Victorian Cherry Association Inc

Yesterday the Murray Darling Basin Authority held a public meeting at the Eastbank Centre in Shepparton on the Draft Murray Darling Plan. The plan was released on November 28^th for a twenty week consultation period and this was the first opportunity for northern Victorian Fruit growers to comment.

Environment Minister, Tony Bourke, and MDBA Chairman, Craig Knowles spoke first and then several local speakers provide their points of view before the meeting was open to general comment. Fruit Growers Victoria Ltd chairman (Andrew Plunkett) spoke on behalf of the horticulture industry and his speech is available for download. Richard Anderson who chairs the VFF Water Policy Council also spoke as did Terry Court from the GV Environment Group and Jeff Odgers from the Australian Dairy Industry Council

The major concern from irrigators was uncertainty and the lack of detail.

Craig Knowles stressed that it is a draft plan and it can be subject to change depending on what is discovered over the next eighteen weeks of consultation

Minister Bourke said that ultimately the final plan must satisfy the political process. It must pass through ministerial council before it goes to him and them on to parliament for approval.

All cherry growers are encouraged to provide comment to the VCA which will be making a formal submission. Growers are also encouraged to make private submissions.

The VCA exhibition at the Werribee Harvest Picnic has won first place in the People’s Choice awards.  Hopefully this translates to more people buying cherries!

Congratulations to all those involved.  Below is an excerpt from the report from the Harvest Picnic Foundation.

“The Victorian Cherry Association was the overwhelming winner, with one visitor commenting how helpful and friendly the staff were. The Cherry Pip Competition also added to the festivities of the picnic, as was very popular with the visitors”

The 2011 Victorian Cherry Season Launch took place at the Spring Harvest Picnic, Werribee. This year Mother Nature was kinder to us, and the launch day saw superb weather reflected by the strong visitor numbers. Incessant rainfall and flooding of the lawn area the day before caused delays and slowed down set up operations, but not our spirits!

The Victorian Cherry Association [VCA] team starred at the Cherry Marquee and people loved meeting the growers and buying those amazing cherries! Thanks to Stuart and Stephanie Pickworth, Karen Nagle, Stephen Riseborough, Gen Aumann and her friend Robyn Horner, John Wilson, his daughter Vanessa and her friend Domenic, Chris Tuck and Franklin Trouw.

Activities on the day

·         Cherry Pip Competition
Heats were run from 10 am to 12.30 pm with the final at 1.00 pm. The prize was a cherry red Kitchen Aid stand mixer valued at $799 plus a bonus prize of a U-Pick Cherry Experience at the winner’s chosen local farm.
The Cherry Pip Competition ran smoothly thanks to Gen Aumann, her friend Robyn Horner, Vanessa Wilson and her friend Domenic Whitehouse and event assistant Laura Donato. The compere "Roger Red Jacket" was a smash hit and made the competition entertaining. The resources provided by Harvest Picnic Foundation lay the groundwork for the success of the competition with fencing, red carpet, small stage and red pop up marquee with bunting specially produced by Kirsty Hunt, Executive Officer

·         Cherry Recipes and Tastings
Sally Lukey of Sweetpea Cuisine kept cherry recipes bubbling along, starting with Cherry Hotties (pancakes) in the morning followed by Cherry Vanilla Smoothies, which she whipped up in the KitchenAid blender. The smoothies were a knockout success as the vision and sound of the blender whirring away attracted lots of people to the marquee.

·         Cherry Sales & Tastings
Stuart and Stephanie Pickworth and Karen Nagle displayed and sold cherries and Chris Tuck and Franklin Trouw offered cherries for tasting outside the front of the marquee. People remarked on the high quality of the appearance and the taste of the cherries. We based our product estimation on last year’s orders with a slight increase in case the weather was good and visitor numbers increased accordingly. The red cups of cherries sold very well as did the 1kg boxes - so much so that we ran out of cherries by about mid afternoon.

·         Harvest Trail Brochure
The team promoted U-Pick Cherry Experiences, showing the public the new brochure and the various Victorian locations. When we ran out of cherries we encouraged people to take their family and friends to a U-pick farm over the following weekends and holidays.  Over 500 brochures were taken on the day.

·         Co-promotion
Jo Richardson, celebrity presenter and KitchenAid representative, presented cherry recipes at the Neff Cooking Demonstration Marquee.

Victorian Cherry growers and industry reps braved the ensuring rains in the beautiful Strathbogie Ranges to listen to Simon Rouget give an update on what has been happening at Koala Country Orchards in Boho.

Simon walked the group through the orchard with areas of special interest being the high elevation block and late maturing varieties.  A discussion was then held on challenges this site faced including managing vigour and strategies to control bacterial canker.

Great day last Friday at Euroa with over 50 growers attending the VCA AGM. 

After the business side of things was over Dr Penny Measham from TIAR presented her latest research on “Management of Fruit Cracking”, growers were able to learn improved techniques to manage fruit cracking – see presentations below this post.

Fruit Growers Victoria IDO, Michael Crisera, and Michael Rouget from VCA delivered the latest on QFF and chemical restrictions.

Growers got to hear about the Victorian Cherry launch at this year’s Spring Harvest Picnic at Werribee on Sunday 27 November.  The Pip Spitting competition has become a major event at the festival with more work done for this year to make the event bigger and better.  For more information go to http://www.harvestpicnic.com.au/

Many growers got to meet the r elatively new CGA CEO, Simon Boughey, for the first time.  Simon was able to update us all on the future directions of CGA.

The Cherry Trail Brochure was launched with many of the participating growers taking home their bundle of brochures.  To see where you can pick your own of buy cherries at farm gate prices go to http://www.cherries.org.au/3633750/victorian-cherry-association-cherry-trail.htm

The meeting finished off with a positive seasonal outlook from all cherry growing regions in Victoria.