A day trip out of Sydney were in the planning and after a combined effort into getting this mandarin picking expedition into motion, we left for Watkin’s Orchard near Wiseman’s ferry, up north of Hornsby.
The drive is not that far, but kinda a bit remote and there weren’t many signs. Uncle Victor was going to join us and bring his colleagues as well.
Fresh mandarins do taste different and it was good to be out and about. The rain came down after we were picking for an hour. But by then, our buckets were almost full.
There were 5 of us, and each person had a specific role to perform.
1. Philip picks the fruit, snips it off and hands it to Tim
2. Tim takes it off Philip and hands it to Carmen.
3. Carmen passes it onto Jo, who carefully places it inside the bucket to optimize the space.
4. Sharon takes photographs of the process and any other interesting stuff. :)
How much does it cost? $10 per bucket, minimum of 1 bucket per 2 people. $5 refundable deposit for scissors (recommended).
Restrictions? Well, it says we can sample 2 mandarins. But it was ambiguous on whether it’s 2 per tree or orchard.
Any other stuff to do? Yes, there were mushrooms available as well to pick from the shed.
Amenities? Port-a-loo and alcohol hand sanitizers.
More pics over here.
I think Carmen is also a picker not a packer