A Big Cherry Season for MMFEC
Cherry season has wrapped up in the Flathead Valley, and at the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center (MMFEC), late July and early August always mean non-stop cherry processing. This year MMFEC processed approximately 35,000 pounds of cherries, a 45% increase over last year.
“Local growers had a really good crop this year,” said Jan Tusick, MMFEC Director. “In past years we’ve worked with a couple of orchards. This year we worked with a total of 9 orchards: Fat Robin Orchard, Tienvold Orchard, Gateway Farm, Spindrift Orchard, Nazelrod Orchard, Sweet Grass Orchard, Windover Orchard, Ramrock Orchard, and Cherrywood Orchard. Being able to process their cherries locally adds value to their crops and ensures that they’re processed at the peak of ripeness.”
In MMFEC’s food production facility, the cherries are washed, the stems are removed, and they’re pitted in a large industrial pitter that can handle up to 300 pounds per hour. The pitted cherries are then packaged into five pound bags, vacuum-sealed, and frozen so they can be sold to schools and other institutions through the Western Montana Growers Cooperative throughout the year.
“MMFEC’s cherry processing has been growing over the past few years,” said Tusick. “This is an iconic crop for the Flathead Valley, and we’re glad we can work with local orchards to add value and preserve their cherries for use by institutions all throughout the year.”
The Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center is a 13,000 square foot FDA registered, USDA meat inspected, certified organic shared-use food processing and manufacturing facility in downtown Ronan.