We are into the portion of the year when cherries take on monumental importance. My family has regularly accused me of being a slave to my orchard. I readily admit that there are times of the year when the care and picking of the fruit trees takes priority over fishing and trips to Traverse City.
It is a bit restrictive. I have a different view of this partnership, however. The trees, raspberries, currants and I have a mutually beneficial relationship. To me, it seems like it has helped the Schaerbeeks to have an advocate grafting them to new rootstocks and making sure they are pampered. In return, they give me the best cherries I have ever tasted, and in turn, my favorite meads. Others seem to enjoy them, as well. It does not seem one-sided to me that the trees ask me to hang out and pay attention to them for a few weeks a year. It is a drag that those weeks coincide with the Hex hatch, and can overlap the National Homebrewers Conference. The Hex hatch and the NHC give it up, for sure, but in a manner that is ephemeral. Those trees give me gifts that I get to lay down, and share with my friends, and that help us make clear to the world how good mead can be.
The Heart of Darkness and The Statement Reserve, though, are equally beholden to nature. The release of The Heart of Darkness is limited by what the trees and Mother Nature give to us. In some years, there are many cherries, and there are both The Heart of Darkness and The Statement Reserve. In some years, there is neither. In 2010, the year between the batches that I made for B. Nektar, there was not enough fruit for a release. There was nothing I could do about that.
This year is already tense. A couple of weeks before this post, the trees got a frost that may have destroyed some of the fruit buds, and we will not know until fruit set how much damage was done. If it was as dire as head pessimist Ken Schramm decried, it may compromise a large percentage of the fruit. If the blossoms were not as developed (and vulnerable) as they seemed, we may have a smaller than usual – but still respectable – crop. Fingers are crossed.
This is a challenge to us, because we have a following of supporters who look forward to each release of the Heart of Darkness. So do I, and my wife and daughters and mom and brothers and sister and nieces and in-laws. But we can only make as much as Big Momma Nature lets us, and that seems to mean that folks don’t get as much as they would like. Lots of people get none at all. We can’t guarantee that everyone will get a bottle, not even family and Mazer Club members. It’s a tough call. Ruthless business people would tell us to raise the price until the number of people who want a bottle and the number who can afford one level out. I don’t want to do that.
We’re working on getting more cherries into production. We’ve increased the raspberry and currant plantings, and we are investigating working with some of our extended family on planting more cherry trees at a new orchard site. Maybe we’ll have to purchase some acreage of our own. We’re not taking this lying down. But as I have said many times, we’re talking about fruit trees here. This stuff doesn’t happen in a weekend. We are beholden to nature.