WAPATO, Wash. — Shara Green, a fourth-generation tree fruit farmer, is co-owner of Green Thumb Orchard in Wapato, Wash.

She grows 26 acres of Bartlett, Packham, Bosc and D’Anjou pears, and a small amount of dark sweet cherries.

“We have conventional and certified organic blocks. The majority of our pears go to a cannery; the rest is fresh pack,” Green said.

When her father passed away suddenly from a heart attack in 2014, she and her husband moved back to the 45-acre orchard to help her step mom, who had been farming alongside Shara’s dad since 1992.

They purchased 26 acres in 2021.

“My husband and my step mom work hand-in-hand to keep the farms going,” Green said. “I help where I can, but in order to pay the mortgage, I work a fulltime career job. It’s a juggling act, to manage full-time work, help with the farm, help with payroll and harvest — in whatever capacity I can be helpful to my husband, who devotes 100% of his time to the orchard.”

She and her husband want to keep it going, since it’s been in the family for four generations.

“There’s a lot of family obligation and legacy; we don’t want to be the generation that ends up seeing it fold,” she said. “There are many external stressors in running an orchard, such as government regulation.”

The biggest one for tree fruit production is the overtime rule.

“We had to pay overtime to our crew boss last year when 48 hours was the maximum and this year it’s 40 hours and above that you have to pay overtime,” Green said. “It will be a struggle to remain financially viable.”

This is a major concern during harvest, she said, since growers are at the mercy of nature.

“If you want to make a living, fruit must be picked when it’s time and you don’t stop until you get all the fruit into the warehouse,” Green said.

Her family has been lucky to have an extremely talented crew of pruners and harvesting team.

“These are local folks who live here in the Yakima Valley. They’ve come to help us for the past 15 to 20 years, and some of them longer,” she said. “It’s because we take good care of our people and they take good care of us. We’ve always paid more than minimum wage, especially for our crew boss and tractor crew.

“It’s scary now, however, with the new rule,” she said.

“Our employees need to make money to support their families, and we can’t operate at a loss and keep the farm,” Green said.

“Small farms are struggling to stay afloat because of this new overtime rule,” she said. “We want to keep the land and trees for many reasons, and one is to help the local economy. We may be a small producer, but our fruit feeds the world, and puts money into local families’ pockets as a small business.”

If they make the grade at the warehouse, the specialty D’Anjou pears are exported to Mexico and Canada.

“Knowing that our pears are being enjoyed in people’s homes in several countries is a point of pride,” she said.

“Every piece of fruit, whether cherry or pear, is hand harvested with care by our crew. Ours is all hand-picked by skilled people, picking each piece very carefully at the stem so it won’t damage the tree,” she said.

“This last year — the 2023 crop — we had beautiful Bing cherries. Normally, we get a small advance from the warehouse shortly after harvest, to help pay for what we just shelled out in labor costs to pick the cherries.

“This last harvest, they told us ‘no,’” she said. “That was a surprise because for many decades this has been something we’ve depended on. They said market conditions were different. California’s cherry harvest rammed into Washington’s cherry harvest in timing.

“We ended up only making 20 cents per pound on our cherries, which did not even begin to touch our labor costs,” she said.

Consumers think farmers are cleaning up when they see prices in the store, but it’s not the producers making that money.

“This is disheartening to small producers, who put so much time, effort and input costs into growing a crop they get very little money for,” Green said. “Bad years mean you don’t make anywhere near a living wage.”

Orcharding is a wonderful way of life, however.

“That’s why we continue as long as we can. Farmers are some of the best stewards of the land. They care deeply about soil health, health of their trees, longevity of their land, their farm, and production,” she said.

“I think many small farmers are extremely cash poor but we feel it’s a win if we can break even and make enough to operate for another year,” Green said. “Every dollar of any profit goes right back into the operation to pay for irrigation water, property taxes, electricity to run pumps, maintenance on equipment like wind machines and tractors — which are a necessity to keep everything running. I hope people will start connecting with their local farmers to see how their food is grown.”