Number 5, Map 1 Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
Apple picking season is underway!
Pine Crest Orchard
2549 Bells Line of Road Bilpin
02 4567 1143
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
Original Hawkesbury Harvest Experience
01/02/2011
18/11/2010
Riverview Produce
Number 26 Map 1 of the Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail maps
On Yarramundi Lane, in Richmond, there is a young couple working 7 days a week to produce glorious vegetables, available for sale from their on site shop.
David and Charmaine Bugeja married in 2002 and David bought the 20 acre property in 2001. His father lives on one side and his uncle on the other side of him.. and it feels as though there are healthy vegetables growing as far as the eye can see. Much of David's produce is grown hydroponically, with water from the nearby river being used and recycled, with minimal waste of this precious resource.
This is one of those stories where the photos speak for themselves ..although if photographs had scent you would smell earth, garlic and basil as well!
If you are thinking of fresh produce over the holiday period then here is a wonderful place to purchase - although customers should be aware that David and Charmaine will close the shop from Christmas Day for their annual two week holiday - a much needed break in an extremely busy routine.
Riverview Produce
198 Yarramundi Lane Richmond
0417 695 845
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
10/09/2010
Jubilee Vineyard Estate
Number 22 on Map 1B Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail maps
Part of the privilege of documenting producers along the Farm Gate Trail is discovering the passion which underpins the hard work which goes into farming.
Situated by a beautiful lagoon which empties into the Hawkesbury River, lies the vineyard known as Jubilee Vineyard. It is owned by Alison and Ray Hayek whose first vintage was in 2008 and whose passionate love for what they do is clear.
Prior to owning Jubilee they had held an interest in a vineyard in the Hunter Valley. As parents to four boys they were keen to find a property where the children could run and play freely in fresh air. Fortunately they found this 27 hectare property near Ebenezer. Both Alison and Ray are chiropractors and whilst Ray still continues to work as a chiropractor and in academia, Alison is able to devote herself to mothering and the vineyard.
The Hayeks inherited a vineyard planted with Chambourcin, an American/French hybrid which can withstand humidity, essential in this area which receives summer rain. They have planted viognier and also shiraz, "for the heartbreak," laughs Alison. As a boutique vineyard it is important that they develop handcrafted, unique wines and explore the potential of more exotic blends.
The Hayeks work in close co operation with Tizzana Winery across the road, where Peter Auld makes their wine for them. They sell their wine through markets and city restaurants, as well as, of course, through their own cellar door. They sell White Chambourcin, roses, reds and ports, all of which share a cleanliness on the palate characteristic of the Chambourcin grape variety.
Alison clearly adores the family's huge lifestyle shift. She describes the beauty of dawn on the lagoon, which is home to cormorants, pelicans, swamp hens and a pair of nesting black swans. She delights in the blossom of spring time and the seasonal changes in the vineyard. This love is clearly communicated as she talks me through the various wines - it is clear that the work involved in running a vineyard is a labour of love in the best possible way.
Jubilee Vineyard Estate
519 Tizzana Road Ebenezer
02 45790740
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
05/05/2010
Madison's Mountain Retreat
Number 8 Map 1A Hawkesbury Farm Gate Trail maps
From the moment I spied the red combi van parked close to an old train carriage I knew that this was going to be fun! And I hadn't even seen the alpacas yet!
Debbie Redelman purchased this property 5 years ago. Located in Kurrajong Heights and bordered by the Wollemi and Blue Mountains National Parks, she and her husband had holidayed here as a couple and then with their family. Knowing that she wanted to combine her love of animals with a business, she offered to purchase the property when the owners let her know it was for sale.
Initially Debbie had thought she would raise goats. That was until she spent some time with alpacas at a Royal Easter Show in Sydney. Her love for these gentle animals was instant and after an initial purchase of 2 alpacas, she now runs a herd of over 70.
Madison's Mountain Retreat offers simple, extremely comfortable accommodation in a number of cottages and old , refurbished rail carriages. When I asked Debbie what the main purpose of owning the alpacas was her answer was very direct.
"Some would raise alpacas for their fleece and others for their guarding ability. I raise alpacas as a tourist attraction. The babies (crias) are a major drawcard."
The girls
the greedy alpaca....
...placated with food!
We spent a long time with the alpacas. They are, unexpectedly, very quiet and restful animals to be around! Other than an extraordinary noise which emanated from a greedy alpaca's throat, demanding to be fed, they gathered around us almost silently. Their fleece is beautifully soft and lanolin free and their faces are full of expression. The mothers are pregnant for 11 1/2 months and their labours are short and always during daylight hours. Visitors might be lucky enough to witness a mother giving birth because of this!
The boys
a male alpaca on guard duty...
