So far, the orchard has had damage to three variants of its cherries, with a fourth variant at potential risk.

"We have 16 variants of cherries in total," Mrs Barton said. "The orchard is designed to be staggered, otherwise you wouldn't be able to get everything picked.

"So far we have had weather damage to three to four varieties and the fourth may have weather damage."

However, challenges caused by heavy rain downpours during harvest season isn't a new concept for Mrs Barton.

"I think we've had one year without weather damage," she said.

"And that year we had other challenges, we had a lot of dry, hot wind.

"Irrigation is great but it's not the same as a good drink of rain, in saying that, you have to have rain at the right time."

Usually, Grovelands Cherries Wagga would have opened its doors to the public already, but this year they are about a week late.

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"That's the problem with the rain, once the cherries are nearly ripe, they don't like it," Mrs Barton said.

"We're a week late in opening.

"I'm not fully set-up yet but we're expecting to open on Friday or Saturday this weekend.

"We will just have to wait until after the rain to see what exactly we have, but fingers crossed we don't get too much more rain.

"With rain, my issue is, management wise, it makes it much more labour intensive.

"The cherries are harder to pick and sort through once you have weather damage.

"We will have to see what holds with the weather for us, but the later season varieties are looking really good."

Mrs Barton said the cherries set for harvest around Christmas time are looking promising and, after the "amazing support" the family orchard received from locals last year, she is remaining optimistic.

"The ones that come up near Christmas are still quite green, so we're hopeful they will be good," she said.

"Generally, we have enough supply to operate up to Christmas and we usually shut two to three days after Christmas.

"We also have jam, cherry pies, honey and a number of condiments."

"I'm fairly sure we are the only cherry farm in Wagga.

"We bought the place in 2017, but before that I used to live about 10 kilometres away and I used to buy my cherries here."

For updates, visit the Grovelands Cherries Wagga Facebook page.

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