My timing was perfect; on the Australia Day public holiday, I did some 40before40 planning, and I emailed the orchard I’d picked to see if/when they would have plums available for picking the coming weekend.  Woohoo, they did indeed – but they weren’t sure they’d be available the following weekend – and as I’d injured my foot, they kindly asked if I wanted them to put some aside.  Injured sminjured, I was determined to pick my own.

The weather was not so perfect.  Today dawned rather damp; I checked the rain radar and it didn’t look that bad, so I decided to go anyway.  The drive to Pinecrest Orchard in Bilpin, NSW is about an hour from my house, and even with the inclement weather, I still made it in about that time.  Driving through (okay, near, don’t 100% know where I was) Kurrajong was a little scary and I thought to myself why oh why did I decide to go today?!  I pushed on, through about 3.5kms of very tight (in some instances, hair bend turns), twisty and wet roads up hills and thankfully got there safely.  I did have the thought that I had to go back down those same twisty, turny, wet roads…and then I walked to the orchard and promptly forgot.

I had a quick chat with the gentleman manning the shop at the front, received brief directions to the plums, and off I set.

Oh my, was it peaceful there.  Apart from the people working at the orchard, of which I saw three, I saw one couple on their own and another couple with a little girl.  That was it.

I cannot impress upon you enough about the tranquillity; row upon row of beautiful pears and apples, the bellbirds chirping (belling??) as I came out from the end of a row on my way to the plums and saw a beautiful still lake.  And because of the weather, it was really foggy and misty which just added to the tranquillity.  I’m so glad that the weather wasn’t great to be honest (even though I may have ruined a pair of shoes).

I do have to admit regardless of directions to turn at the flags, I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going and of course I discovered that the plums I wanted were at the furthest point of the damp, muddy, somewhat slippery orchard but I was enjoying the peace, happily meandering and I managed to find the plums eventually.

Pinecrest has two type of plums (one of which is blood plums), and I truly have no idea what I ended up with (I should have asked).  I wandered down the rows until I found a tree that seem to resonate with me, and I selected and picked my plums – I was hoping to pick blood plums but I’m happy with my haul of 20 or so of whatever I picked.  And on the way back, I couldn’t resist picking six apples for myself too.  They look like Royal Gala which are my favourite and just coming back into season.  I cannot wait to take a bite from fruit freshly picked from the tree.  Will I be able to go back to store bought after that? Hmmmm.

Now I wait for the beautiful plums I picked (risked my life for?! Ha) to ripen; stay tuned for part 2 of # 24 | Make a tart from the fruit xx