Israel had a very late winter, with cool weather and even rain running well past pesach, despite the fact that it was a Jewish leap year making the seasons already late.

While we were all scratching our heads wondering about rain and cool weather in May in Israel, also wondering about the gemara that considers such late rains to be a curse (bad for the crops in general), at least the cherry crop benefited from the unusual weather.

Because of the late cool weather, the cherry farmers are calling this a bumper year, with the crop yielding a much higher yield, both in quantity and quality. This also expects to cause the cherry prices to drop a bit and be a bit more reasonable than in recent history.

delicious cherries!

If you are looking for information for the annual Cherry Picking Festival in Rosh Tzurim, that will be taking place next week on Friday. See here for more information, times, prices, etc.. The festival is a lot of fun, and the cherries are delicious. I have gone many times in previous years.