The highlight of our trip to Kelowna is picking cherries. On the first day we were there we went to a cherry farm on Westbank. We had been to this farm before but were pleasantly surprised at the abundance newly ripe cherries on the trees.
Picking cherries is simple. You need to pick it with the stems on. This will keep the cherries fresh longer. The man in charge of the farm showed us how best to pick cherries — basically, you push the stem up and snap off the stem.
The cherries in the Westbank farm is free of pesticides but is a bit small compared to larger ones we see in the stores. They a bit soft and not crunchy.
You really need to climb ladders to get to the better fruit. The lower ones were gone very fast. We need to make sure that the ladder is stable. In all, we picked about 11 lbs of cherries from the Westbank farm. Each lb costs $1.25.
On the second day, we drive south of Kelowna to the end of Lakeshore Rd. There are a few popular farms there. These u-pick farms are more organized and the cherries were a class better than the ones in Westbank — they are bigger and crunchier. However, this farm uses pesticides.
The cherries in this farm is a bit more expensive at $1.50 per pound. We picked more this time — 15 pounds. Ha ha ha … it was so easy to pick but not we have to figure out how to eat all 26 pounds of cherries! :-)
There was this family we saw who picked 82 lbs! So, 26 lbs is not so bad after all, right?
Suanne is looking a recipes to make use of the cherries. She’ll blog about it the next few days. At the meantime, do you have any idea what we can do with so much cherries?
Here is a few shots around Kelowna we took. We had a good time just walking along the park and seawall.
“The Sails” is the centre point of Kelowna.
The seawall walk is very well maintained and very beautiful. Green on one side and blue water on the other.
We also saw some upscale apartments along the lake. Instead of a cars parked in front of the apartments, they have boats instead.
We also went up Knox Mountain which overlooked the entire Kelowna valley. It was a beautiful sight as we just sat and waited till the sun goes down.
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i’m sooooo jealous! those look delicious!
hi, brother ben,
i have a great idea on what you can do with so many many cherries that you all picked. I ate all the ones that suanne gave me..shared some with my son and mother…yummy.
they were so so delicious..also ate the cherry pie suanne made..my son too and my mum too…but we all loved eating the cherries on its own rather than the pie. the pie was just too too sweet for our palate.
never knew cherries from Kelowna would taste so so yummy.
suanne can make cherry jam from it…so easy to make and not that sweet..so yummy.
thanks as always..brother ben and sis.
Wow those cherries seem to jump out of the screen. I’m willing to bet Ben’s digicam is a D-SLR and not a point & shoot.
Goodness, those are beautiful cherries. Ummm eat them? Cherry Chicken? Cherry ice cream? Cherry pancakes.
Of course, you could just freeze them whole and take them out to look at in the dead of winter.
YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like fun too!!
Hi Zee: We have almost gone thru all 26 lbs of cherries already. Glad you enjoyed them.
Hi Lotus Rapper: You’re right, Ben has a DSLR and is trying to convince me to let him buy a $1000 lens — over my dead body!
Hi Retro-Food: Cherry Chicken? Never heard of it … will check it out.
Hi Sally: Picking the cherries was fun … until I fell off the ladder and landed on my bum! Ouch!
Though I am not a big fan of cherries, at least you got to see some great sights! ^_^
I’m going to have to use that color (cherry) for a wall. It is gorgeous! Wow!
Yeah!! at last I saw yrs cherries photos. I wish that I’m there too. I missed the boat this time, hope next year will be in. Thanks for the cherries, my kids finish all next day.
Hi Rosa: Hmmm … won’t cherry red a bit too dark for walls? When you finished your painting, why not post it on your blog so we can see how that looks like.
Hi Polly: Let’s plan on doing u-picks. The apples u-pick is the next big ones in fall. Have you tried it before?
I invented a yummy cookie recipe by accident (tried to make brownies!). Basically take a brownie recipe but add more flour to make it consistent with cookie dough, chop up fresh cherries, mix in and then chop up white chocolate and mix in. The best cookies EVER!
Came across this while reading your archives at work today :) the archives filled up 4hrs! Thank You!!!
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