A Victorian cherry grower says he has been blessed to receive a nice thick crop despite some unfavourable weather during the growing period and expects demand to remain high into the New Year.
Blackwood Orchard owner Colin Pickering says this year the trees have had good yields, providing good-sized cherries. With less than a fortnight to Christmas, he is expecting to sell out of fruit once again, as people buy an incredible amount of the fruit for the holiday.
"We keep a book and people come in and pre-order cherries for the 23rd December, which this year is the last business day before Christmas," he said. "We are getting a lot of orders. Last year, we had to shut the farm because we didn't have enough supply to meet all the orders and the drop-in. Last year, our Black Star variety was marching out the door in boxes, people are coming in and buying multiple boxes because they give them as gifts. They are perfect when you can't think of what to buy someone that has everything. I have heard of parents giving them to their children's teachers or child carers, employers giving them to staff, we also get involved with schools and orders through them."
Photos courtesy: Blackwood Orchard Facebook Page
He says this year’s crop came as quite a surprise because of the severe wet weather that hit the state of Victoria, including the farm's location in Harcourt, near Bendigo, north-west of Melbourne.
"It was worrying during the flowering stage because we put four bee hives in and it rained nearly the whole time they were in," he said. "It was quite heavy too, we had over 100 millilitres over five days. That was a worry because we didn't know how they were going to pollinate when they were wet the whole time, but they did. We have a crop so thick that we have to pull some off so that the rest of the fruit can size and finish properly. That's a good problem to have for us. But I do want to shout out to all the people in the industry that have had crops go under; they are doing it tough. Some have had to walk away from their business and get no income at all this year because of the damage and all that. I think we should spare them all a thought, especially at this time of year."
As well as cherries, Blackwood Orchard also grows strawberries and cattle. Originally, the farm produced apples for almost 20 years, but Mr Pickering says they became a bit too difficult to grow and required a lot of chemicals, so he switched to cherries.
"We planted around 200 cherry trees (in the top block) and netted it," he said. "We started to go to (local) markets and it all took off from there. It was all quite fortunate as we didn't do much research - it was all word of mouth and help from a man I knew; he told us what cherries to plant, but made sure we netted it all. I think if we had planned it more, the more we thought about it, the more we would have talked ourselves out of it. We are glad we didn't because it has gone from the original 200 trees and we planted another 1,000 (in the bottom block) as we transferred out of apples. We sold through local wholesalers, but that dried up, so we started advertising on social media and it grew and grew from there to where we are now."
He added that originally there were seven different varieties making up the 210 trees before the expansion, that provide cherries from early November through into the New Year, to mid-January.
"We start with Early Burlat a week after the Melbourne Cup," Mr Pickering said. "We then move on to Merchant, then Chelan followed by Van, Bing, Simone and Sweetheart. Theoretically, they come in one week after one another. It doesn't always happen that way, though. We found that netting alters the environment a little bit, and it makes it a bit more muggy or steamy under the netting and our trees ended up quite big and they tend to act like a windbreak and that blocks a lot of the wind. When we planted in the bottom block, the other varieties we planted were Royal Rainier, which is a white cherry and has become very popular, we also planted Black Star, which is my favourite - but both are crunchy and sweet. We also planted an old favourite, Lapin and Sweet Georgia. If we had our time again, we would plant more of the varieties that come before Christmas, but we mostly always sell everything we grow."
The cherries are sold exclusively from the farm at this time of year, and Mr Pickering says the amount of customers that visit the farm to buy the fruit is amazing.
"We are at the end of a dead-end road and people will drive up that road just to see if we are open," he said. "If the gate is open, they will come in and we are quite busy here but can keep up with the stream of traffic coming in - we have the supply. After Christmas, we start picking tonnes of cherries we put signs up all over the district, which gets plenty of attention because of our local bike tracks and mountain attractions which is a nice place to visit. A lot of people see our signs and follow them, and are surprised to find what we offer."
For more information
Colin Pickering
Blackwood Orchard
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/blackwoodorchard