Cherry Varieties
We grow 7 varieties of cherries in our orchard. This allows the season to extend throughout January each year.
The varieties are listed in order of maturity and some overlap of maturity between varieties does occur.
- Van – Large dark red fruit with a sweet taste, firm flesh with a short thick stem, prone to splitting caused by rain.
- Stella – Large red fruit which is generally a little softer than Van, flavour is sweet with a hint of acid, grows with a long stem and is prone to splitting if conditions remain damp.
- Sylvia – Large dark sweet tasting fruit which is generally well hidden by the tree foliage and therefore is much less prone to splits, very sweet and can be a little softer than Van.
- Kordia – Very dark firm fleshed cherry with a very distinctive flavour, needs to be a dark mahogany colour at harvest to achieve the balance of sugar and acid for it’s unique taste, difficult to achieve good crop loads, not prone to split.
- Lapins & Simone – These varieties are very similar and both mature at about the same date, the fruit is large and very crunchy, the colour is deep dark red with a very sweet taste, not prone to split these varieties make up about 50% of our production.
- Regina – The latest maturing variety we have, is a dark firm cherry which does not quiet achieve the same sugar levels as Lapins , growing on very long stalks, this variety tends not to be “clumpy” (growing in tight bunches) and therefore does not split easily.
When To Buy
Having several varieties allows us to market our fruit domestically within Australia as well as overseas during harvest season. In other words, most of January.
You can buy any of our varieties from out roadside “Cherry Tent”. The variety on sale depends on which ones are ripe and being picked at the time. **NOTE** these dates can, and often do vary due to mother nature and her varied mood from year to year.
- January 01 – 07 Van
- January 04 – 11 Stella
- January 07 – 14 Sylvia
- January 10 – 20 Kordia
- January 12 – 24 Lapin & Simone
- January 18 – 28 Regina