Cherries & Strawberries

It's raining cats and dogs now. After a long week of hot, dry days, this refreshing downpour is very much welcomed by my household, not to mention our plants which are almost dying of thirst. Thursday had been one of the hottest day, with temperatures of 34 degrees but the weather forecast for this weekend has turned around drastically, it's almost unbelievable. Now I'm kind of worried if the rain would affect our picnic tomorrow.

Today, it was an overcast sky that greeted us in the morning. The weather was cool but there was no rain as we set off to the countryside of Bacchus Marsh, just 35km away. Bacchus Marsh is having the Cherries & Strawberries Weekend and we're hoping to do some cherry-picking. As it turned out, we were too early and too late. It is still early in the cherry season, so there were not that much cherries for picking as most cherries are still ripening. And we'd reached there too late so whatever ripe cherries there were had all been plucked. Thankfully, there will be plenty more opportunities in the coming 3 weeks. The farm had peaches and nectarines too but we were not too interested in those. The cherries looked so bright, fresh and cheery on the trees. Hubby and I has agreed that we should plant some cherry trees in our garden next time, in addition to lemon and apple trees. KK was rather disappointed that he couldn't pick anything there but the weather was nice so we took a stroll around the orchard nonetheless.

After a delicious lunch at the town center, we returned to the Avenue of Honour and stopped by the Naturipe farm. They also had cherries, peaches and nectarines but only the strawberries were ready for picking. It's the 3rd time we're doing this, so honestly, the novelty for me is no longer there. I can buy strawberries anytime at the market and the prices are very reasonable. No longer a tourist, I'm not willing to pay for strawberries that cost double its usual price. We found out that they charge $9/kg and there's no minimum quantity. You pick as much and as little as you like. I think the price is rather reasonable so in we went for some exercise.

Inside, the bright red strawberries looked so delicious and everyone of them seem to be telling me "pluck me, pluck me". I felt like picking everything home. In the midst of teaching him how to pick good strawberries, KK received a valuable, albeit premature, lesson on 'cherry picking' his future partner. He tends to pick the first red strawberry he sees, usually those most visible and hanging outside. But really, many of the good ones are actually hidden inside the bush, where most people would not bother to push the leaves apart to find. Also before picking, we should turn the strawberry around and examine it properly. Some appear perfect facing you but the other side is still yellow and not ripe. Some have blemishes and worms hidden from our view. Not every red strawberry is worth picking. Hopefully he'll understand the deeper meaning next time but at the moment he sure needs to make better selections, many of the strawberries he picks cannot pass the 'QC' of mummy.

We didn't have to walk very far down two rows of plants to find our 2 kg box almost full. Rationale must prevail! We cannot possibly finish 2 kg of strawberries in a short time. Besides we can always come back again to get more anytime. I had to stop my sons and myself from our 'plucking frenzy'. At the end, we brought home 1.4kg of beautiful strawberries and a satisfied KK, who finally got to pluck something!