Apricot season, how sweet it is

TASMANIA has enjoyed a good season for apricots with big and clean fruit resulting from ideal weather conditions, according to a Coal River Valley farmer.

Ian and Denise Newnham and their son Jake grow cher- ries and Moorpark variety apricots on their Lowdina Orchard farm near Campania.

“It was a warm December, which helped bring the apricots on. The warmer month changed everything, bringing forward the picking season for both cherries and apricots,” Mrs Newnham said.

“The heavy rain last weekend didn’t affect the apricots. Overall it’s been a good season for apricots.”

About 17 years ago the Newnhams converted their mixed cropping farm to an orchard. They now have 18ha of cherries under netting for mature trees and a 2ha nursery.

With a team of 50 pickers, the Newnhams expect to finish picking cherries late next week.

The apricot season only lasts three weeks with the last of the apricots being picked this week. The orchard has 4000 apricot trees.

Six years ago Mrs Newn- ham started value-adding, making her own ice cream and smoothies. She has now started having fudge made with their cherries.

“It is going really well, we started small but now it has really picked up pace bringing people into our farmgate stall,” she said. “It’s a lot of work but it complements our fruit. We use real fruit in the ice cream from our orchard.

“Last year we did about 2000 ice cream cones and I think this year we will probably do more than that.”

Helping out in the small farm shop is Robyn Newman, of Glenorchy.