cherry pickin'

I heard there's U-pick cherry farms around LA awhile ago and I've been waiting for the season to start ever since. We finally drove up north to Leona Valley (where there's several cherry farms) to go picking this past Saturday, about an hour north of where we live in Hollywood. Cherry season is usually only the first two weeks of June, but this year the season extended all the way to July so we lucked out! The rainier cherries were pretty much all gone, but there were a ton of bing cherries left for picking.

Here's N on top of a ladder picking some bings:


Here's some heart-shaped cherries N gathered for me:


I've never been cherry picking before, and it was pretty fun...especially having to climb up ladders and getting to stick your head straight up into the trees where you're surrounded by cherries. They were super ripe, so they came off their stems very easily (and the weather was PERFECT). The farm we went to didn't use any pesticides and somehow the fruit was pristine. And SO sweet.

On the drive back, we passed a sign that said "The Falls" so we pulled over. There was a little hidden waterfall among the trees. The neighborhood fire department was there with their truck handing out slap bracelets to kids and thanking people for being fire-safe (as in...not having any live fires going).