THINK cherries are only a Christmas delicacy? Think again – this year cherry fans can enjoy their favourite fruit freshly picked for longer thanks to a delayed cherry season and the help of members of the Lions Club of Millicent.
Owners of the Millicent Cherry Farm, Dave and Christine Thorneycroft are grateful to members of the Lions Club of Millicent who have helped pick their cherry crop over the last two weeks and now the cherries are ready to be sold; perfect for a new year’s treat.
Ms Thorneycroft said the farm had found it difficult to find pickers this year and blamed Covid-19.
“We’ve had trouble getting people to pick them this year, I think Covid is scaring a lot of people,” said Ms Thorneycroft.
“The Lions Club came to help us pick before Christmas and they are doing the same this week; thanks so much to the Lions Club,” she said.
The Thorneycrofts said the cherry season had been delayed by about a month due to the mild conditions in the lead up to the festive season.
“There’s not much in supermarkets at the moment because its been a late season; it has not been warm enough,” said Mr Thorneycroft.
“It’s been uneven ripening this year; we managed to get some into Foster’s Foodland before Christmas but now the warmer weather has got the rest ripening.”
Two sons, Liam, 16, and Tristan, 14, have also been helping out on the farm since the Thorneycrofts moved from Kununurra in Western Australia and bought the farm from John and Lyn Scudds five seasons ago.
In Kununurra, Mr Thorneycroft worked on fruit farms and his skills have been brought to the Millicent farm which has 670 cherry trees with four varieties: merchant, van, lapin and stella.
Another 60 trees include apples, plums, peaches, grapes, apricots and pears.
The Thorneycrofts expect to pick more than 500 kilograms of cherries this year and many would be sold direct from their farm shop which also sells jams and other preserved fruits made by Ms Thorneycroft from their farm produce.
“I like to describe our cherries as the two bite cherry – they are so big, plump and juicy it takes two bites to get through them,” said Ms Thorneycroft beaming with pride.
