Cherry Picking

This summer my sister, Emma, found an orchard in Payson that lets you come and pick your own cherries. At only $1 a pound we were there! 

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I mean, I've been in cherry orchards before, but sometimes when you go to these u-pick places they can be rather small.  That was not the case with these cherries. There were a ton of trees just dripping with cherries... four different kinds!

I took the kids along. I love teaching my kids about where their food comes from. Heaven forbid my kids think that meat, fruit, and other items are made in a grocery store. ;) 

When we drove up, the very sight of the trees was honestly breathtaking. I couldn't believe how many cherries there were and how beautiful it looked! There were so many cherries that you didn't really even need the ladders if you didn't want them. The kids loved that they could so easily reach the delicious fruits and Lila LOVED snacking on them... don't worry, the owners said kids could eat what they wanted. 

After arranging them all beautifully in the dehydrator, I read that it should be skin side down. :( Don't worry I fixed it... I'm not sure if I had to, but, oh well. At least when I did whole ones it didn't matter. 

 That shirt became Lila's cherry picking/eating shirt... for obvious reasons.

In no time at all, we had picked five pounds. They were delicious cherries and something about picking them ourselves made them taste even better. I ended up going cherry picking twice with the kids, and both times we had a blast. At home we ate fresh cherries, dried some, gave some away, and froze some.

We can't wait until next year!