Cherry Pickin'

Say what you will about the Central Valley, we've heard it all. In all fairness, California is suppose to be coastal and temperate and our town is neither. It gets hot here, really hot and we're about two hours from the nearest beach. Its dry and dusty and there are visible oil pumps in random places. But, despite those flaws, we are surrounded by the most beautiful produce farms that export five star products to the entire world.
Today we picked "Champagne" and "Ranier" cherries at the peak of their ripeness and deliciousness. It was an idyllic, perfect afternoon.
We met friends at the entrance of the farm, were driven to the middle of orchard and left there, to pick, eat, run and explore the rows upon rows of cherry trees until they came to get us. We all ate a ton of fresh cherries right off the branches and took full buckets home to enjoy.
The dude couldn't get enough and demanded constant cherry consumption. Chris was his cherry slave, de-pitting as fast as he could, which was still not quite fast enough. And, yes, they were that delicious.

"Mmmm, cherries!"

This picture is just to make you drool.

So the next time you're whizzing by Bakersfield on the 5, take a minute to look out your window and appreciate the beautiful landscape that is our little corner of California. And just think we might be in that blurry orchard you're driving by with hands and faces sticky from a total overindulgence of fresh cherries or some other type of delicious fruit. Because there are blueberries too!