Watkins Orchard

Number 36 on Map 2 of the Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps

By the Hawkesbury River , just out of Wisemans Ferry, there is a "pick your own" mandarin orchard that was established in 1901 by John Watkins' great, great grandfather.

John himself is 73 and has been working the orchard since 1958 - he was born further up the road.  His son Mark is the 6th generation of the Watkins family to be involved in the business and has his own orchard of 3000 trees. And it looks like a 7th generation is likely to be involved, with Mark's daughter showing a keen interest in the orchards!

 

 

It's been a good year this year for the fruit crop, with periodic rain keeping the trees healthy and abundant.  John tells stories of the old days of travelling with the fruit to market by horse and dray as a boy. Part of growing good fruit is knowing when to feed the trees and how much to feed them.

The orchard is open for fruit picking on weekends, public holidays and school holidays.  He expect the season to finish towards the end of September and walks amongst the heavily laden trees to pick gorgeous ripe Hickson mandarins for me to try.

 

In the summer months, John goes prawn trawling on the river, something he has been doing since 1953. He built his own boat in 1973 and it is still going strong.

 

As I am leaving the orchard, I ask John if he ever gets sick of mandarins, having been around them since he was a tiny boy.

"I can never get sick of good food," he says.  

Watkins Orchard

1125 Singleton Road

Lower Hawkesbury via Wisemans Ferry

02 4566 3107

Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
 

Comments

[Jeremy]

I went to Watkins Orchard and it was beautiful the mandarines are delicious, sweet and juicy. Eating mandarins from a shop just doesn't compare to eating the mandarins from watkins orchard. Cant wait to go back and get more.