It is cherry season here in Japan and I was lucky enough to travel to one of the areas where Japanese cherries are grown. Japanese cherries are white fleshed cherries and taste amazing. An indication as to the effort that goes into producing these cherries is highlighted by one of the orchards I passed that had an oil fired heater to ensure that the temperature in the hot house was constant early in the season.

The orchard I visited was completely enclosed to keep the animals out and the ground under the trees had reflective tarps to focus the heat on the cherries. As you can see the end result looked amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that the farmer ensured some of his cherries were sampled straight from the trees.


After seeing, and tasting, all those cherries on the trees I was compelled to buy some to take home. Being Japan, and being a specialised fruit, they were not cheap. A one kilogram box of the top grade cherries was 6000 yen (about 75 Aussie dollars).
 
 
When you open up the box there are two hand packed 500 gram punnets. The taste is as good as they look and while the cherries are expensive, when considered a special treat, they are worth almost every cent (no they are not polished).
 
 
 
 

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