Cedar Creek Orchard is a 45ha property, which is nestled in the hills just outside the town of Picton, in Wollondilly Shire. The land was purchased by Hugo Silm (an immigrant from Estonia) in 1937, and it was first used as a poultry farm. The first fruit trees (apples) were planted in 1940. Hugo’s son, Roland, began to help with the expansion of the orchard when he joined the farm on completion of his schooling at Hurlstone Agricultural High School in the late 40’s. In 1980, Ron’s sons, Mark & Michael returned to the family orchard after completing their tertiary education. The business grew rapidly during the next 10 years, with tree numbers increasing from 6,500 to 30,000 during this decade. Michael chose to move into his own fruit export business in 1998, Mark and his wife have continued on with the orchard.
We offer a farm tour, by appointment only, for groups (educational/leisure). The tour can be taken most times during the year, Monday, Tues, Wed or Friday, or possibly by arrangement on weekends. There is, however, very little to see during the months of June, July & August, when the trees are dormant. We are also unable to take tour bookings during extremely busy periods, such as mid-late November and early April – mid May. The tour consists of a ride through different parts of the orchard on our specially designed trailer with explanations of different fruit varieties and types, growing techniques, tree maintenance, and picking of crops, etc. Then we take the group through our packing operations, in our large packing shed which is equipped with a computerised fruit-grading machine. We will also show you our apple juice manufacturing plant and bottling operations. A sample of our delicious apple juice will be provided for each person.
Location: 269 Mulhollands Rd Thirlmere, NSW 2572 Australia. Phone: +61 246 818 457.
https://cedarcreekorchards.com.au/