This week is National Alpaca Week. Madison's Mountain Retreat has organised a number of demonstrations at the property to mark the week. Further details can be found at their website...
Madison's Mountain Retreat
1880 Bells Line of Road
Kurrajong Heights
02 4567 7398
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website.
14/04/2010
Mount Tomah Botanic Garden
Number 3 Map 1A Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
As someone who has lived in the mountains for several years now, Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens has been one of my favourite places to visit.
I have regularly taken my children there for the various Treasure Hunts or Quests. Often though I have gone on my own, to enjoy the beauty of this place in a different way.
Today I went with the kids. It is school holidays and they are very familiar now with the way the Treasure Hunts work. As they race ahead of me, following clues and a string of terrible jokes/arrows (even the writer admits they are bad at one point!) I am able to follow at a more leisurely pace and reacquaint myself with favourite spots in the Gardens.
We are blessed with an outrageously perfect autumnal day. A blue sky arches overhead. The leaves are on the turn but I can see that the colours of autumn here, the wonderful russets and reds and golds will deepen further yet in coming weeks. The proteas are stunning and I love watching the kids stop and gently stroke foliage, enjoying the textures.
We loop through the Meadow and the woods, this time not walking past the secret bower bird's nest that a kind ranger showed us once. The pencil breaks and we choose our own trail, making sure to visit the ponds filled with koi.
my favourite tree...
... and its shadow
A picnic is consumed and it is time to go.
We are not sad to leave.
That's because we know we will be back.
Mount Tomah Botanic Garden
Bells Line of Road via Bilpin NSW 02 4567 2154
www.mounttomahbotanicgarden.com.au
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
29/03/2010
Kookootonga Chestnut and Walnut Farm
Number 1 Map 1A Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
In 1898, Bill Scrivener's father and two mates came to Mt Irvine and had the foresight to divide its glorious land into three parcels.
Bill was born in 1925, the youngest of 8 children. He married Ruth in 1950. How wonderful for me to be in the company of a couple married for 60 years this year!
Sitting in the home they built together in 1956, its walls and floors a beautiful golden colour from the coach wood they used, we talk of their life here.
Originally the property comprised an apple orchard and dairy farm, with chestnuts and walnuts planted to feed the cattle. Bill was brought up on the farm and went to university where he graduated in veterinary science. He practised as a vet in north east Victoria, where chestnuts were grown. When he returned to Mt Irvine he replaced apples with chestnuts and cattle with sheep.
He combined working with large animals as a vet in Lithgow with cultivating and grafting nuts. Originally the nuts were sent to market but in 1992 the Scriveners commenced a pick your own venture, inspired partly by the many Italians who would visit the property to pick chestnuts. In what is becoming a common tale for me with pick your own, it is extremely popular with European and Asian Australians, with third generation Italians coming to the farm just as their grandparents did.
Bill and Ruth have 16 hectares of nut orchards here and Bill runs around 600 superfine merino wethers, which are sheared annually in December in the corrugated iron shed his father built many years ago.
The chestnuts generally fall in the first week of March and the walnuts in the first week of April with the season usually finished by Anzac Day. On Easter Monday it is not uncommon to see 700 or 800 people visit the farm, with the 200 colourful buckets all being used for collecting.
Though the season may be short , there is always work to be done. In May, September and December the sheep require drenching. At the beginning of December the green walnuts are picked by members of the Cypriot community so that they can glaze them. Whilst the Scriveners do not spray their trees, there always limbs to be trimmed and re grafting to be done in October. The trees that are not producing good nuts need to be reworked and Bill is also trying to create a cultivar of walnuts that could be picked earlier, together with the chestnuts. On top of all this there is the general day to day maintenance of this beautiful property.
Bill and Ruth have two daughters, one an invalid. His daughter Robin and her partner are moving to the property to help Bill and Ruth manage it - with the intention that they will take over its running. Bill and Ruth are moving 300 yards north!
The Scriveners radiate warmth. To be with them is a delight. I wander around the property with Bill and leave him to get ready for a bus of Korean visitors. Ruth is in the garden raking leaves as I wave goodbye, the sun lighting up drifts of anemones under an old oak tree.
Kookootonga Chestnut and Walnut Farm
247 Mt Irvine Road
Mt Irvine
ph. 0247562136
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website...
24/03/2010
Shields Orchard - an interview
Number 7 Map 1A Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
"When you have kids who have never seen butterflies," says Bill Shields almost as soon as I have sat down, "or a child who can pick a bunch of four leaf clovers, one for each of her class mates, then it makes it all worthwhile."
Bill tells me of a mother who rang him once and told him her son did not believe that apples grew on trees! Needless to say that mother brought her son to the orchard and was able to prove that apples do indeed grow on trees.
