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Delicious Seasonal Fruit with a Family Outing to Boot!

For the last week since we arrived back in New Zealand I’ve been seeing signs everywhere for ‘Pick Your Own’ fruit. So this morning we headed to our local farmers market and on the way home we stopped at two of the local orchards.
Our first stop was Soliel Terrace near Amberley. After a short chat with the farmer we strode off, buckets in hand to the back of the orchard excited to be picking our own super fresh apricots. We walked along a country road, next to a pine forest and past a set of bee hives in a paddock. The kids had a great time asking about everything they could see and imagining what it would be like if ‘we were real farmers’. They just loved running up and down between the rows of trees pointing out fruit for us to pick, as well as adding as many of the low hanging fruits to their buckets as possible. The only thing that didn’t delight them was the feeling of squashed apricot between their toes! We ended up with almost 5 kilos of fruit for less than $20 – fabulous!
The second orchard was conveniently next door. Gracebrook Orchard grows cherries, hazelnuts, apricots and sells eggs. The owner was extremely friendly, great with the kids and also gave us instructions on how to pick the cherries from the top of the stalk – so they keep for as long as possible. The best part about this trip for the kids was the ‘secret entrance’ into the orchard. All the apricot trees were covered with netting so we had to lift up a section and ‘sneak’ through. At the very end of each row there was a section of younger trees with lower branches for the kids to pick from. By the time we made it back to the entrance the kids had more on their faces than in their buckets but luckily the lady was more than happy that they’d had such a nice time.
What I had not previously understood about the practice of ‘picking your own’ is that it’s a great way for the orchards to sell the last of their seasons fruit after the paid fruit pickers are gone. It’s a great way to support local growers, teach your kids about where supermarket food really comes from and makes for a fun family outing.
Now we are home with all this delicious fruit and it’s time to make the most of it. See our next blog for recipes and great ideas to preserve large amounts of fruit.