I read a January 16, 2026 article in Sixth Tone titled Chilean Cherries: Why Prices in China Plunge Every Winter. I am admittedly not an expert on fruit prices in China, but I have observed similar phenomena in my home and native Brooklyn, New York City. I have sometimes had the good fortune of picking up “cheap” berries and cherries in the winter, usually at a small fruit and vegetable grocer called Mr. Beet in the Boerum Hill neighborhood. My first thought when I saw the Sixth Tone headline (the article is well-worth reading) was that I had taken a photograph of a bowl of cherries I purchased in the winter a year or two ago that I had intended to publish on our sister site, The Emu Café Social, but never did. Very much in the spirit of our Winter 2026 Season Theme, I present to you my photo of my bowl of cherries that I had purchased on February 17, 2024.
I recall buying these cherries at Mr. Beet. They were either $0.99 or $1.99 per pound, which is very cheap for cherries in New York City. I keep my expectations for winter cherries and berries low, but I recall that they were good. For whatever it is worth, I think mediocre cherries are better than most mediocre berries, provided they are fresh. Not all fruit is good when it is not the best (see blackberries), but cherries tend to scale down nicely.
Finding my cherry photo was a challenge. I use Syncthing to sync photos from my phone camera(s) to my computer. Over the years, I have switched phones a couple of times and also re-installed the operating system on specific phones. Every time a phone or a specific phone set-up goes out of use, I move the old camera folder to a special folder on my computer (and other devices thanks to Syncthing) for picture folders that are not being added to. It took a few tries for me to find the cherries since I did not remember exactly when I took the photo, only that I had taken it one winter, most likely in 2023-25. It turned out that I had taken the cherry photo with my current phone, my Google Pixel 3a XL, but back when it was running DivestOS (a now-defunct operating system based on Android Open Source Project) instead of Ubuntu Touch.
Photo archaeology aside, consider this article a small public service announcement that it is a good idea to keep an eye out for cheap out-of-season fruit. Of course, it is only worth taking a chance if the fruit appears to be fresh and in good shape, like the cherries I wisely purchased two winters ago.
