Nestled between the rush of the Columbia River and the towering basalt cliffs that define the gorge, idyllic Gunkel Orchards in Goldendale, Washington is in full picking, packing and delivering mode at the moment. Joe Pulicicchio, Town & Country Markets’ produce guru, strolls through rows of cherry trees with his friend and partner-in-produce Dan Gunkel, checking on the season’s progress. Joe seems delighted with what he’s seeing.

Rainiers. Royal Brooks. Black Pearls. Bings. And then there’s the cherry of all cherries—Gunkel’s Private Reserve (or GPR as it’s known to insiders.)  Gunkel developed this one exclusively for Town & Country Markets, about a decade ago, and Joe and Dan named it together. Joe describes the GPR as “larger than life, super sweet, with an absolutely beautiful flavor and texture, and an eating experience that is out of this world.” 

I’m invited to find the biggest, darkest GPR I can, and have a sample. I pick one that’s already the size of a quail egg. I bite in and my teeth don’t find the pit until the second chomp. It’s sweeter than I expect, and yet there’s a full, round, distinctive cherry flavor with a grounded finish, almost like the tannins in a beautifully aged cabernet. Joe’s right. This cherry is otherworldly— like nothing I’ve experienced before. But it’s still seven days from its full potential. I try to imagine how much more delicious it can get. My mind boggles.

A great eating experience is more important than a supermarket’s schedule 

Joe praises Gunkel’s commitment to letting fruit hang on the tree until its peak moment. Unlike so many commercial growers who’ve had to forfeit quality to meet the demands of the big supermarket chains, Gunkel follows the demands of nature. Then, when the fruit is good and ready, Dan works with his brother Ron to get it picked and delivered ASAP.

 “No grower really wants to grow a bad piece of fruit,” Joe explains, “but there are growers that'll pack bad fruit. Or they'll pick it early because they can meet minimum sugar standards and get a price. But a lot of times minimum sugar is not good eating.”

Dan agrees with Joe, as usual. “Most cherries, peaches and apples are packed by a mega packing house,” he says. Management at the warehouse tells the field workers when they need the fruit, and they just feed the warehouse whether the fruit is mature or not.”

At Gunkel, nothing gets picked before the ideal moment, period.

Nature meets future

Gunkel’s quality control system is a state-of-the-art, AI-enhanced feat of cherry-sorting genius. Laid out like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in a large barn, lanes of conveyor belts transport cherries through cameras and futuristic grading machinery that identifies imperfections and sorts each cherry by size.

“We actually had to create a new size category for the GPRs. The charts don’t go big enough,” says Susie, who manages the entire sorting operation at Gunkel Orchards, the equipment and the software that runs it, and the engineers who create ongoing system upgrades based on needs she defines. Watching her analyze images of cherries reminds me of watching a physician looking at an x-ray or an MRI.

“I have information about the size, about the color, softness, mass—I set all kinds of parameters,” Susie explains. Using these parameters, the machines evaluate and sort the cherries automatically.

Dan’s family has been working this land here at the Columbia River Gorge and maintain the highest standards for four generations, since Dan’s grandfather came over from Austria in the early 1900s. Technology may be part of the process now, but the family’s quality standards haven’t changed. Gunkel has been known to sacrifice an entire crop rather than ship substandard fruit.

“I’ve picked my poison,” says Dan. “This is what I signed up for. It’s what we do. And it’s satisfying to watch people react to good fruit. Because once they get that good fruit, they keep coming back for more.”  This explains why Joe Pulicicchio has been bringing fruit into Town & Country on Gunkel’s schedule for more than twenty years.