Cherry picking

June means cherry season, especially for the beautiful rural town of Leona Valley, in the southwest Antelope Valley not too far from SClarita.

In my former life, I wrote plenty of articles about cherry season for the Valley Press, and two years ago I went cherry-picking for the first time with Cora and newborn Violet. This year, we returned for more, after Cora asked specifically if we could go.

Most of the small family-run orchards are picked clean, but two places still advertised themselves as open for business. I'm glad Cora had the idea this week, as next week will surely be too late for cherries.

We picked a lot of Ranier cherries, the yellow/orange/red ones, and a few handfuls of dark red varieties as well. Violet loved it, talking about it all a lot and carrying the buckets, until they got "too heaby." Cora had a great time too, and was very helpful with Violet.

 Here, Grandma pulls a branch down to Violet so she can better reach the ripe ones.

And here, Cora holds Violet up to the fruit.


It was great spending a few hours with my mom. Though we talk often on the phone, she has been working so much at her various jobs that we don't see each other as often as we'd like. I'm glad we could experience the cherry adventure together.


It wasn't exactly "frugal fun," as they cost $3.50 a pound and one of my favorite stores has cherries on sale this week for $1 a pound. But of course, it's the memories that matter. Cora loves eating her cherries. Violet, on the other hand, won't try them. Maybe if they were chocolate-dipped!