Cherry picking in Bergamo

With only a few days left in Bergamo I was enjoying a walk up and down the many medieval stairways of the Citta Alta when my phone chimed and a "whatsapp" message came through. Elena was asking if we were interested in cherry picking that afternoon. Sounded like fun, we were in! I had been ogling at the many large cherry trees throughout Bergamo that seemed to be bursting with ripening fruit. Some of the branches of the fruit filled trees hung close to the stone walls I walked along and the thought of reaching up to pick a few was always close to my mind. So, when the invitation came, I expected to walk into nearby forest to collect cherries from large mature trees. 

Instead, we pulled onto the side of the road along with two other cars full of eager pickers. Everyone was holding scissors and a couple of people had buckets ready to be filled. We walked a few hundred meters down the road with Elena and her friends chatting away until we reached what looked to me to be more like a vineyard. No, it wasn't vines at all. This was a young cherry plantation in its second year of harvest and part of a Slow Food orchard that also included an abundance of peach trees. The rustic looking manager gave a full brief in rapid Italian about the  orchard. There were ten different varieties of cherries with over 100 trees all bursting with fruit. Unusually, this year all of the varieties had matured at the same time causing an over abundance of fruit. The idea of planting different varieties of cherries is to ensure maturation at different times within the season to create a longer supply. However, with the warmer start to Spring and the low rain levels, all varieties matured simultaneously. This normally would result in a large amount of beautiful fruit being discarded. Instead, the networks were used to spread the news and residents were invited to come and help themselves.  I was thrilled to be included in this special treat. 

Fully briefed, we were set free to help ourselves to any or all of the varieties, sampling along the way to check for sweetness and flavour. We were asked to help remove any rotten or damaged fruit we could find and we were instructed to snip the cherries on their stalks about 2cm from the fruit. We filled tub after tub in rapid succession until after the 5th I declared to my enthusiastic daughter that we had more than sufficient. Loading our collection into a box I took some notes from my pocket and was told, "€20 va bene". Twenty euro for close to 5kg of organic, fresh cherries. My response? "Wow!".

The slow food movement in Bergamo is renovating a castle beside the orchard. They will open a restaurant along with an education/research centre for the region. Next year they are expecting an oversupply of peaches and the same type of self-service invitations will be sent out. What a wonderful way to avoid wastage and involve the community in the growing and consumption of fresh, seasonal and organic fruit.