History of Woodstock Orchards
Woodstock Orchards is a small family owned farm that produces top quality cherries for sale on both export and domestic markets as well as direct supply to customers through farm gate sales.
The 3.6 hectare orchard contains around 8500 trees with 7 different varieties that produce in total around 40 tonnes of fruit each year. Intensively planted trees in double rows and supported by a trellis system called an “Open V System” at 2963 trees/hectare (ha) cover 2.6hectares. A less intensively planted section using the “Spanish Bush” training has half the trees/ha with no support trellis being required.
Where We Are
Woodstock Orchards is situated adjacent to the Huon river approximately half way between Huonville and Cygnet on the Channel Highway in southern Tasmania. The property of 22 hectares was purchased in 2000 by Carmel & Michael Oakford along with their son Andrew with the aim to plant a commercial block of cherries primarily to sell into the export market area. The land when purchased was used for grazing cattle although part of it had been a commercial apple orchard for many years prior to its removal in the mid 1980’s.
Work commenced in 2000 to grow the trees required for planting the orchard. This involved planting the root stocks and then grafting the preferred variety onto each stock. After grafting in the winter/spring of 2001 the trees were looked after in a nursery for one year prior to planting out in their permanent positions in the orchard in winter 2002.
The First Harvest
Time was spent during the establishment phase pruning and training the trees to the desired shape for each training method. A drip irrigation system was also installed covering the whole orchard plus bird exclusion netting to keep Blackbirds and Starlings from damaging the crop. The first commercial crop of fruit (24 t.) was harvested in January 2006 in the third season from planting.
Harvest starts in early January with the variety Van followed by Stella, Sylvia, Kordia, Simone, Lapins and finishing with Regina towards the end of January.
Around 20-25 pickers are required to harvest the fruit which is then sent to a commercial packhouse for sorting and packaging before being sent off to the various markets. Fruit sold from our “Cherry Tent” is taken directly from the orchard and is sold within a few hours of harvest and sometimes it is sold within minutes of picking therefore guaranteeing the freshest possible cherries.
Road Side Cherry Tent Sales
The aim of Woodstock Orchards is to produce the highest possible quality large firm and sweet cherries for all customers that are in Tasmania for the harvest season and are able to get to the “Cherry Tent”.