Last Father’s Day, mid June 2017, we trekked to South County to do some fruit picking and fruit tasting at Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill. I highly recommend it, though the website for Andy’s Orchard says that their cherry harvest has been smaller than usual this year. They are again offering this event on Father’s Day 2018, but do check their website (see link below) to make sure that the tour you want is not sold out.
We walked through the orchard during the earliest available time slot since it was a heat wave weekend. The orchard had all kinds of varieties of cherries (I remember one with a funny name, the Black Republicans), but also pluats, nectarines, and a wide number of stone fruits, too. We were encouraged to taste as we went, and had no trouble complying. Many of us had buckets that we filled (and paid for the fruit later). It was so interesting to try one type of cherry after the next and to learn about how the trees are cared for.
Next was the open air tasting station, where we were able to enjoy and compare a huge number of apricots, peaches, nectarines, pluats, apriums, cherries, etc. Had we known when we walk the orchard how much more food would be there for us, we might all have had a little more restraint. By the time we got to the tasting stations, I was already pretty full and well past the amount of fruit I should have had for that period of time.
Take a look at some of the photos to give you a sense of the vast offerings! What it does not well convey is how delicious the fruit was!
We picked a variety of cherries, many types of which we’d never heard of before.
After that, we headed to a covered area (the shade was much appreciated as it was a toasty day) to check out the fruit tasting stations. Included were plums, pluats, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and all sorts of hybrids that were new to me.
Closeup of one of the fruits offered for tasting. In most cases, the fruit was presented in whole AND pre-sliced for easy munching.
And here’s a shot of the whole fruit and the samples.
Can’t wait to take visiting relatives back there!
You can learn more about Andy’s Orchard and check out their event schedule at their website: https://andysorchard.com/
