45 minutes’ drive. $10 entrance fee. $15/kilo. and you have to pick it yourself. sweaty under the heat of the sun.

if you do the math, you’re better off just buying them at your local fruit shop for $12-13/kilo. but then again, it’s all about the experience.

i’ve always wanted to go cherry picking because (1) i love cherries; and (2) i don’t know what cherry trees look like. and now i do.

so would i do it again?

probably not. which means i probably will, depending on the circumstances.

i should’ve taken my nieces here 2 years ago but cherries were so hard to come by then. i don’t know why. even at the fruit shops. if they were, the price was ridiculously expensive. they said the chinese tourists bought all the cherries then, thus the shortage. even at the cherry farms, there was nothing to pick anymore because they picked it all. which may or may not have been true. either way, it was definitely a bummer.

there are actually quite a handful of cherry farms in victoria’s southeast. all it took was a google search and voila! how come we never went to any of these farms before???!!!

with nothing special at all planned for the christmas holiday, this trip was pretty much it. you know, our holiday special. so we drove through the scenic route of emerald, one of my favorite suburbs because the houses there are pinterest-y as hell, with beautiful sprawling meadows as far as the eyes can see. also expensive as hell.

fairview hill berries farm was actually right next to where the tesselaar tulip festival was located. well, not exactly right next to it but pretty much within the area. i just feel like mentioning it because until now, it amazes and annoys me at the same time that there are still so many places to go and see in victoria that are hiding right under my nose. i’m on a mission to explore them all as long as jeff’s driving.

the farm doesn’t grow only cherries. they grow berries, as well — blueberries, strawberries, and (my least favorite because they taste like cough syrup) raspberries. you can pick them too for an additional $5 but i wasn’t really interested. i was there for the cherries and the cherries alone.

“so, how tall are the cherry trees?” i asked the staff who was instructed to walk us to the area. he was pretty tall so already i was strategizing in my head on making the most out of my money. “do i need a ladder?”

turns out cherry trees are actually short! i didn’t have any problem picking them from where they hung in the branches. my problem was raven choking on the seeds from the fruits she picked on the ground when i wasn’t looking. goodness, this kid. i had to give her half of my carefully picked cherries every time. the other half without the seed in it.

a quick guide to cherry picking:

1. the darker the color, the sweeter they are.
2. avoid picking the moldy ones, which you can tell are those that have white bits on their flesh.
3. eat all your entrance fee’s worth while you’re there.
4. too much cherries can cause diarrhea. don’t say i didn’t warn you.

it was definitely a new experience for raven and i reckon she had fun, particularly in dragging the bucket around because she’s at that stage of enjoying pushing or dragging things around. which includes her papa, whom she takes by the hand so he would follow her whichever part of the house she wants to go.

raven = 9. papa = 0.

i’ve been keeping track of the scores. so far, raven always wins. good luck to this dad when she starts asking for chanels. lol.

all in all, it was a nice experience. i never thought cherry picking could be so therapeutic. there was definitely this feeling of being one with nature while stuffing myself full of what she had to offer. (refer to #3 of my guide.)

so would i do it again?

probably not. but then you already know what that means.

*raven at 1 year and 7 months old