Destination Ideas for the Bay Area: Brentwood, CA.
In the Bay Area, Memorial Day kicks off the annual Cherry Picking Season. Brentwood, one of the most popular Cherry Picking Destinations, has seen a steady increase in traffic over the years in terms of visitors during this specific time of year(estimated to be @150,000 per year). Brentwood, located about 56 miles east of San Francisco, offers a day-trippable destination that has year round u-pick and farm stand choices.
Harvest season for cherries in Brentwood generally runs from Memorial Day Weekend through July 4th weekend. This year, due to the unusual weather and rains, peak season has varied. The rains during the weekend of 6/7 forced closure of many u-pick farms. This past weekend, June 11, 12, was primo for cherry picking. The skies were partially cloudy and sunny, the weather temperate (at least for the Brentwood area in summer) and the fruit plentiful. There are numerous venues for different tastes. In the U-Pick category, our favorite was Bacchini’s Fruit Tree, for Strawberries, you have to go to Chan’s Fruit Stand and in the farm stand category, there’s just too many to choose from.
At Bacchini’s, there was a lot of ripe Bing, Sour and Ranier cherries to choose from as well as white peaches. The plums were almost barren and others such as Pluots were also almost sold out.
For more information, you can find maps, harvest times and other bits of information at: http://www.harvest4you.com/.
For more pictures, check out: http://cchinstudios.zenfolio.com/p825863615.