Cherry Picking in Leona Valley

Last month D's coworker invited us to go cherry picking in Leona Valley with them. Since we had gone apple picking one fall and had a blast, we thought that cherry picking would be equally as fun, and we were right! We met up with his co-worker at her mother's house and waited for their family to all show up. Once their we did a caravan into the hills (where there is no cell reception, and D was VERY happy) on the hottest day in June. Triple digits were reached if I recall. When we parked and made our way to the front gate we saw the gigantic line to get into Villa del Sol orchard. We went opening weekend, just like everyone else. We stood in the line and while there I got sunburned on my shoulders, cause I was wearing a tank and forgot to put on sunscreen....oops.

Once it was finally our turn, we went in to hear the "Orchard Rules"....no climbing on the trees, no eating the berries before you pay, watch for rattlesnakes, and you have to spend $5 per person, which equates to about a pound and a half of fruit each. So we set off looking to pick no more than 3 pounds. Once under those trees, something came over us and we were on a picking frenzy. Each berry looked better than the last, and it needed to go in our bucket! We had so much fun taking photos and picking that we realized that we had a LOT of cherries. We took our bucket and went to pay. D saw the fresh honey and wanted that too! When the checker rung us up we had spent over $20 on cherries and honey! Whoops! It was so worth it though! Ripe cherries were the perfect summer snack after work, and they didn't last very long!

It was a fun afternoon and another check off our bucket list!

The orchard and flags

The deceiving buckets

D plucking a ripe berry

Love that face!

D and his co-worker

<3

Me picking

So ripe!