Pick my own?

Something that I have looked forward to every summer for the past few years has been recreational fruit picking, also known as pick your own. The whole idea was new to me having been used to only growing produce then selling it at the market, but now the public can pick fresh produce off farms? I thought it was pretty cool. Next door to one of our farms is Naturipe Fruits Farm. They have strawberries, cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots, along with a variety of apples which are 'pick your own'. The owner moved into a house we had put up for rent and we became good friends. So during picking season I came down regularly and just observed and saw how things worked. There are more places in Bacchus Marsh with pick your own fruits which specialize in cherries and apples along with a raspberry and blackberry farm, which is not pick your own but awesome nevertheless. 

The thing that draws me to these places is the atmosphere that it creates. It is an incredibly family friendly environment and its nice to see families taking a day off to go pick fruit. Everyone's all cheerful and they are spending time out doors with their families which I think people don't do enough. That is why places like these are important, people can take their children out without having to worry about whats happening on the streets. Picnics are also nice when the weather gets hot as it is fronted by The Avenue of Honour and its great Dutch elms which provide plenty of shade. The picture below is of the rows of cherries down at Naturipe fruits. The floods ended the picking season early but my uncle and I were still able to pick about 30 kilos which was all free. The place was not accessible to vehicles or public for safety reasons. Safety is the last thing on my mind when it comes to cherries so I was entitled to as much as I could carry out on foot.

Making use of what was left after the rains came through

With Bacchus Marsh's rich heritage and continued preservation of historical buildings, going back before the 1951 Ballarat gold rush, the town is becoming a growing tourist destination which will only see the growth of recreational fruit farms.