Our 3rd Annual Cherry U-Pick at Lodi Blooms
Our 3rd annual cherry U-Pick at Lodi Blooms was an absolute success! Lodi Blooms is a cherry farm here in Lodi, CA that holds an annual cherry u-pick event for a few weekends from mid-May to mid-June every year. A u-pick event is when farms open up sections of their land to the general public to pick their own produce for a set price per pound. We're very lucky that the storms and freezes this year didn't effect the crops like they did last year. A late winter freeze last year killed off a lot of their crop leaving them unable to open.
We added one more to our cherry picking group this year with little James in the baby carrier! Since it happened to coincide with James' 6 month milestone "birthday", I gave him a little mini photoshoot in between the trees while Miles and my mom picked away. We have this tradition where I get a photo of Miles and my mom at the farm and gift it to her on her birthday. If you'd like to see how this year's gift turned out, you can check out the Reel I made!
This year, the had fun burlap bags in 2 different size rather than the 5 lb and 5 gal buckets they've used in the past. Miles had an blast running from branch to branch picking cherries and plopping them down into the bag. He loved being able to carry his own cherries. James had a great time pulling the leaves off and attempting to eat them when I would get really close to the trees for picking. He just really wanted to be a part of the cherry picking fun, you know?
They sold the bags you carried your cherries in and you know I had to buy us a set of the large and small ones (2 so the boys would each have their own for grocery shopping fun in the future). Between the 3 of us, we managed to pick about 14 lbs of cherries, which have been seeded and frozen for future use. I love to turn them into pastries (recipes coming soon) and my mom using them to help with controlling her acidic levels (she suffers from gout). I can't wait to test out a couple of new pastry recipes!
I highly recommend visiting Lodi Blooms next cherry season, or checking with your local farms to see what u-pick events they offer. It's a great way to support local farms, and also serves as a great life lesson for kids to see where a lot of their food comes from! It'll be crazy going back next year with the boys and seeing James run through the rows behind Miles and my mom grabbing cherries. Warms my heart just thinking about it!
