Every year about now, I start calling the hotline at Levering Orchard in Galax, Virginia to learn when the one day of sour cherry picking will occur. As I feared, though, there’s bad news for this year:

Because of the freeze, the cherries were killed in 2026 and we will not be open for cherry season.

That’s a tough loss for Frank and the family business. I’ll plan to visit the orchard for apple season.

Fortunately, I have eight or so jars of pie filling that I put up last year.