Right about the middle of July is harvest time for cherries, both sweet and tart. Our farm has both varieties. Sweet cherries are for eating straight or for juice while the tart variety often end up as fillings for pies, muffins and other baked goods.
There is a small harvest time window when cherries can be picked so they must be picked rapidly. Cherry picking is done using a two-part piece of equipment we refer to as a "shaker." As it's name implies using hydraulic arms this piece of equipment simply grabs the trunk of the tree and rapidly shakes it for about ten or fifteen seconds. With this hearty vibration the cherries fall off and are caught in the canvas-covered V-shape of the two pieces of shaker equipment.
The cherries then roll towards the center of the V-shape where they are transported by way of conveyor belts out of the shaker and dropped into large plastic containers of ice and ice-water. Quickly chilling the freshly dropped cherries ensures their freshness as they are transported to market or processors.
In these two photos you can see both halves of the shakers and perhaps can visualize how they come together on either side of the cherry tree trunk to form a V-shape. In one of the photos the shaker's canvas has not yet been fully stretched over the frame but you can see the large notch in the middle of the equipment. This notch is where the hydraulic arms are located which grab the tree and shake it. The other half of the shaker does not contain this notch but you can see the conveyor belts along the bottom and side that transport the fresh cherries to the awaiting tub of ice water.
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