It's hard to imagine that Young, a small town set in lovely farming country 376 kilometres west of Sydney, was once the site of vicious race riots and bloodshed.

The first time I passed through the town, we stopped - just for fun - to photograph the sign on the Young Retirement Home (geddit?) then hurried along, vowing to come back some other time when we could stay longer.

That trip we even missed seeing JD's Jam Factory on the outskirts of town. It was not for the want of directions. There are signposts everywhere pointing you to the location on Grenfell Rd just a couple of kilometres from the town centre and with a great view over the surrounding countryside.

The cherry season is almost here again, but at JD's it's always cherry-time. It's a world of cherries, cherries, and more cherries, appropriate because Young is regarded as the country's cherry capital. Look closer and you will see that other stone-fruits also get a good airing here too, as this jam factory produces 118 varieties of Young Maid products - canned fruit, jams, pickles, chutneys, butters, jellies and sauces, sold throughout the country in supermarkets.

This sweet 'take' on recycling was developed ten years ago to make use of waste fruit from the orchards that encircle Young. It was all good fruit, but just too ripe to survive transport to city or interstate markets. It was owner Lester Donges' Aunty Coral, using her mother's old-style recipes, who began cooking cherry jam in her own kitchen. Soon the kitchen migrated to adjoin the packing shed and it now takes care of around 100 tonnes of the area's fruit seconds each year.

Lester Donges and wife Jan have never shied away from a challenge, and the most recent one of adding a hundred-seat eatery onto their already pretty massive place hardly fazed them. You can tour the streamlined jam factory, but most people find the Devonshire teas and cherry pie irresistible, and few can resist tasting the cherry port or wine too.

JD's products, along with local duck, rabbit, organic chicken, squab, prunes, locally milled flour, honey, Granma's cordials, Yandilla mustard seed oil and Hilltop wines, also feature in the local IGA Supermarket where some of the produce in the fruit and vegetable section sports a clever 'Buy me, I'm Local' sign.

The cherry season is always short, always just before Christmas, and it always keeps the local orchardists on their toes in an attempt to deal with all the work. Just to fill in any spare moments, the National Cherry Festival - this year November 28th to December 7th - is seen as a chance to unwind and celebrate. A kind of cherry vintage festival, if you like.

The festival sees all sort of fun and games such as the festival ball, a fun run, bush poets' competition, a busking competition and festival parade, as well as the must-enter National Cherry Festival Cherry Pip Spitting Championship.

Few would have predicted such a knees-up when people initially poured into the area, chasing gold in 1860. In those days the only pastoralist was James White at Burrangong Station and it was there his nephew discovered gold. Bushrangers had already been a problem at what was then this outback location, but once gold fever hit, outlaws caused havoc for a time in the newly minted shanty town that sprang up.

For several months there were wild times here. Fights between Chinese and European gold hunters resulted in several thousand Chinese being run off the diggings and literally exiled to nearby Wombat. The Riot Act was read after the famous Lambing Flat Riots, bushrangers multiplied and the government scrambled for a way to deal with the situation.

The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has displays that include the 'Roll-Up' flag, with its 'No Chinese' emblem, used to rally European miners whenever an attack on the Chinese miners was planned.

Yet today Chinaman's Dam, about four kilometres out of town, is one of the town's beauty spots. Originally owned by Chinese miners it later became a recreation reserve and has been recently beautified further.

In 1861 the settlement, with a population swollen to over 20,000 by the miners, was officially named Young, for the governor of NSW. When gold eventually petered out, the area went back to a more bucolic industry - agriculture - and by 1923 Young reputedly had the world's two largest cherry orchards.

Ane's Cherrygrove is also lavishly advertised on many signs - and with good reason. There are cherries, peaches and strawberries here as well as plums, nectarines and berries. A range of homemade products such as cherry and strawberry pies, pickles, jams, sauces, chutneys, oils and vinaigrettes is also available. There are wine and cheese tasting of fruit wines and local cheeses, or you may simply relax with a Devonshire tea.

But if you want to kick back for longer, Zouch, run by Chef Susie Forrest, is the place to go. This restaurant is making waves, due in great part to the fine work of Forrest and her commitment to using the best local produce in her produce-driven menu.

Young's gold rush brought almost more trouble than it was worth, but the town has grown through those tough times and is ripe for a visit. Little wonder that the town that bills its festival as 'very cherry' now encourages people to come chasing cherry red instead of gold.

Cherries seem a much safer and sweeter treasure.

Sally and Gordon Hammond stayed in Young as guests of Young Tourism.