If you are ever smitten by with the abundance of fresh fruits at hand while enjoying a beautiful sunny day, you are probably no stranger to U Pick farms. If you enjoy eating plump blueberries, strawberries and loganberries, than you will more than likely love cherries as well. During summertime my friends and I love to travel – road trips, boating, flying off somewhere… you name it. Last year we decided to go to Summerland to visit some wineries, go kayaking, and of course visit a U Pick Farm for cherries. On the way home we arrived at what seemed to be a promising land abundant with cherries at Dickinson Family Farm in Summerland, Okanagan. There were a lot of people parked in the parking lot, but it was strange when reviews were scarce. Perhaps people were having such a great time that there is no need for such things. This is not true and definitely I feel it is my duty to report such faults
Please be forewarned that this is not your ideal cheery post. In fact this post serves as a warning to fellow cherry-picking-I-want-a-good-time comrades. As we were lining up eagerly waiting to pay, we were shunned for
- Wanting to pay for 3 ladders instead of 6. There were 3 girls and 3 guys. As for myself I do not feel safe climbing a 12 foot ladder without Dave holding on tightly below. Neither did the other 2 girls.
- Telling the “nice” lady that we’d like to pay for 6 admissions but only needed 3 ladders
As strange as it sounds, the “nice” lady actually thought we were ripping her off. It doesn’t matter really if we had 3 ladders or 6, how many pounds of cherries you end up picking is how many pounds of cherries we will pay for… Clearly a PHD is not needed to understand that.
Nevermind. Finally after some time the gatekeeper finally let us through. Happily praising ourselves for picking the biggest, baddest cherry we were “greeted” by the owner - who is a real champion when it comes to alienating his customers and making racist and condescending remarks... Let’s call him Dick. He was a real DICK. He dicked us around the whole time and we thought to ourselves he is a real Dick!
Dick did not like the fact that we were picking the low-hanging cherries. He, in fact, did not like that we moved our ladders away from the particularly sparse looking cherry trees he directed us to. Dick also did not appreciate that we moved too slowly out of his majesty’s way as he directed us to another sparse cherry tree.
What Dick wanted was cheap Chinese labour to help him pick all the cherries hanging way high above the clouds so that he and his staff did not need to do anything. Funny how this is a U-Pick Farm... Last time I checked, the definition of a U Pick Farm was that you can pick what you want, where you want (away from restricted areas of course), and pay for how many pounds you’ve picked.
Sorry Sir, I do not work for you. I did not pay to be accosted by your racist remarks regarding how I do not understand English. And I certainly did not deserve to be patronized by your discriminatory foul behavior.
In fact, I don’t care how plump or how juicy the cherries may be. I’ll consider the paid ladders and admission a sunk cost. Never again. Be Warned.
You are not the only U Pick Cherry farm in BC! Please visit:
Mike & Lizzy's U-Pick Cherries - Kelowna BC
4801 Lakeshore Dr.
Kelowna, BC
(250) 863-4431
Kelowna Land & Orchard - Kelowna BC
3002 Dunster Road
Kelowna BC
(250) 763-1091
Paynter's Fruit Market - Westside Kelowna (Westbank BC)
3687 Paynter Road
Westbank BC, V4T 1R1
(250) 768-7313
Dickinson Family Farm
URL: http://www.dickinsonfamilyfarm.com
Cuisine: Farm, Cherries, Fruits
Hours
8:00 am until 5:00 pm
starting July 15th each year
17208 Bentley Rd, British Columbia V0H 1Z3
(250) 494-0300
Comment Below