Lapins Cherry Harvest – Big, Juicy, and 100% Electric

Cherry season at Forest Lodge Orchard is in full swing, and right now, we’re all about the Lapins! If you’ve never had a Lapins cherry before, let us introduce you to one of the biggest, juiciest, most flavour-packed cherries out there. They’re deep red, firm, and bursting with sweetness, making them an absolute favourite for cherry lovers everywhere. And this year? They’re some of the best we’ve ever grown.

What Makes Lapins Cherries So Good?

Lapins are known for their size, crunch, and incredible sweetness. They’re naturally larger than many other cherry varieties—this season, we’ve seen some absolute monsters coming off the trees, measuring 32-34mm across! That’s about as big as cherries get, and let’s just say, resisting the urge to eat them straight off the tree has been a challenge.

The key to a perfect Lapins cherry is:

✅ A long, green stem – This shows the cherry came from a healthy, well-fed tree.

✅ Firm, crunchy flesh – The crunchier the cherry, the fresher and better it travels.

✅ A deep red colour – A sign of full ripeness and peak flavour.

✅ High natural sugar content – These cherries hit a Brix rating of around 19-21, meaning they’re perfectly sweet without being overpowering.

Put all that together, and you’ve got one of the best cherries in the world—grown right here in Central Otago.

Harvesting Lapins – 14 Tons and Counting!

Our Lapins harvest is in full swing, and so far, we’ve picked a massive 14 tons of cherries from our orchard. Each one is carefully handpicked, driven down the orchard rows in our fully electric vehicles, and packed into bins before heading off to the packhouse to be washed, graded, and packed for delivery all across New Zealand.

The Future of Cherries is Electric

New Zealand is an exporting country, and cherries are one of the most premium products we send out into the world. But here at Forest Lodge, we’re doing things differently.

✅ We don’t burn diesel.

✅ We don’t burn gas.

✅ We run on solar power, and every machine on our farm—21 in total—is electric.

The result? Lapins cherries that aren’t just the best in New Zealand—they’re the most sustainably grown cherries in the world.

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