Eshleman Cherries

Straight from basketball camp, I took the kids out to Clyde, Ohio to Eshleman Fruit Farm for some cherry picking!

Their orchard is vast and well organized.  They give directions out to the cherry trees by way of "road names" through their orchard.  (Take Main to Third, take a right, etc.)  The kids loved that. 

They also loved that I let them unbuckle and stick their heads out the window as we drove the grassy orchard "roads".

We parked next to the row of sweet cherries where we were instructed to pick and got started.  No ladders allowed, but many of the branches are low enough for kids to reach and they were both enthusiastic pickers!  Mostly for their own eating benefit again, but still.  ;)

This year, we brought along our new cherry/olive pitter so the kids could pit their own cherries before eating.  Will has become adept at separating and spitting out the pits in his mouth, but he also likes the novelty of using the pitter.  Probably because it sorta' looks like a gun.  Boys...

The trees were loaded!  And picking was super easy!

My fave of the day:

And this one's pretty darn cute too.  :)

I packed a picnic lunch with lots of wet wipes and ice water.  I know my kids well and we do NOT leave home without water bottles.  That would be disastrous.  But this was also a hot day... after camp... and during lunch time.  So we came prepared.  I put out the blanket and lunches and they chilled in the shade while I finished picking.  We had the place to ourselves!

On the way back up to the barn where we were to check out, I let the kids sit in the back of the Jeep with the window open.  Another novelty.  :)

My little helpers and I picked 13# of sweet cherries this morning!  Another adventurous u-pick under our belt!