Wood Orchard owner Steve Wood says you do not have to worry about the trees that will bear cherries and apples later this year — at least not yet. Over the last month, Door County’s cherry and apple trees have withstood more than 30 inches of snow, a thin coating of ice and heavy rain as they prepare to blossom next month.

Those blossoms give orchard owners like Wood an idea of the type of crop they can expect in the coming year. Wood says some branches were lost due to the heavy weight they bore, but if winter’s last gasp was going to come, it came at the perfect time. He adds that if the 60- and 70-degree weather that greeted the area before the blizzard had stuck around longer, it would have been a different story for cherry and apple crops.

Cherry blossoms reach peak bloom in Door County in mid- to late May, while apples begin a few weeks later. Wisconsin ranks fourth in the country in tart cherry production, most of which comes from Door County.