In New South Wales, hundreds of tons of ripe cherries have had to be dumped after heavy rains. Fiona Hall is the general manager of Biteriot. The Biteriot orchards grow premium cherry varieties, including the classic Christmas ‘Stella’ cherry. The orchard in Gulgong was about to reach its peak when heavy rainfall began on Tuesday night.
“We’ve walked away from that crop, there was just too much damage,” she said. “What the rain does at the wrong time is fill the cherries with water, and they split the skin. The skin just pops.”
The rain means that this year’s Christmas cherries may look a bit larger, and contain some blemishes, but Hall said there should be “a lot of good value, slightly blemished, fruit out there that needs to be moved. We’re really looking for the public to support the blemished cherry.”
Source: theguardian.com