My Cherry Earrings!
Little did we know that our arrival to Orange was literally right at the right time. Not only had we arrived just in time for the Orange Farmer’s Markets, we also arrived the day before cherry picking season was about to end. This year was particularly good for cherries which you may have noticed at the supermarket with cherry prices being reasonable and cherries being plump and fat with few bad quality ones. After our expedition raspberry picking in New Zealand we were excited to try our hand at other fruit picking.
As cherry freaks, we decided to visit Hillside Orchards who offer PYO (Pick Your Own) cherries. When we arrived at 5pm we were told that unfortunately we had arrived too late. Even though they close at 6pm the last of their visitors need to arrive by 4:30pm. Our faces must have shown a major disappointment and after telling them that we were heading off the next day they relented as long as we promised to be back within 45 minutes so that they could close. We quickly headed out towards the cherry trees with a single minded mission: pick as many cherries as possible!
Some of the trees have been picked over by other eager visitors but we manage to find a tree plentiful in gloriously red cherries. We try a few to see which shade of red we should go for as they’re not all a deep red and the bright red cherries are also sweet. Picking them is very easy, just twist and snap at the top of the stems and they come off easily and we find quadruple or quintuple bunches and even siamese twin cherries! The stems are firm and attached and stay that way-of course by the time we get them at the supermarket, the stems have started to dry and darken and the cherries detach so it’s a novelty finding such strong stems.
After a furious 20 minutes picking, we head back to the shed to pay for our bounty. In the shed there are also pre-picked fruit in buckets should you want to skip the whole PYO experience and just buy fresh. We talk to the owner there who tells us that we are lucky as we are there for the penultimate day of picking and that tomorrow, five tour buses will converge and pick to their heart’s content and the season will officially end there. Fruit seasons have changed over the past few years – normally cherry season starts mid November and finishes mid January but this year it started early on the 28th of October and finished mid December due to unseasonably warmth earlier in the year. These timings also depend on the temperature during Spring. Orange experienced a heatwave in Mid November and a full bloom on the 10th of October. While they only offer pick your own cherries here, they tell us that apricots are usually picked mid December to mid January but they’re not in season yet and figs which were usually picked at Christmas are available from March to April nowadays.
There are usually about 17 varieties of cherry including varieties such as Sun, Stella, Vista, Suburst and Dons. Having this many varieties allows them to extend the season further which they also do with other fruit like apples. These are usually picked in cooler months but planting varieties such as Pink Lady, Delicious, Granny Smith and Jonathans means that the season spans from late Janaury to mid May as each variety responds different to heat and some bloom earlier than others. In February they expect nectarines to come into season and in March peaches.
This year’s cherry season was particularly good and they packed eighty bins and they only had to discard two bin’s worth of cherries whilst normally they usually have to discard 30% of what is picked. This year the Don was the sweetest variety and the quality of yield means that they can sell it at up to $9 a kilo with our pick your own bounty costing us a modest $7 a kilo. This orchard was specifically planted for Pick Your Own sales and seven tonnes of cherries are picked on a weekend. Tour groups of Greek, Spanish and Russians come here to pick cherries and one couple picked 100kg of cherries to give to everyone they knew as a gift.
And how were the cherries? They may not have been the fattest cherries but they certainly were the freshest lasting for a week without any issues at all with a wonderfully sweet flavour. Mr NQN shared them with a colleague of this who pronounced them “The best cherries I’ve ever tasted”.
Huntley Berry Farm
We take our bag of cherries back to the car and store it in the Toyota Prado Kakadu’s Chill box (so useful!) and head over to Huntley Berry farms the next day. The tour buses are in full force and there are also cars full of small groups and couples. The man behind the counter is gruff and hands us our baskets and points us in the direction to pick.
The sun is strong so we don our hats and go towards the various marked rows. They’re mainly raspberries, silvanberries and gooseberries but the gooseberries are quite sour. Most of the raspberries aren’t quite ripe yet so we pick a few but not as many as we’d like.
Gooseberries
Head Gear!
