Brentwood – which is about 30 miles away is quite a farmland with many a farms for Cherry or fruit picking.  We decided to try it out as well.

From Livermore Costco, its about 30 minutes away, going up north on Vosco. A friend has visited Nunn Better farms for Cherry picking last week, so decided to try out the same.

One interesting thing was that there are no good websites for specific farms – the most useful is a Trail Map here: http://www.harvest4you.com/pdfs/HT2010_mapwcat.pdf

Some Yelp reviews made the place sound like very farm-ish. You’ll get dirty, there’s too much sun, etc. – though it didn’t turn out to be exactly like that.  Anyhow, we went there a little late in the evening (though the best time is to go early morning).  The drive was interesting, with the mostly single lane Vasco Road meandering around a load of Windmills of all varieties.  The Nunn Better Farms is about 3-4 miles ‘inside’ Brentwood – so as you pass some other farms, you’re are like this one better be good. They have posted ample signs directing you to the farm, so that also raised expectations. Over all, it was an OK experience. Not sure if its normal, but a good majority of the Cherries had that line that tends to divide the cherry into two lobes. Not many actually had two lobes.
At USD2.50 a pound, it seemed a little expensive in this cherry season. The cost at the local grocery or Costco is same – with better quality. But well, then, its also some cherry picking experience with the kids (that gets you there to begin with).
They stopped people from coming in at around 4:15 PM – and most of the other farms close at 4:00 PM for U-pick. For the Picked fruit, there are stalls outside most farms where you can buy already picked fresh fruit, but the prices are again no better than the local stores. You’d also find local olive oil, in addition to fruits on the sale. We picked up some white pear and peaches and blackberries – mostly pretty good.

So cherry/berry picking is surely something to do in Summers if you live in Tri Valley.