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FeedCherry industry recognizes King Orchards, Clinton Smeltzer
King Orchards owners John and Betsy King (right) and Jim and Rose King won the Very Cherry Promotion Award. They pose with Maria LaCross, the National Cherry Queen who has many promotional duties in addition to her work as an English teacher at St. Francis High School.
Gary Kaberle
he National Cherry Festival Committee gave two awards during cherry industry meetings in Traverse City this week.
The Very Cherry Promotion Award went to John and Betsy King and Jim and Rose King, who grow fruit, operate two farm markets, and run a successful Internet business in which innovative tart cherry products play a big part. King Orchards, Central Lake, Michigan, sells such products as dried cherries, cherry juice concentrate, and Balaton cherry salsa, as well as more conventional products such as pie fillings. They avidly promote the health benefits of tart cherries.
The brothers Jim and John had no farm background when John bought a farm in 1980 and Jim bought one nearby two years later.
Zach Rules
The committee gave its Lifetime Achievement Award to Clinton Smeltzer of Bear Lake, Michigan. Clinton and his brother Percy operated Smeltzer Orchard Company, Frankfort, Michigan, and Per Clin Orchards, at Bear Lake. The Smeltzer brothers, besides growing and processing tart cherries, were innovative—one of the first farms to convert to mechanical harvesting in the early 1960s, and put in Michigan’s first controlled atmosphere storage in 1961.
“I truly enjoyed the opportunity to live the way I have,” he said. “I never did anything else but farm.” The family enterprise dates back to 1872, and Clinton and Percy bought their farm in 1944. They started processing their own fruit, and that of other area growers, in 1946. Clinton, now 87, remains on the board of the Smeltzer Orchard Company, which produces frozen products—asparagus, tart and sweet cherries, sliced and diced apples; apple juice; dried fruit—tart cherries, blueberries, cranberries, and strawberries; and chocolate- and yogurt-covered dried cherries.
The awards were given by festival executive committee chairman Tim Hinkley.
The committee also gives annually its Cherry Person of the Year award, announcing it at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan, the week of July Fourth. That award was given last summer to Dr. Amy Iezzoni, the tart cherry breeder at Michigan State University.
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