The strawberries are in a separate section and I recall Queen Viv’s advice about picking strawberries being hardest as you need to squat down to get as them as they’re so low. The strawberries are gorgeously sweet and bright red and come in all shapes and sizes but again they’re not very plentiful.
There is an adjoining cafe which sells refreshments as well as a multitude of jams in some fabulous flavours with all varieties available for sampling. The berry picking season here is mid November to May and during the month of January youngberries, boysenberries, silvanberries, jostaberries, gooseberries and currants are able to be picked. In February there are strawberries and blackberries and in March you can pick raspberries, strawberries and blackberries and in April and May feijoas can be picked.
Driving around Orange, we also spot self serve apple stands which are small, unmanned chilled rooms where you can purchase apples using an honour system. We’re loaded up with other fruit so we don’t buy any instead munching on berry bounty on the drive back.
So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite berry?
NQN and Mr NQN travelled to Orange as guests of Toyota
Hillside Orchard
Forbes Road, Borenore
Tel: +61 (02) 6365 2247
Open 7 days 9am-6pm (last entry 4:30pm)
Huntley Berry Farm
Near Orange Airport, Huntley Road, Orange
Tel: +61 (02) 6365 5282
Saturday to Sundau 10am-4pm
Monday to Friday 9am-4pm
Just because a farm should always have a chicken…
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75 Comments | Add your own
I went fruit picking in Japan and it was fabulous – grapes and nashi, delicious. I love all berries, raspberries are probably my favourite, but I think cherries might be my favourite fruit.
I love, love, love raspberries. Delicious!
A lot of our relatives have just moved to Orange. I am glad that are some great things for us to do when we visit. x
Ooohhhh.. that’s right up my alley! We’re the berries reasonably priced at Huntley?
Oh this is just torture! Some of my happiest childhood memories are of berry picking, until the drought closed down the one nearby
Those cherries look so glossy, sigh!
I adore raspberries, blackberries, hoysenberries, kiwiberries
– everything really, though I’ve never found gooseberries that aren’t sour!
Your photos of the berries are so incredible. I feel like I can just reach through my screen and pick one. You’re so luck it’s berry season there. In California, we have a few months to go before we are so blessed. Hard to pick a fave berry, but probably if I could have a perfectly ripe, red to the stem strawberry, I would be one happy camper.
This is one of the reasons why I love Australia – simple pleasures such as visiting a fruit orchard or berry farm and finding happiness in very small packages (look at all those berries!!!!!!!!). How long was the drive though, Lorraine?
At first I thought that pic of the “Apples Self Service” was actually a quirky outdoor toilet! Until you get inside, of course.
My favourite berry is definitely the raspberry- but only if it is sweet and not too tart. Strawberries and blueberries both come in a close second.
I love blackberries. Each summer school holidays we raced around the paddocks of the farm to pick them before Dad had the time to spray them (noxious weed).
I had to follow a strict rule of 10 for the bucket then one for me else nothing would get home. We made jams, apple pies and just had them with icecream. A wonderful memory.
Our fruit has been wonderful this season hasn’t it? We’re so lucky to have local grown beautiful fruit
Beautiful! And I vote for absolutely every single one of these photographs to be a wallpaper!
I can’t even settle on a favorite berry. I can’t think of one I don’t love.
So beautiful visiting and exploring the real nature – not only the fruit stores.
Lovely cherries and pictures are awesome.
My favorite berry..you know it: strawberry
All the best,
Gera
I’m so jealous.
It’s winter in Ohio and you are living my summer dreams.
I love picking raspberries and making loads of preserves. Apples are fun, with pies, sauce and butter.
Pumpkins are delightful and when I go further north blueberries are a treat.
Alas, it’s just not fruit season for me.
Cherries: I am so envious of your cherry exploits. I could just park myself in an orchard & go nuts – or cherries.
For the last 8yrs,we have taken our children to Highgrove Orchards at Stanley (in north east Victoria) to go berry picking, a few days before Christmas. It has become one of our Christmas traditions. We all love berries and cherries. My favourite, though, this year has been the boysenberry. Yumm!
