Pick your own apples in West Gippsland
Tara and Ross Cheesewright, Sherwood Park Orchard. Image by Richard Cornish. All Rights Reserved.
Tara and Ross Cheesewright grow good apples. They grow apples that taste like real apples. Old-fashioned apple varieties like Granny Smith, Greenstein and Golden Delicious. Amongst their 800 or so trees on their orchard at Bunyip on the Princes Highway 70km east of Melbourne in West Gippsland. What sets Sherwood Park Orchard apart from other orchards in this apple-growing region is that customers bring their own bags and boxes, picnics and picnic rugs, pick their own apples and picnic under the trees.
There is a very basic and humble joy to be found wandering around a country orchard with a bag in hand picking large, heavy, fragrant apples. The beauty of Pick Your Own at Sherwood Park Orchard is that Ross and Tara train you how to pick apples like a pro. Hold the apple in one hand, gently grab the branch, and twist it to dislodge it from the tree. To pick an apple, one needs a gentle grip. Too heavy-handed and you can leave finger marks that can bruise an apple. Armed with expert knowledge on the ancient art of harvesting ripe apples, filling a bag takes a few minutes or an hour–depending on whether you’re working like a pro or simply making a day of it.
Families from across Melbourne, many of whom have come from around the world to make this place their home, come to the Sherwood Park Orchard Pick Your Own for a family day together. They throw a picnic rug under the sprawling Fuji trees and enjoy a long leisurely lunch in the shade. Now the weather has turned a little cooler, most come for the quality of the apples. Others come for the price. Four dollars a kilogram or three if you pick over 10 kilograms.
I come for the apples. The Granny Smiths are the perfect cooking apples – ideal for the best tarte tartin. I look for smaller Galas and Fujis for the school lunches. Then it is straight to their on-site café and produce store for a pot of piping hot tea, poured from a willow-patterned ceramic teapot – very old school. Then it’s an apple muffin or Devonshire with freshly whipped cream and house-made jam. I grab an armful of locally grown veg and jams and haul my harvest into the back of the car. Heading east to Sherwood Park Orchard is not just a day out for us, it is an annual pilgrimage.
Sherwood Park Orchard, 3165 Princes Hwy, Bunyip, Café Mon-Fri 6am-5pm, Sat-Sun 7am-5pm
PYO trips will continue through until roughly Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Lady Lavender’s Tea Room
A short distance from Sherwood Park Orchard is an old weatherboard farmhouse that has been beautifully renovated into tea rooms. Surrounded by rows of lavender hedges, the rooms have printed floral tablecloths and matching curtains, balloon-back wooden chairs and an ornately carved art nouveau mantlepiece. The menu has family-friendly lunch offerings like beef pie, hearty pastries and the Ploughman’s Roll with vintage cheddar, smoked ham, pickle and Lady Lavender’s own chutney. Check the Facebook page for their occasional high teas. Overlooking the rolling hills of West Gippsland, this is a pleasant place for light lunches and teas and inter-generational family get-togethers.
3085 Princes Hwy, Bunyip Thu-Sun 10.30-4pm
Mount Cannibal
After lunch perhaps take a quick walk up Mount Cannibal. It takes about an hour to climb this 230-metre-high outcrop, part of the Great Dividing Range. The recovery after bushfires has been dramatic, with new growth and a flush of wildflowers in late winter and spring. There is a 2.3 km walking track to the summit for dramatic views across to the Victorian Alps and greater Gippsland to the east. Near the carpark are BBQs, public toilets, seating, a playground and a picnic area.
Garfield Road North Road, Garfield North