Bill believes strongly, philosophically, that apples shouldn't be priced as a luxury item. The Shields Orchard has been retailing fruit here in Bilpin longer than most and the growing methods are now geared towards pick your own. Hence the tree densities have changed from 250 trees per hectare to 1400 trees per hectare.
He and his wife Julie have tried to stay with the old varieties - Jonathans, Cox's Orange Pippin and Bramleys for example. These are apples that constitute a memory for the customers says Bill.
The Shields family moved to Bilpin in 1955. Bill's father had been brought up on an orchard in Epping. The orchard they purchased in Bilpin is close to where some of the first orchards had been established here. The family started by selling roadside oranges and there has not been a year where they have not retailed fruit in that time.
Bill went to school here and to Richmond High. He worked in the city for a number of years, until his impression of the city as a coliseum grew too overwhelming and he returned to work in the orchard. He took over in 1982 and met and married his wife Julie. He has two sons aged 21 and 19, the oldest of whom is doing his honours in agricultural science and the younger working in the construction industry.
"Will they take over eventually? " I ask.
"My charter to them was to find themselves a good career," Bill responds. He has never actively encouraged the boys to join him, having seen father and son divisiveness on other farms. Having been involved in the Rural Youth Organisation, Bill thinks it is better for kids to get off the farm when they are 20 , rather than being driven off when they are 30.
Bill thinks that farmers find it very difficult to look forward. The successful ones are those who have adapted to change. In his case he has spent a lot of time taking out old trees and restoring to the soil what has been taken out by his forebears.
For customers, English and Middle Europeans amongst them, picking apples is like coming home, a time to contemplate memories. Many of his customers are second generation Australians who are bringing their own children to the orchard to experience what it is like to pick fruit ripe from the trees. It is exciting for Bill to educate this younger generation of consumers about fruit and methodologies such as Integrated Pest Management.
"So you'll be here for ever Bill?" I ask.
"I will be here until I die'" he replies, with great certainty.
Shields Orchard
2270 Bells Line of Road
Bilpin
02 4567 1206
www.shieldsorchard.com
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website.
01/03/2010
Shields Orchard
A photographic record of a "pick your own" day
Interview next week with Bill Shields and his wife Julie.
Shields Orchard
2270 Bells Line of Road
Bilpin (02 4567 1206)
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website..
16/02/2010
Bilpin Springs Orchard
Number 4 Map 1A Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
Rain. And more rain. There has been a lot of it in the Blue Mountains and around Bilpin. Today however the sky is a bright blue and I am visiting Cedric Leathbridge at his Bilpin Springs Orchard.
I am greeted by Cedric and then by his dog Lucky - a firm favourite with visiting children. Cedric tells me as we sit in a shady spot that he and his wife Jenny moved here from Sydney 22 years ago. Both teachers, they realised after looking at many properties that they needed to buy a working property which was already established, otherwise their infrastructure costs would be very expensive.
Fortunately they found Bilpin Springs Orchard, an operating orchard sending its fruit to Flemington markets. They were guided by its owners for a year after the purchase of the orchard which proved to be a wonderful help.
The property totals 25 acres of which 12 acres are arable. At the time of purchasing the property Bilpin was regarded as an early fruit area and known in particular for its apples. Bilpin would go to market as soon as it could and could generally count on having two weeks to itself before other apple growing regions sent their fruit to market. However the nature of the market changed as transport improved and with the development of better cool rooms, fruit began to come in from Queensland and Western Australia, weakening Bilpin's dominance of the early fruit period.
It was against this backdrop of changing markets that Cedric and Jenny began working their property. They had inherited some good customers which they were grateful for. However yet another difficulty they faced was the vagaries of the weather. In the first three years the hail was so bad that of each ten bins of fruit only one might be good enough for Flemington markets.
"It was not an easy baptism!" says Cedric.
The Lincoln Trellis (the basket weavers special according to Cedric) supports these pears
In around the second year of operation, some people wanted to come and pick their own fruit. By about year four many more people were picking their own. Cedric did his sums and realised that although 90% of their fruit was being sold to Flemington, 90% of their profit was coming from the remaining 10% of the fruit being sold through "pick your own" and other niche markets. After around 6 years of operation, the Leathbridges took note of the varieties of fruit, particularly apples, that people were interested in. Thus Gravensteins and Granny Smiths have been joined by such varieties as Braeburns and Lady Williams.
The orchard has been replanted several times in order to specialise in the "pick your own" market. The season commences in Late January with Gravensteins, then throughout the following six months (from Australia Day to the Queen's Birthday weekend roughly) fruit such as peaches, lemons, pears, plums and several varieties of apple are available for picking.
The grounds are lovely and the orchard is a popular place with schools who bring their pupils along to sit under the huge oak tree and celebrate perhaps a harvest festival.
