Instead of going to our usual Sunday farmers market, we went to Penray garden on Saturday.
The initial idea was to go and pick up seasonal fruits such as apple and pear, but our basket got filled with much more goodies along the way…
I don’t remember exactly how the idea came out. On Friday, I reminded Paprika to get more information from one of his colleagues about the location and on Saturday morning we hit the road, direction Otaki.
After a late breakfast, we quickly got ready and drove along a rough sea and under an overcast sky on Kapiti coast.
We nearly missed the entrance of the orchard along SH1. It was midday when we arrived and the parking was quiet full.
Basket and bucket in hands we made our way in the orchard. Apple trees were loaded with fruits. We had too much to choose from ! A real pleasure to pick apple and pear directly from the tree.
Afterward we moved on to a big warning sign reading ‘no eating strawberry‘ !
Indeed, the sweet scent of strawberries was like an invitation to swallow them right away. We started to pick one or two and finally the basket got filled with these fruits too…
The rest of the garden is planted with vegetables: tomatoes, roma and beefsteak; pattypan squash, zucchini and even their flowers. What a treat ! I cooked them in the evening fried and filled with ricotta and fresh herbs. A delight !
A big part of the garden was also allocated to chillis and peppers. Any kind, colour and shape.
I smiled while looking at my very own Paprika happily picking Hungarian peppers in the field and few steps away an Indian family busy filling generously their bucket with hot chillis.
Simple yet that was enough to make us happy for the day.
And now, I have to go and make a good use of all these apples…
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