Cherry growers are experiencing mixed results across the Orange region with some losing almost their whole crop while others are experiencing a late but plentiful season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Stockman's Ridge and Canobolas Cherries are both finding success with pick your own cherries initiatives.
Stockman's Ridge general manager Lisa De Diana said the orchard was one of the lucky ones this year and has missed most of the storms.
"We've got very high quality cherries this year, very large dark red, very good quality," Ms De Diana said.
"We've got very little damage from storms this year.
"We've been lucky the storms missed us."
However, Ms De Diana said there was a later start than usual this year.
"Usually we finish at the end of December and this year we've got another 10 days of picking," she said on Tuesday.
As well as being a later season she said it was also a longer season this year.
"It's all pick your own but we are open every day for people to come and do pick your own," Ms De Diana said.
"We've got nine varieties of cherries here, it's popular."
She said the pick your own cherries runs between 9am and 2pm daily, the winery cellar door was also open, for the first time a jumping castle has been set up for children and people can also bring a picnic.
Canobolas Cherries owner Michelle Goss said the orchard is also running pick your own cherries this year but has had mixed results.
"We lost our first variety and it looks like our last variety is very small," Mrs Goss said.
"Everything else is very good."
She said the orchard is small with about 100 trees and this year they are struggling from a whole sale perspective so are focussing on the pick your own initiative, which they do every year.
Mrs Goss said pickers come from the Orange area as well as Sydney and she said she would love to hold a locals day, particularly with the rise in COVID cases in Sydney.
"Last year we had a few locals come out and say we've never picked cherries before," she said.
Mrs Goss said last year the cherry season started on November 25 but this year it didn't start until two weeks ago.
"We normally finish two days before Christmas, we could go to mid-January."
Heavy rains, hail and summer storms have been blamed for many of the cherry losses.
Luke Cantrill from Cantrill Organics said it was a disappointing season and most of the crop was lost due to too much rainfall.
He said the Nashdale farm also experienced too much rain last year.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.centralwesterndaily.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
HAVE YOUR SAY
- Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...
Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
