Something about Cherries and Mount Dandenong...

It's the cherry season yet again. So this time around we decided to ignore those cherries selling at Preston market and try get some on our own, picked fresh from the farms :-) Off we drove, with Niza & family to the Chappies Cherry Farm in Silvan, about an hour drive from home. The weather has been unpredictable lately, but I have decided against postponing the trip, because the season will be over soon, and I've got other plans. In fact, the day trip was interluded with showers several times throughout the day.

At Chappies we paid AUD 7 entrance fee per person for adult only, and were driven in a coaster bus to a nearby rows of cherry trees at the side of the farm's main entrance. We concluded at the end of the day that perhaps this is how they controlled the overzealous tourist from ruining their cherry farm - by allocating specific spots for the tourist and left the rest for the pro pickers, and market them elsewhere. Anyway, Chappies also sell prepacked cherries and berries at their entrance shed at a slightly higher rice depending on the types and size of the cherries. For those picked ourselves, we paid only AUD8 per kilo. Cheaper than some of their competitors around the area.

But the summer weather had been witnessing too much rain lately. Cherries are susceptible to rain. They tend to absorb too much moisture and split or even if they don't, they became tasteless. Comparatively, I think last year's cherry was definitely sweeter than thiis year. We ended up tasting from one tree to another, trying to find the best ones :-). They were several different types and colours too, different shades of red, some not even red. But the ripe ones would be very dark, almost burgundy like. Finally, I think we just had too much cherries, to even care how much we picked to bring back home..ha..ha..ha..

Luqman admiring the cherries ;-)



This two picked up where they left off at Buller. So cute they are :-)



Since we were in the area, we decided to drop by the National Rhododendron Garden for lunch. It's actually all the way up on Mount Dandenong. I did not know that. We thought we were lost initially because we were driving in the thick of the forest for quite awhile before finally reaching the garden. I guess the GPS was also lost too :-D.



The garden is beautiful and huge! But time and weather was not permitting us to venture more than a few hundred meters from its entrance. We had our lunch nearby a pond and left soon after.

But the Dandenong ranges are really fascinating, the last time we visited was for the Tesselar Tulip Festival. There are many other interesting places one can actually encounter there, including the Puffing Billy train ride, the other fruit & flower farms, for instance lavender. Perhaps, we will give these places a visit some time soon. For now, let's enjoy the cherries!!

The awsome view from Skyhigh Mount Dandenong Lookout

A/T: Who knew, my PJT could actually climb a mountain ;-) and safely reached home, Alhamdulillah.