There is so much to look forward to at this time of year. Picnics at the park, beach cricket and bottomless cocktails. But this time of year is also a time of year to reflect on one of SA’s finest delicacies, cherries.
You may only associate cherries with Christmas and December, but we’re here to tell you that cherry season is still going strong and will continue to see a prosperous harvest in the remaining 2 week season.
We are very blessed in SA to have fresh cherries so accessible to us from local businesses, Wotton’s Cherries in Uraidla is no exception.
The Wotton’s Family have been growing cherries for 150 years and has been open for cherry sales for the past 30 years.
Unlike some cherry farms, Wotton’s Cherries are only available to be pre-picked rather than ‘cherry-picking’ your own. However, this is a purposeful choice that the Wotton family prides itself on.
“Our cherries are only available at the shed door rather than the public picking their own cherries. It’s an opportunity to access our farm gate and get fresh produce.
“We’ve never offered ‘picking your own cherries’ because we just don’t want to present biosecurity risk to our orchard at a large scale,” Cam Wotton said.
It may be news to some, but picking your own produce from commercial orchards or retailers can negatively impact the further growth of fruit trees if picked incorrectly.
Wotton’s Cherries have produced 60-80 tonnes of cherries this season and they say it is due to the fact that their orchards are routinely taken care of and that the orchard isn’t impacted by public disturbance.
“The orchards themselves are on pretty steep country so it’s also not practical enough for members of the public to stroll down the estate,” Cam Wotton continued.
Since the seasons haven’t been behaving this past few months, the cherry season has been extended by a few weeks.
Usually finishing up the new year, this cherry season will be beautiful cherries available for the next couple of weeks.
Wotton’s Cherries now have 23 varieties that ripen over a 6-8 week period all sporting slight variations in colour, length of stem and sweetness.
According to Cam, the crowd and house favourite is the deliciously sweet cherry varietal, Simone.
Pricing differs day to day but it’s guaranteed that you will be getting some of SA’s sweetest and freshest produce.
Find Wotton’s Cherries at 1147 Greenhill Road Uraidla, SA, Australia 5142
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