When I think of summer I automatically picture the fruits of the season. Watermelon, peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries to name a few. Talk about tasty healthy snacking. When the weather is so warm and nothing sounds good, fruit is always perfect and hits the spot.

My favorite fruit by far is the cherry. I love cherries! I have fond memories from my childhood of buying bags of cherries from the store to gobble up. One fun recollection is from a summer that my two cousins came to spend time here from the west coast. Cousin M and I went to the store with my mother and we stood there for a LONG time picking out the perfect cherries. We filled up an entire bag with probably 4-5 pounds or possibly more. When we went to our house we stood outside with my father and had a cherry pit spitting contest. I do not recall who won, but I know we had fun eating and spending time together as a family.

It is only fitting that this past weekend while visiting my brother, sister-in-law and niece that we made some cherry memories for our children (I wish Cousin M had been there). We heard that there was a cherry picking place not too far from their house that had dwarf cherry trees. Those would be perfect for all of us to pick from.

We all got into my car and wandered out into territory that nobody had been to before. After a while we finally arrived to cherry land. From the parking lot you could see the amazing trees ready to be picked. Our mouths were watering from the view. We had hardly had cherries this year thanks to the ridiculous price ($4.99 a pound and up for the bing variety). We slathered everyone with sun lotion and went to get buckets for collecting our fruit.

Then we were off to find the fields with the sweet cherries. Quickly we were walking in a cherry wonderland.

It was absolutely amazing. There were cherries everywhere. Hundreds of trees chock full of cherries ready for us to pick. We set up a place and I stayed with JSL and Cousin S.  Aunt M, Uncle I, JL and NHL set off to fill our buckets.

The two little ones were quite content sitting back and watching everyone. At one point S wanted to hold JSL’s hand. He was sweet and played with his little cousin.  This was also where they taste tested some of their first cherries. JSL was quite partial to the white cherries that tasted much like peaches inside.

NHL was really good and asked if he could try a cherry from one of the trees. We told him it was fine. He was too cute selecting just the right one, and then finding the perfect place to taste test. 

After a short time both buckets were approximately half filled with both cherry varieties. We had no real clue how many pounds we had, so we figured it was best to stop at that point and check in. We got all of our things together and went to the line to check out, weigh in and pay. As you can see cherry picking made NHL quite thirsty! 

And for your viewing pleasure, I present you with our gorgeous cherries. All 22.4 pounds of the juicy summer goodness! 

Those buckets are very deceptive in the amount they can hold. We were quite impressed with our haul and went back to the house to eat more cherries before giving the kids tubs and ordering our dinner.

What will our next picking adventure be? Perhaps veggies next time! Do you have any memories of summer time fruit or veggie picking fun? If you do please share.