Pick your own bayberries in Melbourne
Our family orchard. Open mid-to-late December, for about a month a year.
A note for first-time visitors
Why we bought a bayberry orchard
We're George and Cici, originally from Zhejiang in China, and we live in Melbourne with our three very energetic boys.
George grew up in the countryside, catching fish and crabs in the creek and making his own toys from bamboo and old tyres. Years later, back in his home village, the fish and crabs were gone – the fields had been sprayed for too long. We wanted our boys to grow up among soil and fruit trees, and we wanted to taste fruit and vegetables the way we remembered them.
So when we bought the farm, we made ourselves one rule: no chemical pesticides, no synthetic fertilisers. Sheep manure, compost and free-ranging hens help us build soil that looks after itself: our hens' manure, fruit peels and pruned branches all end up back in the soil (see how the loop works). That's the "Pu" in Pude: the Chinese character 朴 describes wood that has never been carved, plain and simple, left the way nature made it.
The farm is still simple – the road was built section by section, the trees pruned one by one. Come and eat a bayberry fresh from the tree.
Our first year
From an overgrown orchard to trees full of bayberries
No experience and no road map. This is how our first year went.
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June 2025Taking over a neglected orchard
The trees hadn't been pruned in years. The canopy was so dense that little light got through, the ground was buried under thick leaf litter that kept rain from reaching the soil, and many trees were sick or damaged.
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Spring 2025Pruning, clearing, and fixing "Hero's Hill"
Through winter we pruned tree by tree and raked out the old leaves. Come spring, the steep, potholed track into the farm – we call it "Hero's Hill" – was regraded too.
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19 December 2025Opening day
We refunded our very first customers and invited them to come and taste for free. Watching a toddler eat more than twenty bayberries in one go, we knew the year had been worth it.
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Dec 2025 – Jan 2026Our busiest, happiest month
Up the hill early to pick, then sorting, packing and delivering to shops and pick-up points. On one scorching day we got heatstroke picking – a friend's glass of iced bayberry juice saved the afternoon.
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September 2026The bayberries have set fruit
After the spring rain the flowers dropped and strings of tiny green fruit appeared – rice-grain size at first, now as big as peas.
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December 2026Season two – we'd love to see you
We open from mid-to-late December, for only about a month a year. Places are limited – we'll email you before we open.
From our orchard
Just a few things a year, each one worth waiting for
Bayberry Picking Pass
Two tickets: All-you-can-eat, adults $50 and kids $25 – pick and eat whatever is ripe; or Entry $19.90 – taste a few, with anything you take home weighed by variety. Our three types of bayberry ripen one after another, and a bayberry picked straight from the tree tastes like nothing you'll find in a shop.
About the Picking Pass →
Free-range orchard eggs
Our hens roam the fig orchard, eating insects and grass, sunbathing and scratching in the red soil, with no forced laying. Shells in every shade, golden-orange yolks, full of flavour.
Order now →
Pude Raw Honey
From our own hives, where the bees forage between bayberries, lavender, snowberries and the surrounding red gums. Harvested only once the bees have capped it – never heated, concentrated or blended.
Register interest →The farm year
Southern Hemisphere seasons, upside down
In Silvan, December is summer – the bayberries are at their reddest around Christmas.
Bayberries flower and set fruit, and the green berries grow day by day. Everything wakes up – the bees are busiest now.
Bayberry season: we open in mid-to-late December for about a month — the liveliest weeks of our year. The hydrangeas are in full bloom, and tomatoes, cucumbers and luffa start coming in from the vegetable garden.
Figs at their sweetest, chestnuts dropping from the trees on their own; feijoas and persimmons follow, and the vegetable garden keeps giving.
Kiwifruit hang heavy on the vines, picked from late June through August. Pruning, tidying, feeding the soil — the trees rest, and we're at our busiest.
People in the orchard
Visitors we remember from our first season
No cameras, no one watching. Out in the orchard, our visitors treasured the fruit even more than we did.
"Don't pick that one, sweetheart – it's not ripe yet. Let me find you a ripe one, and let that one grow a bit longer."
"We adults don't need to pick – we just want our child to experience it. I promise we won't eat any, and we'll pay for the three she picks."
"My stomach's full of bayberry juice!"
"This is your hard-earned money too."
"It's such a pity – the ripe ones fall off at the slightest touch."
The son followed us on Xiaohongshu every day but only managed to get one ticket. When we told him entry was free, he was overjoyed and brought his mum along.
Farm Videos
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What years of growing have taught us
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Bayberry picking, fresh figs, eggs back in stock… we only write when there's something good.
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