Pick your own fresh fruit at The Peach Farm

Along the neat lines of trees, there is the golden and crimson droop of ripe nectarines and peaches between the dappled leaves.

And this is what Ray and Edwina Cameron want to share at The Peach Farm - the experience of picking fruit straight from the tree, just like it should be.

But offering visitors to their Mororo orchard the chance to wander through the trees and pick fruit is only the beginning. They want to give people a chance to get back in touch with nature, with help, of course, from their friendly animals.

Growing stonefruit hasn't always been the plan for the Cameron family. They are Merino breeders from Longreach, but Edwina said 14 years ago they had to make a change.

"We didn't want to send the kids to boarding school, so we decided to put a manager on and move closer to the schools," she said.

Ten years of drought didn't help, but today Edwina's parents live on the place, and every month Ray makes the 17-hour drive home to work on the place.

Edwina said they had been to the Mororo region on holidays, and decided to buy a house on four hectares on the Clarence. They fixed the home up and sold it, and then bought another and did the same, and another, and another.

But in July three years ago, a new dream took seed: The Peach Farm came onto their radar and it was love at first sight. "We just wanted it straight away. It had 3500 peach and nectarine trees, but no house," she said.

They lived in a caravan and then the sheds, and began work on the now 12-year-old trees.

"We put a lot of effort into the nutrition and pruning," she said. "We focused on nutrients and minerals and the good bugs."

Edwina said they focused on organic growing, and have been methodically replacing the older trees, and plan to replant 500 to 700 trees in the next four years.

They started off taking their fruit to farmers' markets and sending it to Sydney markets.

But they wanted to share their love of the simplicity of growing fruit and eating it, so in 2019 Edwina put out a post inviting people to come and pick their own fruit. And that was that.

"Through word of mouth, we had about 80 people turn up to pick their own fruit," she said.

Now each year, from mid September to late November, the orchard gates are thrown open for visitors to pick fruit.

"People really needed this experience," Edwina said. "They can eat the fruit the way it is meant to be - straight off the tree."

For Ray and Edwina Cameron, there is so much more to having an orchard than just growing fruit.

They have made it their mission to make sure people enjoy fruit as much as they do.

"We found people didn't know when to eat fruit - they thought it had to be soft or turning to be picked," Edwina said. "And they didn't know how to store natural fruit. It has been a learning process. The education is a must."

So when visitors turn up to pick in the spring, Ray and Edwina take the time to show them which are the best fruit to pick before they head off with their bucket in the sunshine.

Edwina said one of the best parts of the orchard was the smell. "When you walk into the orchard, the first thing you notice is the overpowering sweet smell of the peaches," she said.

They grow a range of yellow and white nectarines and peaches, including a beautiful snow angel, which is best eaten crunchy, like an apple.

And when their fruit was damaged by hail, they found other delicious uses for it.

"We sent two tonnes of fruit, and it was turned into peaches in syrup, peach jam, and nectarine and strawberry jam," Edwina said.

Their fruit was also made into spicy hot sauce, nectarine and rhubarb compote, spicy peach chutney and quince and peach paste.

After the fruit is picked, they focus on the trees' nutrition, water and mulching, and use regenerative farming practices. The trees are pruned in May, which takes three to four weeks, and then the trees begin to flower from June to August.

It's not only glorious ripe fruit that welcomes visitors to The Peach Farm. There are also plenty of furry friends who are keen to say hello.

"We have ducks, chooks, goats, alpacas, sheep, dairy cows and even baby doll Southdown sheep," Edwina Cameron said.

Visitors can drop by year round and enjoy the cafe, which has delicious fresh food made with local produce, and meet the animals. But the Camerons aren't finished there. They are in the process of building a nature playground, where children can run wild.

"We take it for granted out here, but so many people don't have this experience," she said.

They are also planning an educational bush tucker garden, and a large scale community garden, where people can plant and pick their own vegetables.

"One of the things we are passionate about is the next generation, and being an advocate for farming," she said. "It's hard but it's awesome. It's heartbreaking but it's rewarding."