Paynes Orchards

Bacchus Marsh sits in the folds of country west of Melbourne, where the road out through the goldfields and spa country passes orchards that have worked this soil for generations. Paynes is one of the few genuine small family orchards left standing in this tradition — its roots go back to the 1950s, when the Payne family shifted 300 old apple trees from East Burwood out to this address on the Bacchus Marsh Road, moving them by hand tools and a Bedford truck. That generation raised Graeme into the work, and now Graeme, Jenny and family tend both the old apple trees and a newer stable of stone fruit and berries, grown without chemicals, in the belief that fruit tastes better and holds more when it isn't forced or stored.

The picking calendar runs long and generous: cherries open the season in November and December, berries follow through December, then apricots, peaches and nectarines carry the orchard through summer into autumn, before apples take over from February right through to the end of the season in June. You book a session — picking runs in timed slots through the day — collect a bucket at the gate, and walk the rows tasting your way toward what you'll take home, paying by the kilo for whatever ends up in the basket. When the flags are out, it means more fruit has ripened and the gates are open; in the busiest stretches trees can sell out and reopen once more fruit turns, so it pays to check before setting out. Fruit can also be bought straight from the sheds without picking, and the orchard runs tours for schools and groups, threading paddock-to-plate lessons through the same rows visitors wander for pleasure. It's an easy detour off a Werribee Gorge day trip, or a reason in itself to head west for the afternoon.