Time to Pick Cherries in Leona Valley

The Bing cherries in Wade’s Cherry Mart, one of several dozen U-pick orchards here in Leona Valley, are ripe and ready for customers today, the same day the town--about 10 miles west of Palmdale--puts on its annual parade at 11 a.m. This year’s theme: “Riding High on a Cherry Pie.”

“Pick one, eat one, pick one, eat two,” kidded Tom Wade as he set wooden three-legged ladders between the branches of some of his 400 cherry trees and popped a handful of bright red, sweet Bing cherries in his mouth.

Wade and Betty, his wife, eat the fruit right off the tree because it’s absolutely clean. “I don’t use chemicals or sprays of any kind,” he said.

“We joke about weighing the customers in and weighing ‘em out,” he added, piling a dozen collecting cans on his fruit stand by the gate in preparation for this weekend’s onslaught of customers.

Annual Pilgrimage

Thoughts of home-baked pies not filled with gummy, cloying, canned filling are one reason why hordes of city people make an annual June pilgrimage to this quiet, rural valley 3,500 feet high in the mountains between Valencia and the Mojave Desert.

But others are just hoping for a peaceful day in the country. “We see the same people coming every spring,” says Wade, “and by now--it’s been 15 years--they’ve become friends. We built benches in the shade under the trees, and families bring picnics and stay all day. You wouldn’t believe how many cherries some of them pick. Gallons and gallons.”

Wade, president of the Cherry Growers’ Assn. in 1984 and 1985, estimates that there are about 8,000 cherry trees in the valley, all of them operated on a U-pick basis. The crop lasts about three weeks, during which time cherry lovers swarm over the orchards and pick the trees clean.

‘The Only Way to Go’

According to Wade, “U-pick is the only way to go.” His customers do a better job and damage the trees less than professional pickers would, he said. “We tried to sell the crop to a grocery chain once, but no one was interested.”

Most of the crop is Bing cherries, with a few Royal Anne’s, according to the Wades. Although the classic cherry pie is made with sour cherries, Betty Wade says Bing cherries “do make a delicious pie” that requires less sugar.

All the orchards are within several miles of the town center and most charge between 50 and 80 cents per pound. There’s no limit on amount, but pickers should be careful not to yank off whole bunches and stems. The tiny spur near the head of the stem is where next year’s growth forms.

Start your day at Leona Valley’s main intersection, Elizabeth Lake Road and 90th Street, where the Country Store and a market sell food and supplies. An information booth on one corner gives away maps to all of the valley’s cherry growers.

Visitors on a schedule may find the orchards near the town center most convenient. For a quieter, more pastoral outing, however, try orchards like Wade’s, on the edge of town adjacent to the Angeles National Forest.

Two Routes

Most of the orchards are open Saturdays and Sundays, from about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., until picked out. For more information on the cherry crop, orchard locations and times, call the Country Store: (805) 270-0613.

Two routes lead to Leona Valley. For a scenic drive, take Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles, turn east on Valencia Boulevard, left on Bouquet Canyon Road. Continue about 30 miles up winding Bouquet Canyon, following a rushing stream stocked with trout, then turn left on Elizabeth Lake Road into Leona Valley.

The freeway route follows State 14 to Palmdale. Go left on Palmdale Boulevard, continue west (the name changes to Lake Hughes-Lake Elizabeth Road), and into Leona Valley.

U-pick cherries are also grown in Lake Hughes, west of Leona Valley and in Beaumont, east of Riverside. Lake Hughes’ crop will be ripening about Wednesday; Beaumont’s crop is expected a bit later, on June 19.