ALL berries are good berries.
except maybe gooseberries – never taken to them! i want to go fruit picking now – we went to the PYO strawberry farms on the sunshine coast and our 6 year old sat in the car quietly munching his way through an entire kg of strawberries.!!! (got to be better than fast food though, hey?)
i adore cherries (except i loathe the “cherry” flavoured things like chupachups and chewy candy
Blackberries would be my No. 1 and after living in the UK where you can pick them from the hedgerows going to the bus stop they are still top of my list but I do love cherries too
here in FL, our strawberry farmers had to pump water to cover the plants to keep them from freezing in the severe cold we had recently . As a result of the pumping, sinkholes have opened in the area around the strawberry farms. A couple of the sinkholes were involving the roads that many people travel on every day. Roads had to be closed to traffic for days and even after the repairs were made, more sinkholes developed in other areas involving other roads like on ramps to the interstate.
I am yearning for summer now after seeing these sunny fruity pictures with blue skies. I haven’t picked fruit since I was a child.
mmmmm….I love picking fresh fruit in general but especially berries! I used to live in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington in USA) and I miss the blackberries most! Beautiful pictures! Can’t wait for the season to start again!
I love picking fruit. And then making some of it into jam so that we can enjoy the fruit through the colder months too. I haven’t been fruit picking for a long time though. I must go again before summer is through
Ooh I’ve always wanted to go berry picking. Did you eat all the fruit or did you use some for baking? Can’t wait to see what you made if you did!
Thanks for sharing. Love the shot of your cherry earrings!
Cherries are my favourite – and I’ll organise a picking trip to Orange later this year.
So you did go cherry picking! The Hillside orchard ones were my favourites this year. Though I think my picking approach of “one for me, one for the bucket” proved to be my downfall that night…
Love your earrings, so life like
I’d have a field day here with my mum picking away! Lucky you got there just in time for picking though!
My favorite berry? hmmm…. I love them all!
You can’t get any fresher than this!
Look at all that fab fruit!!!! I wanna go. Love the cherry earrings – brings back childhood memories (did they do this in an old Cherry Ripe ad??).
That first photo is just TOO adorable.. hehe “wink”… I have never been cherry picking.. and I did them all with my mum = ) any sort of picking here is in a darn green house.. sort of takes the fun out of it.
That sounds like great fun! I’ve never picked cherries before. I really love all berries, but if I have to select a favorite, it’s strawberries.
Your photos are beautiful! I love all the berries, but maybe my favorite one is cloud-berry, which ripens in the forests under midnight sun… I remember my childhood in Finland where forests and gardens were full of sweet berries.
I love those cherry earrings!
I’d love to go fruit-picking again, I haven’t been since I was little.
Blueberries are my favourite, but cooked in a cake or muffins! In fact I think most fruit tastes better with cake…
My favourite berry to eat is definately the Raspberry but my favourite for memories is Mulberry (we had a tree in our backyard we would eat til our faces were purple and then Mum would make pies) and Blueberry (Picking them with my grandmother a few years before she died is one of my best memories of her and our shared time together).
Isn’t it amazing how food has the ability to store so many memories for you?
Great Post xx
Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing~
Oh my gosh, today I was just talking about how much I miss fresh cherries! I’m totally envious!
Gorgeous pics Lorraine, and I love your cherry earrings!
Oh, those glorious, glowing cherries ~ and you can pick your own! (Sorry for the gushing; fresh cherries are rare in my part of the world and I go haywire every time they show up at local supermarkets.)
I’m thinking pies, jam, clafoutis…
Hi, I used to live right next to the Huntley Berry Farm and the scent of ripe berries wafting through my house was intoxicating. Thanks for bringing back the memories of picking berries to my hearts content and lining ruby hued jars along my shelves,and filling freezers with treats. My favourite was taking children to pick the strawberries and their delight at finding the biggest, juiciest ones and sampling the warm delights.
