There’s some debate whether the phrase, life is like a bowl of cherries, first appeared in a song or the phrase inspired the late 1920s song. It’s American and implies that life is pretty great. Except when it’s not. As in, life is not a bowl of cherries, which a complaining sort of person might have been told before the less genteel, suck it up, moved in.

The phrase only jumps to my mind when our Okanagan cherries come in and I wash them and put them in the yellow bowl and wonder about the growers of this wonderfulness. This is every July, which is now, and if the first ones are any indication, 2014 is going to be a stellar year. Red letter, in fact.

I don’t know if life is a bowl of cherries for BC cherry orchardists. I hope perfect means profitable and they keep their orchards. BC’s stone fruit industry is shrinking as the wine industry grows. Every time I visit the Okanagan there’s less orchards and more vineyards. It makes me worry. This kind of farming used to provide a life good enough for raising a family. Now I wonder. And I wonder why we’re bringing the same fruit in from other countries. How’s that championing local? It’s not right. Please don’t say I have to suck it up.

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