Cherry Hunting Season

It's been raining cats and dogs on most days this summer. Thus, organising an outing on weekends is a tricky thing. But of course, being a faithful believer of the adage "where there's a will, there's a way," I stopped listening to the weather forecast and just follow my instinct.

Anyway, last week, Aunty Rose (Mama's BFF since her school days) came all the way from Malaysia and she brought her family too. Of course, on top of the compulsory touristy stuff like visiting the Opera House, Harbour Bridge etc, Mama suggested some PYO activities as well. And this being summer, it's also the season for mangoes and the stone fruits. Since cherries are the first in the season, so cherry picking seems to be the logical choice.

Believing the weather forecast (at first) and after hearing reports that the cherry harvest is badly affected by too much rain, we had to do frantic research and get the right information. We called up several orchards in Bathurst (first choice as it's the nearest) and Young (the cherry capital). 

We reckon many people were put off by the bad reports that many didn't go cherry picking at our favourite orchard (coz it's organic) in Bathurst. So, when we called the orchard and were told: "Yes, please come. We still have some fruits available," we were ecstatic.

And off we went to Bathurst last weekend....in search of the lush-est, juici-est, red-dest, bling-est cherry. Oh yess....drool people. The pictures tell all.

The adventure began here.....

Uncle Z "caught" the first cherry!

Remember! Just the maroon ones - the darker the colour, the sweeter the fruit.

Pick them one by one, by the stem.

Ooooh....droool...

Those red dots are cherries, of course.

The cherry hunting family at work.

Aunty Rose aka Queen Cherry Hunter!

Cherry hunters with their "catch". 

The "catch" weighed, valued and boxed before we could take it home.

Abang A trying out the lawn mower.

We left the orchard just as the heavy rain began to fall. All of the hunters were also hungry....hey...I thought everyone ate tons of cherries while picking... We're all carnivores and so we must have protein. We brought Mama's portable BBQ set and the task was to find a picnic area with roofed facilities. After several minutes of driving around Bathurst looking for a suitable place, we ended up at Berry Park.  

Yummm...pure carnivore stuffs. There were steaks, lamb chops, chicken kebab, chicken sausages and beef ribs.

The journey home was fraught with heavy rain, fog and strong wind. Everyone ends up snoring in the car except for Uncle Z who was behind the wheels, Oh, we stopped by a petrol station and bought him coffee so that he'd stay alert. 

Ooooh....all this writing makes me yearn for those cherries in the fridge. purrrr.....meow! 

What We Also Did On Eid Day 2

...the story continues...(promise! this is the last of the Eid series)

EID DAY 2
Mama woke us up really early, "Wake up lazy heads. Go wash your face and then I'll give you breakfast. Early start so we can reach home early too," she said.
And Brad had to open his mouth, "Aren't we supposed to go back to the zoo? We haven't seen the lion or bison!"
"Brad, what if we leave you at the zoo while the rest of us return to Sydney. Would you like that?" Dad has a surefire way of shutting Brad up. I just laugh in my head. Don't want to risk getting scolded by Dad.

ON THE ROAD
As expected, it was a loooong and boooooring journey again. Brad, afraid of Dad, just curled up and snored.
Rescue, fortunately, came via Mama.
"Dad, did you notice people selling cherries by the roadside when we passed by this way a few days ago?" she said.
He responded, "Yes. So?"
"Let's find out if there's any PYO orchards around here," Mama suggested.
"I think the cherry orchards are either in Orange or Bathurst. We'll find out there," Dad, surprisingly, agreed.
When we reached Bathurst (Dad didn't stop at Orange!!!), Mama said she needed a pee-stop so Dad had to find one and stopped there.
Mama, my lovely cunning mum, actually went to the big map on the wall and tried to see if any orchard is listed there. When Dad saw what she was doing, she quickly ran to the toilets. teeheehee....

The big map and info board in Bathurst. Population 38,000.

Street view of Bathurst. This city is famous for Mount Panorama, the V8 Supercar Racing circuit.

We found a kebab shop in the city centre and tried to get more information from the shopkeeper. The chap (he's quite cute) told us to go to the Information Centre that's located on the road to Sydney. He also said there's a mosque that we can visit in a suburb called Kelso. After a hearty meal of kebab and chips, we found ourselves on the road again. This time looking for the information centre.

The lady at the counter was very friendly. Mama and Dad bought some Bathurst souvenirs there before asking for information and maps. We found out that there are three PYO cherry orchards in Bathurst. The nice lady marked them on the map and gave us the addresses and telephone numbers. Mama called all the orchards and then made the decision to visit based on the way the orchard people answered. "In business, first impression counts," she explained.

OFF TO THE ORCHARD

Cows having a siesta under a tree. We saw many such scenes along the way to the orchard.

Although we were told that the orchard is just 15 minutes away, it felt like forever. I guess it was because we were all super excited. Oh, the orchard we were looking for is called Stockman's Ridge, located on Limekiln Road. It has a website, you can google it. It practises organic farming.

Cherries are delicate fruits. Therefore we have to be careful in handling them. The owner also took time to take us to the trees and show us how. "Use your thumb and forefinger," he said. "Oh, and the cats are not allowed to climb the trees, OK?"

Look at those humongous cherries! This type is called Starkrimson and matures to a deep maroon.

Mama checking out cherries hiding under the leaves. As the farm is organic, we could eat the fruits straight away as we pick them.

Harvest of the day. The owners even provided us with environment friendly bags.

The harvest upclose. We only picked from three trees and yet managed to get almost 6kg.

Mama checking out a fruiting peach tree.

The peaches are unfortunately still very young. Not ready for harvest yet.

An apricot tree.

Plums, still unripe too.

Organic almonds, anyone?

Dad practising his photography skill. The wooden stilt house is the orchard's office.

On the way back to the main road leading to Sydney, Mama noticed that we would actually be passing by Kelso. So Dad made a detour to look for the mosque.

The Al Sahaba Mosque is clean and nice. There were just us then, luckily it wasn't locked.

ANOTHER DETOUR
I must say that a day in the cherry orchard had a good effect on Dad. He even agreed to stop and stretch our legs at the Blue Mountains. It was late and so we miss the yummylicious hot chocolates at the Chocolate Gallery. But the Three Sisters in Katoomba is always open. So we visited them.

We had good company at Echo Point, Katoomba, where we could view the Jamieson Valley and the Three Sisters.

The graceful Three Sisters.

Sunset at Echo Point.

It took another one and a half hours before we reached home. But I'm not complaining. purrr....meow!

The End.