Sunday, November 23, 2014

cherry picking in young

Young is Australia's cherry capital. My family decided to go again this year, and I dragged my friend along for the four hour ride from Sydney. Olympic Highway is where we found the majority of the orchards, and we visited three in total in Goldilocks fashion. The first one was Allambie Orchards. Cherries were $6 a kilo and weren't very big or sweet, so the five of us barely filled a bucket together. The second one isn't even worth mentioning - required a minimum of 3kg per person so we didn't enter the orchard. And the third and preferred one was Ballinaclash, where we sat on the back of a pick up truck on hay bales. Cherries were $7 a kilo and better, though I think two more weeks would've had sweeter and riper cherries.

Pick your own? More like all you can eat. My friend and I sat down because we were tired from tasting each tree. It was a process of taste, taste, taste, empty that tree.

There is now almost twenty kilos of cherries in my fridge. It feels like Summer.

14 comments:

  1. I've never been fruit picking before! I loooove cherries though I should get onto this. Are there bugs and creepy crawlies around? I always think of that when I think of fruit picking haha, I just hate insects.

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    1. There are definitely bugs and creepy crawlies on the fruit if you don't look carefully, but I don't think it's too bad! (Though my friend accidentally threw a cherry with a bug at me and it rolled down my leg.) I hear strawberries have slugs so cherries are definitely okay!

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  2. I've always wanted to go fruit picking, however the trek out of Sydney deters me. Quite unlike the South Island in NZ where there were dozens of fruit orchards a mere 30 minutes from any large-ish city.

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    1. Yeah, all the orchards are super far from Sydney. I've been blueberry picking many, many years ago but the drive is intense and needs a 4WD.

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  3. Wow cherries!!! I love cherries and I want to experience fruit picking too!

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    1. It's so fun! A lazy day of popping one in the mouth, and one in the bucket.

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  4. I've only ever tried strawberry picking! Looks like you had fun and set with that many cherries! :P
    Funny story - my friend told me her younger brother had wanted a to be fruit picker when he grew so he could eat and get paid at the same time! Hahaha xD

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    1. Your friend's brother's got the right idea of what a job should be! I've picked blueberries and cherries so far, but have yet to pick strawberries. I've been told there tends to be slugs.

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  5. Wow, amazing, I love cherries, one of my favourite fruits, and I love pick your own because of all the taste-testing along the way!

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    1. The taste testing is easily the best part! Until it reaches that point where you realise you've eaten too many.

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  6. Berry picking is actually my favourite thing to do this time of year. I have really fond memories of berry picking in Bright about six years ago and using all of our hoard for Christmas dessert! Yummy!!

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    1. I've gone through at least a kilo of cherries the past few days, so I don't think I have enough for the cherry pie I wanted to make!

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  7. Your photos are lovely. There's something very satisfying about picking fruit, can't quite put my finger on what it is though. :) x

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  8. What I love about your photography is that so much life is captured! I feel like I'm there. Looks incredible :)

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