I love cherries and raspberries. We have a place here in Northern California called Apple Hill. You can find raspberries to pick the right time of the year, I believe around Fall as it has been a long time since we have picked them. I know of nowhere to pick cherries, or strawberries. We have little wood hut looking strawberry stands all over the place to buy fresh strawberries when they are in season, not till April or May with cherries. You were very lucky as the best and sweetest fruit is right from the vine or trees. I wish we could pick them as you did. Interesting that we have different varieties of cherries than you do. I will have to post in April and May when ours are for sale. We get Bing and Queen Anne cherries. We currently have available to us, lots of Oranges and recently some strawberries and cherries at one Farmers Market and the grocery store. Great photos. Wish I was there to eat them with you. I always miss fresh fruit in the Winter.
What a lovely place. When I was younger, my mom used to take us strawberry picking. It was so much fun and a great memory. Now I have some of my own apple trees, and it makes me so happy when its apple seas on
. Cant wait for winter to go away already!
We’ve been to Huntly Berry farm last year and had a fantastic time. The raspberries picked straight from the vine were amazing.
I believe the farm is government owned and is farmed by people with special needs, with all profits being distributed back into the farm and into their housing and essentials. Meredith xo.
Blueberries are my fav. love the popping in my mouth!
Pick your own strawberry farms and occasionally eating one or a handfull which are still warm from the sun and have not been diluted by a wash! Ah, the memories, thanks for helping to bring those back!
My Nanna used to grow gooseberries but they looked different to the ones you’ve shown here. I have a sneaking suspicion that the berries in my Nanna’s yard weren’t actually gooseberries but gosh they were yummy.
Love the colour of your nailpolish btw! I think I’ve noticed it in some other photos of yours. What brand is it???
great information – I thought cherry season should last a little longer – wish I was really on the ball with when fruits were in season each year – had not realised it could change so much
I have good intentions of picking my own each year but get distracted with other activities and suddenly it is too late – nice to hear about it so I can do it vicariously
What an enjoyable day!
I like mulberries the best (the purple ones); their flavor is nothing short of heavenly.
Why is it that these orchards do not grow them , I wonder?
o man i so wanna do this. i just hate that all the pick your own farms are hours and hours away from sydney. by the time i get there i’d feel so sick from the car ride.
gosh what a feast of cherries n berries…just what my blog needs!
Aw, I can imagine your dejected faces after being told you were too late to pick!
I love many types of berry, but I am still smitten by the little wild blueberries I ate by the handful in Ontario when staying there. They were incredible!
I also thought the apple room was a portaloo at first! Hehe..
I just love Orange! Those cherries look amazing and make me long for some warmer weather up here. What did you end up doing with the cherries? Any fun baking projects?
Oh I love this!
At my last house we had a MASSIVE cherry tree across the field. My grandparents would come over and though grandpa couldn’t do picking, he would hook his cane over the branches and pull them down so we could. 
Such grand memories. 
what gorgeous fruit! speaking of gorgeous, where can i find a hat like that? they’re quite stylish.
my favorite fruit to pick would definitely be the blueberry–thorn-free!
I lovee those cherry earrings, tres chic!
And fully edible too! Talk about multipurpose.I remember strawberry picking in Melbourne. I ended up with jars and jars of strawberry jam, along with 3 types of strawberry concoctions i the fridge. It was the best!
I’m going to agree with just about everyone else and say my favourite berries are raspberries although I adore boysenberries too. I haven’t had boysenberries in years. I used to treat myself to boysenberry pancakes after my Saturday job when I was 17 – yum! I’m on my way to Oz in 6 weeks time and I’m going to OD on fruit at my mums in QLD. Can’t wait
Love Cherries but I also crave freshly-picked Raspberries , so yummy. I used to take my two daughters ,Raspberry and Blueberry picking and they would stuff their little faces full of fruit, too cute.
I have been wanting to go to Orange Cherry Festival for many years but so far it’s eluded me. Perhaps you could organise a ‘NQN’ bus trip departing from Sydney, now that would be a lot of fun hehe
Love the chicken btw.
Nice nail colour!
Love your photography. Everything looks so fresh and wholesome. Wish we had fruit orchards like these. Open space is a luxury over here in Singapore. 
I need to go do that again one day. A few xmasses ago, we picked raspberries and the like a t a friends farm. Awesome.
