Magazine
How to get a picking day right, season by season and region by region, plus recipes for what you bring home.
Practical guide When is strawberry picking season in New Zealand? Strawberry picking runs November to February in New Zealand, starting in the north. When each region opens, what a punnet costs, and how to pick a strawberry that keeps.
Practical guide When is blueberry picking season in New Zealand? Blueberry picking runs December to March, the longest self-pick season in New Zealand. Where the farms are, why the season lasts so long, and how to pick fruit that keeps.
Practical guide When is cherry picking season in New Zealand? Cherry picking runs December and January, peaking at Christmas. Central Otago is the cherry country, with a shorter run in Canterbury and Marlborough. When to go and what to expect.
Practical guide What to take pick your own farming, and what to expect What to bring to a New Zealand pick-your-own farm, how payment usually works, whether to book, and the etiquette that keeps farms opening their gates.
Practical guide Pick your own with kids: which crops actually work Strawberries and blueberries work with small children, cherries and apples less so. How to plan a picking day that does not end in tears, and what farms expect of you.
Practical guide Boysenberry picking in New Zealand New Zealand grows more boysenberries than almost anywhere, and self-pick is the only way most people ever taste one properly ripe. When they run and how to pick them.
Practical guide Raspberry picking season in New Zealand Raspberries want cool nights, which puts them in Canterbury, the Manawatū and the south. When they run, the one reliable ripeness test, and how to get them home whole.
Practical guide Blackberries, tayberries, currants and haskaps Beyond the big four there are tayberries, blackcurrants and haskaps on New Zealand self-pick farms. What they are, when they run and what to do with them.
Practical guide Pick your own around Auckland Auckland has more self-pick farms within an hour than any other New Zealand city, and strawberries are the reason. What is open when, and where to go.
Practical guide Pick your own in the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty The Waikato is blueberry country and the Bay of Plenty is where the boysenberries are. Two neighbouring regions with quite different crops, both an easy drive from Auckland or Tauranga.
Practical guide Pick your own around Wellington and the Manawatū The Hutt Valley and Kāpiti carry most of Wellington region self-pick, with berries and vegetables. What grows there, and how the wind and the hills shape the season.
Practical guide Pick your own in the South Island Central Otago cherries, Canterbury berries and the sunny top of the south. Fewer farms than the north but the best cherries in the country, and a season that runs later.
Practical guide What can I pick right now? A New Zealand season calendar Month by month, what is ripe somewhere in New Zealand: haskaps in late spring, strawberries from October, the summer berries, and Central Otago cherries at Christmas.
Practical guide Sun, UV and picking fruit in a New Zealand summer New Zealand has some of the strongest ultraviolet radiation on earth and a berry row has no shade at all. What that means for an hour of picking, and for the fruit.
Practical guide How to tell when berries are actually ripe Colour is the least reliable test. The specific check for each berry, and why none of them will improve after you pick them.
Practical guide What does pick your own cost in New Zealand? How farms price self-pick, why per-kilo and fill-a-container work out differently, and whether picking your own is actually cheaper than the supermarket.
Practical guide Pick your own etiquette: what New Zealand farms ask The rules that protect next season, how much you can eat as you pick, and why dogs are almost never allowed. What growers actually want visitors to know.
Practical guide Haskaps: the first berry of the New Zealand season Haskaps ripen in late spring, weeks before anything else, and almost nobody has heard of them. What they taste like, where to pick them, and the ripeness test that has to be done with a knife.
Practical guide Lavender and flower picking in New Zealand Lavender farms open across late spring and summer, when the fruit season is patchy. When to go, how to cut so the plant survives, and how to dry what you take home.
Practical guide Apples, pears and tree fruit in New Zealand Tree fruit is the autumn end of the self-pick season and the only crop that keeps for months. How to pick it without damaging next year, and how to store it.
Practical guide Pick your own vegetables and tomatoes A small but genuine part of the New Zealand self-pick scene, mostly in the Manawatu. What is usually on offer, and why the economics are different from fruit.
Practical guide Why you should always check before you drive out Self-pick farms open and close on the week, not the season. What actually closes a farm at a day of notice, and the fastest way to find out.
Practical guide Why self-picked fruit tastes different It is not nostalgia. Commercial fruit is picked to survive a supply chain, and the choices that make that possible are the same ones that cost it flavour.
Recipes and other articles
Preserving and jam Storing and freezing what you picked How to get a boot full of fruit home in a New Zealand summer and keep it: what to refrigerate, what not to wash, and how to freeze berries so they do not turn to mush.
Preserving and jam Boysenberries four ways: jam, coulis, crumble and a fool The boysenberry barely reaches a shop because it will not travel, so a self-pick bucket is the only way most people meet it. Four things to do with one.
Baking Blueberries four ways: muffins, pancakes, compote and freezing Blueberries are the biggest self-pick crop in New Zealand and the easiest to over-pick. Four ways through a large bucket, starting with the freezer.
Preserving and jam Strawberry jam and what to do with a glut Strawberries are the crop people over-pick most and the one that keeps worst. A reliable jam, a freezer method that works, and two things to make the same evening.
Preserving and jam Cherries four ways: clafoutis, syrup, pickled and a sauce for the ham Central Otago cherries arrive in one short burst around Christmas. What to do with them beyond eating them out of the bag, including two that keep for months.
Baking Berry baking: a slice, a cake and a crumble that take any berry Three recipes written to take whatever came home in the bucket, fresh or frozen, plus the two rules that stop berries sinking and flooding.
Drinks Cordials, syrups and berry drinks The best use of soft, over-ripe and squashed fruit is the one that does not care what it looks like. A base cordial, a shrub and a syrup that keeps.