Platinum Ridge has completely ruined my enjoyment of cherries. I used to love cherries, any kind. As long as they were kinda ripe, I'd put them in my face. Finding a pair of cherries linked together was a great opportunity for cherry earrings (yes, I'm almost 30, what of it?).
But then my good pal Liz P "rented" a cherry tree for the 2012/13 season at Platinum Ridge and I tasted the fattest, sweetest, darkest cherries I'd ever eaten in my life. I also got the experience of picking these cherries myself. I'm going to admit right now that I didn't even know what a cherry tree looked like prior to our picking day in January, but you'd better believe that now I can spot a cherry tree from at least a hundred paces.
We picked so many damn cherries that day that we ended up with just shy of 20kg of cherries (from two trees because apparently Liz P's tree was looking a little sad so they gave us a second for free), which is a ridiculous amount to share between four people. We all got home and started googling recipes that used fresh cherries and over the course of the next three weeks (they kept amazing for THREE WEEKS in the fridge; I filled my vegetable crisper and I am not exaggerating) we were making cherry juice, cherry ice-cream, cherry biscuits, cherry scones, cherry cocktails, cherry cherry cherry.
Renting a cherry tree cost Liz P $95 and Platinum Ridge advises that you should get around a 10kg yield from one tree. If you can't make it out to the orchard during the picking window (around three weeks in January), the orchard will pick your cherries for you but you'll only get a 2kg box. It's a real DIY effort (and it TOTALLY pays off). Platinum Ridge is increasing the 2013/14 rental fee to $110 per tree, but I'd suggest splitting the cost with a couple of friends because you really don't need to eat 10kg of cherries in three weeks all by yourself. Then make a day of the picking--take out a picnic (cherries for dessert).
But I maybe recommend not doing any of this. Stay away from Platinum Ridge. Here's why: I bought some other cherries last weekend and they were ripe and they were nice and all but they weren't Platinum Ridge. Cherries will never be the same again. read more