ORDER NOW FOR CHERRY EXPRESS. - PICK YOUR OWN IS OPEN

Cherry season is here – time-wise we’re nearly half-way through the season yet we're only just getting started with our main varieties starting to ripen.

It’s been wonderful to again see familiar faces and new visitors to the orchard, both for picking and for buying our ready picked cherries and apricots.  

What a week this one has been – from a 5^oC morning (we delayed picking until fingers could warm up!) through to a very hot day today and an even hotter one forecast tomorrow. The trees wilt in the heat. Whilst I'm keeping up the irrigation through driplines we've seen that cherry trees will shut down in extreme heat and stop taking up that water. Thankfully we still have cool nights which allow the cherries to recover from the heat. Birds have moved in and so we're throwing out quite a bit of damage fruit. Any other time of year I'd love to hear the sound of the lorikeets!

This week we’ve been picking our: 

·       Rons variety – this is the cherry I’m asked for the most frequently – a classic mellow cherry flavour, very popular.  (My least favourite but that may be more to do with the scraggly tree growth and their habit of shedding fruit) 

·       Santina’s – first harvest from a trial growing on a cordon trellis system.  This is working really well growing in a two plane shape.  They were super crunchy cherries.  Looking forward to seeing how they fruit up next year.   

·       Vans – we will pick some of these tomorrow ahead of the heat.  A tarter flavour cherry that packs a flavour, very different to the Rons.  We rarely pick these as they are usually picked by the pick-your own visitors before I get to them!  We will leave most for visitors to pick. 

·       Apircots – the last for our season picked today – Lilycots in a third wave of picking. As we sell direct, without long storage, we’re able to leave the apricots to close to ripe and do a series of repeat pickings in each variety. 

Our team picking is underway, a gradual start with a small team in our early varieties has helped to get us back into the swing and test everything system again (and do some emergency repairs to the conveyor belt and a coolroom).  Now we’re hitting a rhythm with our 2025 season picking crew coming together.  It’s still a bit slow to pick in the Rons and Vans but we’re getting ready to ramp up for the Simones next week.   

Cherry Express

Thank-you for all the queries and patience as we wait to see how these cherries behave, we have worked out logistics for the cherry express runs. 

Planned dates and locations to collect our cherries are:

North West Thursday 11 December

COONABARABRAN, MOREE, NARRABRI, Thallon

North West Friday 12 December

NARRABRI, BOGGABRI, COOLAH

Upper Namoi Monday 15 December

GUNNEDAH, TAMWORTH, QUIRINDI, TAMBAR SPRINGS

HUNTER 16 December

MERRIWA,  SCONE,  MUSWELLBROOK, MORPETH, DENMAN  

Blue Mountains / Blacktown, 18 December  

LITHGOW, WENTWORTH FALLS, GLENBROOK, GALSTON, BLACKTOWN

Sydney North / Parramatta, 19 December

NORTHBRIDGE, PARRAMATTA

I was bombarded with queries after I'd not specifically mentioned Gunnedah in the last Cherry Chatter - definitely we will back to our followers in Gunnedah - this time we've made it a separate run to include Tamworth and the Quirindi school cherry drive.

After lots of requests we are now taking bookings using a simple survey form (this avoids the fees of bookings systems).   

Please click here to go to the cherry express order form.  

Details of pick up locations and times are in there. Payment will be on collection. 

Pick your own

Pick your own season is now open every morning except Wednesdays – please do prebook as bookings make it smoother for everyone. Bookings here - all details of times, costs, safety are in there.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will close early due to the forecast extreme heat.  

Our new cherry picking pails have been really popular with the kids.

PLANNING A VISIT TO THE ORCHARD?

If you are planning a longer visit there are plenty of things to see in Mudgee. Find out more about our local attractions and stays from Mudgee Region Tourism.

Cherries and chocolate are a perfect match and we have both right here.  When I pick at the top of the orchard I can look across a vineyard to our local bean-to-bar chocolate maker Spencer Cocoa where beans from growers in Vanuatu are made into delicious chocolate.  This little chocolate factory is now open for visitors so this season if you’re visiting Thursday to Sunday you can add a chocolate visit to your cherry picking adventure here in Eurunderee.  We keep talking of a cherry chocolate collaboration product - but really we're so close together you can pop into both! Thea popped by for some fun videos of the journey from chocolate maker to cherry orchard - check it out on instagram.

Staying in Mudgee overnight?  There are plenty of accommodation options around Mudgee - from motels and caravan parks through to B&Bs and farm-stays, with some really close to us. Staying at Mudgee Homestead you'll find our cherries and apricots on the breakfast table and in Karen's amazing cakes. Sean's been busy with the Fowlers unit this week preserving our harvest for their guests to enjoy all year round. Great views back over our little orchard area.

If travelling from Sydney and staying a few days you could choose to make your stay in Rylstone (a shorter drive from Sydney) and then take a day trip up to our orchard from there.  For a group farmstay try our friends at Rylstone’s Coomber farm accommodation, Lue’s Odd Frog Lodges or farm camping at Old Bara.  

Roasted apricots with bayleaves on ricotta - inspired by Beck from Olive.a.twist catering who created (and far more cleverly styled!) this dish using our apricots for some lucky catering guests. Simple and delicious, starring our fresh apricots! The Barn at Blue Wren has flooded their menus this month with our apricots - a pork cutlet with grilled apricot, a panna cotta with poached apricots and an apricot sauce on porchetta. Yum - if only we had time to lunch!

See you around the cherry season

Ingrid & Guy Roth