Pick your own fruit is so wonderfully fresh! The cherries look wonderful.
reading this post reminds me of the trips with family when i was younger, we’d pick buckets and buckets of cherries and eat them till i possibly couldn’t eat any more!!
Wow all this sounds like so much fun.. I’ve never picked my own berries, and I don’t think it’s possible to do so, here in India!
I would be so confused with the seasons in Australia – I’m just too used to having berries June through September and apples September through December!
I always used to go strawberry picking with my mom every year and my family made an annual trip to an apple orchard every year. We had raspberry and blackberry bushes in the woods behind our house and even a small blueberry bush in the backyard, as well as wild strawberries all over both yards. Such a brief season but so good when they’re ripe! I’ve never picked cherries before but I think it’d be hard for me to make it out of the orchard without having eaten all of them!
Hi Amy-Oh cool! I had no idea you could pick fruit in Japan! Me too, I adore cherries. They are usually quite reliably sweet!
Hi fat mum slim-Oh fabulous! Yes there’s lots of delicious places to eat and picking fruit is fun!
Hi Liss-Isn’t it!
I thinkt he strawberries were $8 a kilo and the raspberries and other berries were $12 a kilo 
Hi Hannah-They were so firm and lovely! Ahh ok! I’ve had gooseberry jam but never fresh ones so perhaps they are a sour fruit
Hi Carolyn-Hehe!
yes a really sweet strawberry is wonderful I agree!
Hi Trisha-Yes so lovely and I wish there was somewhere a little closer too! Now that would be brilliant
The drive was 4 hours to Orange 
Hi john-Haha I know! It does look like it!
Hi sandra-Yes sometimes I find raspberries a bit too tart. But I love them in baked goods!
Hi Jacinta-Ahh I like them but don’t see them around much! What wonderful food memories!
Hi Anita-It has! Isn’t that lovely?
Hi MaryPoppinsinHeels -Aww thankyou! You are too sweet
Hi Gera-Great choice! I love strawberries when they are sweet
Hi Julianna -Ahh yes preserves are a great way of making them last!
I’ve never picked pumpkins or blueberries but they sound like fun!
Hi Mary-Hehe me too! I just wanted to sit there and eat
Hi Marie-What a lovely tradition!
Oh yes I do like boysenberries although I didn’t see any here that day.
Hi brussellsprout-Hehe yes I guess they are a bit sour. Definitely better than fast food!
Hi Betty-I know, faux cherry is terrible isn’t it!
Hi Chris-Oh what a nice treat on the way to the bus!
Hi Julia-Oh dear, that doesn’t sound good at all! :O
Hi Sarah-Yes it’s a great season for fruit picking. Not long now I guess?
Hi Jen-They’re so light to pick too which is nice (so you don’t have to carry heavy apples etc). Great stuff and that’s a beautiful area! Have fun picking fruit!
Hi Renee-yes it’s a great idea to make it last a bit longer
Yes only a few more days now!
Hi Steph -We ate a lot and we used some for the Ispahan crème I made before Christmas
Hi foodwink-Thankyou so much!
Great stuff-enjoy!
Hi Gem-We did!
Any chance to go fruit picking I always take up 
Haha!
Hi Iron Chef Shellie-Haha thanks!
I know we were so lucky! :O
HI The Duo Dishes-I totally agree!
HI Cakelaw-I think they did actually come to think of it!
Hi April Marie-thanks darling!
OH no really? Ahh yes that is a bit different yes!
Hi lisa-Ahh good choice! And the freshly picked ones are gorgeous
Hi tuulia-Thankyou! Yes Finnish berries are amazingly good
Hi arista-Thankyou! It’s so much fun
Hehe you may be onto something there! 
Hi Joy-Ahh I don’t think I’ve had many mulberries in my life! Absolutely, all those wonderful memories from childhood unlocked by food or by smell which are so transporting! xxx
Hi Kim-thankyou and you’re welcome!
Hi Faith-Hehe thankyou! I wish I could have made them a bit more permanent!