Cedric's dream is to invite half a dozen high school students at a time to spend a day at the orchard. He would love to bring subjects such as mathematics and science to life in a beautiful setting which would provide real life examples of things learnt in the classroom.
I ask Cedric whether he has noticed any dramatic differences in climate since living here. The incredibly heavy rain and the hail storms this summer are not new to him as it turns out. What is new is that they are having to increasingly protect the fruit from sunburn, where its own natural defences are not proving enough. Although the orchard is not organic, the couple use Integrated Pest Management systems to control pests in the orchard, introducing natural predators to combat coddling moth for example.
We walk around the orchard and I see first hand the damage that can be inflicted on the fruit by things such as hail, rain and birds.
On my return home I realise I have not asked Cedric why he and Jenny still run the orchard, despite the knowledge that their farm is regularly subject to this kind of damage. I sent him an email asking him to comment on this.
The following is Cedric's eloquent response
" Why persist with the orchard despite all the elements can do to the crop in the months it's exposed on the trees? Well apart from any farmer's eternal optimism that next year will be better, there's a great pleasure in growing food that people need and our customers enjoy - the tangible value of the health/food/shelter thing. I enjoy the challenge of trying to make a living out of it because it demands skills from pruning to installing irrigation, from keeping your customers happy to putting in hours of hard physical labour, from marketing to trying ideas from field days; you have to get the whole jigsaw together to end up with a piece of fruit you can be proud of. It's outdoors in a beautiful spot, the work is always changing with the seasons and we see many great people who have been visiting for years. We don't pretend to be anything more than an 'on-tree fruit shop' but increasingly our motivation to continue is in expanding programs where we use the orchard to meet some needs in the community."
Cedric's comments reflect the attitude of so many producers I think.
That night the heavens opened and the rain came down again.
Bilpin Springs Orchard
2550 Bells Line of Road
Bilpin
ph. 02 4567 1294
www.bilpinspringsorchard.com.au
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
27/11/2009
Enniskillen Orchard
Number 11 Map 1A Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail maps
On a cool, grey day I am greeted by John Maguire of Enniskillen Orchard.
"I have a sister called Mary ," says John as he leads me into the large iron building bursting with fresh produce.
"I have a partner called John! " I reply and roam around the shed taking photos of glorious fresh fruit and bottled condiments, whilst John makes me a coffee.
We start by talking about the other producers I have met so far and the passion they all share for their properties and their produce.
"I have that passion too," says John, "but it is a passion born out of desperation!"
John describes his fear of the danger that this beautiful part of the world will be covered in houses, the constant threat of development that he lives with and how it is a day in, day out battle to fend off this threat.
"But I've got Irish in me!" he exclaims.
John grew up in Emu Plains, in a beautiful Georgian house on 34 acres of land, where there was a lagoon, an orchard, gum trees and an old well. His father sold the property to developers who took their time in planning what to do with it. Penrith Council moved a heritage order on the property and the next day it was a pile of rubble. Thus was born John's life long antipathy towards developers.
(At this point a very stout old dog wanders into the shed. John shoos Austin out and tells me that in order to prevent the dog harassing women's legs they had it baptised a Catholic and re-named Austin - Austin Aloysius Bartholomew Maguire. "It didn't make a scrap of difference though!" John laughs. )
John tells me that it was his destiny to come to Grose Valley. His father bought the property of 115 acres in 1960 and sold the back block in 1968. The property was originally covered in oranges. A fellow would hoe the whole orchard and as soon as he was finished would have to start all over again.
John started his own orchard there 25 years ago. He approached the council and was given tourist status which has so far protected the property from development. John has been joined by his son Adrian , who runs a providore business from the property.
Originally the orchard comprised pears, peaches and nectarines but the Maguires have since diversified into citrus, figs, apples and berries as well. The drought hit them hard but the figs, apples and berries are currently proving to be good cash crops for them.
Most of the vegetables they sell are sourced from the Sydney basin.
John is a founding member and board director of Hawkesbury Harvest. He was taught social justice by the De La Salles at school and feels strongly that those principles are to be found in the values of Hawkesbury Harvest. He tells me of the philosophy which states that if a small unit can do what a large unit can do, then the small unit should be favoured. Hawkesbury Harvest supports small farms, co- ops, farmers markets and in so doing, echoes this philosophy.
I walk around the property and enjoy the sound of bell birds and the scent of the lemon scented eucalypts.
In doing some research on the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen for which the orchard is named, I come across a song which begins
"Fare thee well Enniskillen...."
With the passion that runs so strongly in John's veins for his property I know he will not be saying good- bye to Enniskillen any time soon.
Enniskillen Orchard
753 Grose Vale Road, Grose Vale
02 4572 2956
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website
