Although recently we had a 3 day weekend with Memorial Day falling on a Monday, I decided against joining the rest who were heading to either Vegas or Yellowstone National Park. Been to Vegas twice and the 16 hour drive after work to reach Yellowstone did not really appeal to me. Must be getting old......
Anyway, the few of us left in Folsom decided to do something that's easy on the wallet as well as the body. On a friend's suggestion, we took a leisurely drive southwards to Brentwood to try our hand at cherry-picking. There's various fruit farms in the county and it's supposed to be cherry season amongst others.
The 2 hour drive down there flew by but the 1st 2 cherry farms we came to were closed! The 1st farm was packed with people swarming the cherry trees and the 2nd told us that we came too early in the season. Due to the late Spring this year, most of the cherries were not fully ripened...They were selling picked cherries at the fruit stands but we wanted to actually choose and pick our own cherries.
Anyway, the few of us left in Folsom decided to do something that's easy on the wallet as well as the body. On a friend's suggestion, we took a leisurely drive southwards to Brentwood to try our hand at cherry-picking. There's various fruit farms in the county and it's supposed to be cherry season amongst others.
The 2 hour drive down there flew by but the 1st 2 cherry farms we came to were closed! The 1st farm was packed with people swarming the cherry trees and the 2nd told us that we came too early in the season. Due to the late Spring this year, most of the cherries were not fully ripened...They were selling picked cherries at the fruit stands but we wanted to actually choose and pick our own cherries.
Since we were in the vicinity, we decided to check if there were other farms opened for self-picking. Luck must be on our side and we found that the Lopez Ranch was open for business.
The Lopez Ranch: Rows upon rows of trees brimming full of juicy cherries!The locals call this U-pick and we were each given a basket to hold the fruits that we selectively picked off the trees. There's no entry charge and you only pay for the fruits that you want to bring back. In other words, we can sample/eat/gorge ourselves on as many cherries as your stomach can hold while in the farm.
Eagerly, we dove right in and starting picking. Fresh, ripe cherries are absolutely heavenly delicious! Throw away those preserved, sweetend canned stuff you typically find on cakes/pastries; that ain't cherries. They don't even come close to the sweet juicy crunchy texture of the real thing...
Eagerly, we dove right in and starting picking. Fresh, ripe cherries are absolutely heavenly delicious! Throw away those preserved, sweetend canned stuff you typically find on cakes/pastries; that ain't cherries. They don't even come close to the sweet juicy crunchy texture of the real thing...
Ripe Rainier Cherries....excellent!
Mouth watering ain't it?I never appreciated cherries before this. Past encounters with the preserved kind and "Cherry" flavoured drinks like Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke didn't help change my opinion; in fact, it just killed any lingering desire for this fruit. Now, call me a believer:)
In the end, we didn't really picked all that much. Guessed we sampled enough to sate us. Grin. I think for every ripe cherry I picked, I must have consumed at least the same amount in the search for ripe sweet cherries. Guessed we just got tired of walking on our full bellies with the sun on our backs. :)
In the end, we didn't really picked all that much. Guessed we sampled enough to sate us. Grin. I think for every ripe cherry I picked, I must have consumed at least the same amount in the search for ripe sweet cherries. Guessed we just got tired of walking on our full bellies with the sun on our backs. :)
Our haul. Another couple and I combined for the bottom bucket of the 3.
Compared with the amount the locals typically buy back.....
4 comments:
Hi Alan,
Come to MElbourne during summer, and there'll be more cherry picking :) you can eat/pick as many as you like and oh....did you get to taste cherry liquor?or strawberry liquor?
who's alan? :P
With the amount that you all picked, did the owner even charge you ah. The amount you all picked ah, very hard to weigh no?
They did charge us; each bucket came to 2 pounds; though it sure felt like less. On hindsight, we should have picked more; there was barely any left after sharing the cherries with the other colleagues....
Oh well, there's always round 2.
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