. We concentrated on only spraying when it was needed. Back then, we didn’t do things until we found insects and disease. Now we’ve gone the other direction. We have the research to spray before the problem occurs, before the infection takes place.”
What should people living in Leelanau know about cherries?
BARDENHAGEN: “I don’t know if they all know the health benefits of cherries, or that purchasing local cherries, sweets or tarts, helps keep growers going. A long time ago I started taking cherry pills, and I’m reasonably healthy. They should also know that we’re the best place in Michigan for cherries because of Lake Michigan and our terrain. Michigan grows about 70% of the nation’s cherries, and Leelanau grows about 50%.”
GREGORY: “That’s the million-dollar question,” said Gregory, who wonders if residents understand the dire future faced by cherry growing families.
“It’s tough watching what is happening in the industry, watching neighbors struggle. Most growers would like to see their land stay in farming. Trying to couple that with the economics of farming and with the interest of people wanting to live in the county puts a lot of stress in family relationships. My kids would probably be better off selling everything, but that’s not our goal. So we keep trying to make growing cherries profitable enough to keep the next generation here. It’s a nice lifestyle, it’s nice living here, and we feel we are trying to do something for the community and environment by keeping the land in agriculture,” he said.
NUGENT: “Hopefully, they have some concept of the health benefits because they are incredible, And hopefully people are thinking in terms of how to incorporate cherries beyond dessert (and) into their diets.
“It’s pretty frustrating that cherries have hit tough times, but they are still the most dominant crop in northwest Michigan. Over the course of my tenure we’ve had growers turn to tart cherries, sweet cherries, apples and now grapes. Some people say if we don’t have cherry farms we’ll just grow grapes. That’s a misconception, that (the wine market) can consume all our orchards. We can’t all just switch to grapes,” Nugent said.
Residents should know that the legacies of cherry farming families are threatened.
“There is the challenge of trying to farm this pricey land. If you are going to have a sustainable industry, you’ve got to be able to bring another generation into farming. So you’ve got to include the value of the land into the economics of farming. That’s why I spent 13 years on the (Leelanau) Conservancy board,” he said.
