Cherry Christmas

There were early fears that recent wet weather would cause the cherries to swell and split.

However, the local orchard has produced a record crop.

Appledore Orchard’s Russ McCarthy yesterday said it was the best crop he had seen in 30 years of business.

“This is as good as it gets,” he said.

“The cherries are plump and flavoursome and the crop is huge. The trees are bigger than normal and we’ve got more fruit than ever.”

Mr McCarthy said days of rain over the past month could have decimated the cherry crop.

“We worked hard to save the crop,” he said. “Another inch of rain and we may not have made it through.”

As part of his rescue mission, Mr McCarthy attached an industrial fan to his tractor to dry the trees.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he said.

“You can see the deep mud tracks in between the trees where the tractor has been driven and you can see how many times we’ve been up and down the rows.””

There are more than 500 cherry trees in the orchard. Mr McCarthy said he was lucky to lose only a small amount of cherries.

Other areas were not so fortunate.

“I’ve heard there are no cherries in Young or Orange,” Mr McCarthy said. “It’s heartbreaking for them. We were just lucky that we’ve had less rain than either of those places.”

Mr McCarthy said the orchard has received huge orders in the lead up to the festive season.

“We will be flat out picking until Christmas,” he said.

Freshly picked cherries can be purchased directly from the farm gate on O’Connell Road seven days a week.

Appledore Orchard will also be selling cherries at the Bathurst Farmers’ Markets this Saturday.

“We go whenever we have fruit to sell,” Mr McCarthy said.