EMMETT, Idaho — Tucked in the shadow of Freezeout Hill, an ambiguous Border Collie mix remains the top customer at Tyler's Rocky Point Orchard to kick off the 88th annual Emmett Cherry Festival.
"We're still about 10 days behind, maybe a week, on these Bing cherries," Owner Scott Tyler said. “And Odie [the dog] he's eaten the not so ripe cherries.”
The Emmett Cherry Festival is the oldest running festival in the state, according to the Gem County Chamber of Commerce. The festival has always been on the second full week of June, according to the chamber's executive director.
"It would be a little bit, I think, more in line with the crop being ripe if the Cherry Festival were we're about a week later,” Tyler said.
Ideally, the festival relies entirely on local orchards. It's been their focus since the 1930's, turning to out-of-state cherries only when necessary.
However, providing the full pallet of produce on time as proved to be increasingly difficult, according to Tyler. Storms and freezing weather can wipe months of hard work right off his tree branches. Simultaneously, the farmers are also stuck waiting at the whims of bee pollination patterns.
The festival has had to ship in cherries to make the festival possible in years past; a local supplier told KTVB the festival turned to California to make this year possible.
Tyler bought his orchard in the 1990's and has seen the industry change over the past few decades.
"More orchards became subdivisions, and even our first house that we lived in over here in our backyard there were fruit, old fruit trees," Tyler said. "Now, it's kind of a more of an agritourism kind of thing is what I guess you could call it. We do have a lot of people that are coming over here to recreate."
The chamber has looked at other options to move the festival date to align with more contemporary weather patterns; however, surrounding weekends have been booked by nearby towns and festivals ultimately limiting their options.
"There's just such a short window of opportunity to get them fresh. There is just nothing like them when you taste them right off the tree," Tyler said. "[The Emmett Cherry Festival] really, you know, kept that going - that tradition going."
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