Pick your own in the Adelaide Hills
The Adelaide Hills carry more self-pick farms than any other district on this site. The altitude is the reason: cool nights within forty minutes of the city, which suits cherries and berries and gives the fruit a longer, later season than the plains below.
Cherries first
Cherries are what the district is known for, and it holds the largest concentration of self-pick cherry orchards in the country. The season is short and it is a summer one: roughly late November into January, peaking around the Christmas fortnight.
That timing is the thing to plan around. The week before Christmas is the busiest of the orchard year, and the popular farms fill their car parks by mid-morning. Going on a weekday, or arriving at opening, changes the experience completely.
What else is open
The hills also carry strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and apples, plus flower and sunflower fields. Because the crops overlap, a single day in the district in December or January can reasonably take in two farms of different types, which is harder to do almost anywhere else.
Apples run later, into autumn, and are a good reason to come back when the summer fruit is finished.
Practical notes
Rain closes cherry orchards. A ripe cherry splits when it takes on water, and a wet week can end a block’s season with no notice. Never drive up without checking that morning.
Book where booking exists. Several of the larger cherry farms sell timed sessions over the peak fortnight, which is the difference between picking and queueing.
The hills are cooler than the city, and wetter. Take a layer even in January, and closed shoes: orchard rows are uneven and often damp underfoot in the morning.
Getting there
Most of the district sits within an hour of central Adelaide, and the farms are spread rather than clustered on one road, so check the map on each listing before assuming two are close together. Two farms twenty kilometres apart on the map can be half an hour apart on hills roads.
Updated 10 September 2026