Cherry pain

Hills cherry growers have once again faced significant challenges due to last week’s unexpectedly wet weather causing considerable damage to their crops, just as the Christmas harvest was set to begin.

Many of us will recall the terrible impact that recent years’ spring hailstorms had on the region’s fruit growers and, while last week’s heavy rainfall didn’t include hail, it still came as an unwelcome surprise given there were predictions El Niño would result in a much drier spring and summer.

Fruit growers have to face many challenges in their line of work, from weather events to pests and, while infrastructure like netting goes a long way to protecting crops from damage, they’re still vulnerable to the elements.

A lot of hard work goes into producing the produce that South Australians enjoy so much, especially during the holiday season, so it must be devastating for growers to see so many cherries split.

Local producers need our support and it’s important to remind ourselves that blemished fruit is often just as tasty – it might just need to be consumed more quickly, or repurposed for jams, preserves and baked goods.

We are increasingly encouraged as a society to think and live more sustainably and turning our nose up at ‘imperfect’ fruit will only add to the problems we face with waste.

We also need to remember that buying punnets at the store isn’t the only way we can support the livelihoods of our growers.

Many growers offer pick your own farm gate experiences not only because they get to see more of that money you spend on the literal fruits of their labors, but because consumers often get produce that is fresher and tastier.

So this Christmas let’s support local producers, especially in the face of the challenges they have been confronted with.