Raul Gomez, operations manager at Wunsch Farms, walks through an orchard on the Old Mission Peninsula in November 2024. (Photo: Izzy Ross/IPR News) This coverage is made possible in part through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in northern Michigan. Traverse City is known as “the Cherry Capital of the World,” and the Wunsch family has been growing the small stone fruit for six generations. The farm that bears their name sits on about 1,000 acres in the middle of Old Mission Peninsula, a spit of land poking into a bay at the northern end of Lake Michigan. This region has long been considered a cherry haven where long rows of trees teem with red fruit. But as the planet warms, things are beginning to change. This story was originally published by Grist . Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here . As he walked rows of dormant trees last month, pointing out sweet varieties like black pearls, skeenas and sweethearts, Raul Gomez, operations manager at Wunsch Farms, said volatile weather in recent years has taken a toll. This season was particularly hard. An unusually mild winter followed by a warm, wet spring marked by torrential rain left a lot of the fruit rotting on the trees. That led to an explosion of fungi and pests. Disease like brown rot diminished the quality of several varieties, and the size of the harvest. “It’s getting more and more expensive to farm,” said Gomez. “You’re spending a lot more money getting to the finish line.” Everyone who works the land knows they’re at the mercy of the weather, but even by that measure this was a challenging year for Michigan’s cherry farmers. Growers throughout the state, which produces one-fifth of the nation’s sweet cherries and about 75 percent of […]