Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Spring Valley Orchard

On Saturday my family and 5 others spent the day at Spring Valley Orchard just south of Donnybrook in WA. It is a pick your own orchard that I found on someone's blog (man I wish I could remember who you were.
Diana and Geoff Robb were the most gracious of hosts taking us for a tour of their beautiful piece of land. There were 13 children in our group and I don't think there was a minute that they sat still,though maybe for a second while they ate lunch.
Diana was a wealth of knowledge and showed the kids the lamb, fish, chicken house, vegie garden and a walk around the whole 32 acre property.
We stopped at the vegie patch to pick fresh tomatoes and cape gooseberries as well as bandicoot some potatoes to have with lunch. We enjoyed a sausage sizzle lunch with homemade plum fizz to drink.
After lunch we explored the property and saw the dam. The kids were in heaven. Then we walked back to the house through the orchard.
Spring Valley has 2500 apples trees (Pink Lady's and Sundowner) They also have a couple hundred plum trees.
Once back the children got a paper lined bucket each and set to work picking some apples for us to take home. What a joy to see these kids out on the fresh air picking the food they loved so much and talking excitedly about size, shape, insects and other tree issues.
After a divine afternoon tea of ice cream with homemade chocolate and caramel sauce we got to watch the original apple sorting machine in action as the kids loaded their apples into the machine and ran excitedly to see which barrel their apples would end up in.
We all returned home tired and exhilarated about our day on the farm.
All I can say is wow what a day. My dream of acreage has just been boosted to no end.
Thank you so much Diana and Geoff (and Jessie) we all had a day to remember.
If you would like to visit Spring Valley Orchard give them a buzz it truely is worth it.

A row of Pink Lady apples ready to pick

Old meets new as the need to be connected to the world sits on a piece of history.

Apples heading up to the sorting level.



Divine countryside!

Picking tomatoes for lunch

1 comment:

  1. Looks like a fantastic day out! There really is nothing like visiting a pick your own farm and enjoying the experience of harvesting from the trees - wish there was a place like this close to us!

    Cheers,

    Ally and Rich
    www.happyearth.com.au

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