Hi Midge-Yes I know what you mean! I was looking around so excited!
Hi Orange Gal-Ahh lucky you!
Ahh lovely and I think children are particularly taken with berry picking!
Hi Darlene-Absolutely, I definitely feel lucky!
Yes it’s funny how many varieties of fruit there are! I’ve heard of Bing ones and I’d love to try them to taste the difference 
Sounds like a great selection! 
Hi Heavenly Housewife-I think kids enjoy fruit picking the most! I would have loved to have gone when I was little! I bet you can’t! I love the warmer months for the delicious food
Hi Meredith-Aren’t they great!
Ahh interesting to know! 
Thanks for letting us know! Xxx
Hi walkingcake-Hehe me too!
Hi Moya-Yes that is true, no time or chance to wash them! They’re so amazingly fresh
Hi BuBbles-Hehe that’s funny. I wonder what kind of fruit they were?
Thankyou! It’s Chanel Kaleidoscope. I adore Chanel nailpolishes and have a bit of an addiction to them 
Hi Johanna-Yes I had no idea too! I suppose it makes sense but didn’t realise there would be that much variation!
Hi tasteofbeirut-It was!
I’m not sure why! 
Hi Judy-I know, if only there was a place closer by!
Hi zurin-Hehe I could use some right now!
Hi Conor-I know, we must have looked pitiful
Ooh are they nicer than regular blueberries? They sounds gorgeous! Haha yes it does have a portaloo look!
Hi SarahKate-We ate so many but I also used some in the Ispahan crème I made around Christmas!
Hi Krista-Aww how sweet and I love that image! What a great grandpa!
Hi grace -Haha you like that headgear? I think they’re beekeeper’s hats! Ahh true true!
Hi Sweets at Vicky’s-Why thankyou!
Oh how fantastic! I love strawberry jam!
Hi Natalie-Mmm boysenberry pancakes sound amazing! Good idea! Have fun!
Hi Matilda-Yes kids always have so much fun don’t they! Hehe now that would be awesome wouldn’t it!
Hi The Little Teochew-Thankyou!
Yes that’s true, we have to travel quite a distance to pick fruit which is a bit of a shame!
Hi Fiona-Absolutely! A fun way to pass a couple of hours!
Hi Arwen-Thanks, they were gorgeous!
Hi Panda-Hehe yes it’s amazing how many cherries one can eat when they’re fresh!
Hi Avanika-I wonder if it is? Do you get many berries there? Fruit picking is usually quite far out of the city so we have to travel for it
Hi anna-Hehe yes I guess we’re the opposite!
Oh yes I agree when they’re ripe and fresh there’s not much better! Haha yes there’s that temptation and it’s quite a big temptation! 
There are a lot of thing to pick in this farm.I pretent to work in fruit farm like this but I never got it.
I would like to know that is there any job as a picker in this farm ?
Hello. May I ask for the exact address of this cherry picking place? We plan on going on a road trip and it would be fantastic if we can go there… thanks.
Hi Jum-I’m not sure but you could call them if you were interested?
Hi Cristina-The addresses are at the bottom of the story
But cherry season is over so you may need to call for the cherry season dates.
Dear Everyone
Please, if you have been to the Cherry Farm please show me the address and direction please..me and my family really wanna go Cherry Picking but I have never been there my self!
Many Thanks to your help!!
Hi there, may I have the details like location and best time to go cherry picking sent to my email address please.
Thank you so much.
Sorry, I thought this was the website for cherry picking. My bad.
Hello…I wanted to know more information about places to make fruit picking and if it is better queensland or nsw at the moment…Thank you…bye bye
hey im looking for work i have 4 other people as well, were looking to pick cherry could u let me no if you could help plz my email add is:crissy_1966@live.com
thank you, christie
I am planning to come to Orange tomorrow (24th dec 2011) for berry picking…is this right time for that? Where and how can i get the address for the farm/s that allows for berry picking.
Please advise.
thanks
Hemant
I’m interested to visit cherries farm, but I don’t know the best time to go there
please let us know the time for cherry pick durring december week ends
Are u open next Monday 3 dec.
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