Cherries - Pick Your Own, Verdun

17/12/2023

With smiling faces and heavy hearts, we announce that we are
CLOSING IMMEDIATELY for the 2023 cherry season.

We have been blown away with the support and kindness shown to us over the past 3 days, and all of our remaining good fruit has now been picked, eaten and enjoyed.

The storms in the past 2 weeks wiped out 60-70% of our beautiful cherry crop.

We kept smiling, did our best to open and are so grateful for the support and care people have shown our little family run business.

We would also like to acknowledge our fellow cherry orchards, some of whom lost their entire crop, and incomes, just before Christmas. It's a tough year to be a farmer.
Please do what you can to support our growers this season!

We look forward to opening next December for a great CHERRY SEASON.

17/12/2023

If you want to know opening hours, please check our Facebook posts or Instagram each day.
Feel free to private message us through Instagram or Facebook also.

On the busiest weekend of the year for us, it's all hands on deck in the orchard or shed.
we don't have time to respond to individual questions on Instagram stories or photo posts.
If we don't get back to your comment, we apologise! We will do our best! 🍒🎉

15/12/2023

🍒 Open 10-4pm today 🍒

Did you know cherries are jam packed with antioxidants, vitamins and melatonin?

This is why they are a little super fruits 💪
good for our immune health, skin, and helping with a good nights sleep!

15/12/2023

🍒 OPEN today 10-4pm 🍒

15/12/2023

Smiling faces today!
It's OPENING DAY 🍒🎉

We are so thrilled to be open, with plenty of great fruit to go around.

We also have pre-picked premium cherries for $25 a kilo, and jams and chutney! 🍒

10am-4pm, last cars in at 3.30. It's a glorious day for cherry picking!

14/12/2023

OPENING TOMORROW 🍒 10am - 4pm!

We are so excited to finally open our gates tomorrow for a short, sweet cherry picking season.

🍒 bring your hats, water, a smile and your best cherry picking hands
🍒 bring your family and friends
🍒 $8 entry for adults, $4 for kids between 5-12 years. Kids under 5 pick free!

PRICES FOR PYO

Premium cherries $25 per kg
PYO cherries, including splits $15 per kg

Please note - lots of our fruit has been damanged due to storms.
There will be some split fruit, which is edible, but must be consumed shortly after coming off the tree. This fruit is perfect for jams, tarts, cakes and preserves!
If you see any mouldy cherries on the tree, please help us out by pulling gently off the tree and discarding. Our trees, and healthy cherries, will thank you!

See you tomorrow or on the weekend, folks!!

12/12/2023

Thanks for the write up Kids In Adelaide!
We are hoping to open on Friday, weather permitting.
Keep an eye on our socials this week 🍒

11/12/2023

UPDATE 🍒
We are all anxiously waiting to see how our cherries fare after these storms!

We are aiming to open on Friday, 15th Dec.
There will hopefully be plenty of healthy ripe cherries to pick, and also some split cherries, perfect for jam, baking and our favourite brandy cherries 🤤
This is all dependent on any damage we might have sustained with this latest rain event.

Keep an eye on our social pages and website for updates and information!

07/12/2023

The good news? We have some wonderful, perfect looking cherries ripening. And our taste testers are very happy 🤤

The bad news? A whole lot of rain is heading our way, and puts our remaining fruit at risk of splitting.
We are unable to open this weekend due to storm risk, and we have no idea what the fruit will be like by next week.
So please cross your fingers and toes that this doesn't end the season before it even begins 🫠

Please please support local cherry growers this season, and if the price increases due to reduced yield, please still buy some juicy, locally grown Adelaide hills growers from the many beautiful orchards!

05/12/2023

Friendly faces of the .at.verdun family 🍒😊

Tom is one of the owners of .at.verdun. He has a passion in agriculture and agronomy. He also runs Grünthal Beef with Geoff, running 200 cows on the Verdun property.
You'll see our beautiful cows as your drive down the lane towards the orchard.

Rosie is our junior quality controller. She loves eating cherries, spitting the pips at her brother and chasing the dogs up and down the rows 😝

Make sure you stop and say hi to Tom or Rosie when you are at the orchard. He is always around to answer any questions or teach you a thing or two about cherry farming!

03/12/2023

UPDATE 🍒
Like most Adelaide hills orchards, we got absolutely smashed by those storms last week, at the worst possible time for a cherry orchard.

A lot of our beautiful fruit has split as a result... but... we are very HAPPY to report that there is still plenty of healthy, perfect fruit to pick when it's ripe in a couple of weeks.
And the quality and size is sensational!

We will be making the most of the split fruit this week by making jams, chutney, cherry pies, pickled cherries, poached cherries... you name it, we will probably be making it 🤣

01/12/2023

🍒 Gather your buckets and bring your smiles! We're ready for an unforgettable cherry-picking season. 🍒🧺

NOT OPEN YET, but hoping we are within the next week or two 🎉

"

30/11/2023

Hear from our happy customers! 😄🍒

"Very lively place, nice little drive from city. Welcoming owners and amazing farm surrounding. We had a pleasant time, plucked abundance of cherries. A little off road drive thrilled me. Definitely my all time best cherry picking venue. Count me in next seasons too."" - Pratap U.

29/11/2023

Thanks for the write up Glam Adelaide, we are so excited to open soon 🎉🍒

CHERRY PICKING GUIDE! It's almost time, Adelaide. We've brought together the best places for cherry picking this season.
Read more >> https://hubs.ly/Q02b7ktV0

28/11/2023

🍒 Cherry Colour 🍒

Its almost time to get our nifty little cherry ripening dial out! (Very technical name of course).
This shows us exactly how we want our cherries for picking, and helps our customers know what to pick as well.

Bright red cherries are beautiful to the eye but not quite ripe - we want our cherries to be a dark red and coloured all the way through to the pip! Colour 4-5 is the best a cherry can be.
Our cherry rows all ripen at different stages, and we want to make sure you pick the best of the bunch.

So lets pray for warm sunny days ahead to ripen our Stella cherries!

26/11/2023

THE PINES - HISTORY IN THE ADELAIDE HILLS

Cherries at Verdun is located in the Adelaide Hills, on the historic, heritage listed farm, "The Pines".
The Gallasch family have farmed this incredible property for 176 years, and is owned by Tony and Coral, 7th generation farmers.

The homestead you drive past was built in 1875, and is heritage listed.
The original pioneers used to walk down to town to sell their produce at the Adelaide markets, and then walk back again the next day. This trail is now known as "The pioneer women's trail"!

Tony and Coral planted 1060 cherry trees in 1996, and evolved the farm as a PYO 12 years ago. These are the orchard rows you still walk through today!

The Lucas family took over the business in 2021, and continue to run the Cherry farm as the Gallasch family did - family friendly, fun and welcoming.

We feel incredibly grateful to be able to run Cherries at Verdun on this beautiful patch of paradise in the Adelaide Hills.