Peaches, nectarines and apricots: stone fruit picking in Australia

Stone fruit is the summer crop that rewards going early in the day and punishes leaving it in a hot car. The three fruits run in sequence rather than together, so the same orchard can be worth three separate visits.

The order they ripen

Apricots are first, and briefest: roughly December and January, with the largest cluster of self-pick apricot orchards on this site in the Hobart and Huon Valley district of Tasmania and around the Hilltops in New South Wales.

Peaches and nectarines follow, running December through February, occasionally into March for late varieties. The deepest concentration is in Bilpin and the Hawkesbury and the wider Sydney Basin, with more in the Perth Hills and the Hilltops.

Because varieties are planted in sequence, an orchard that is picked out one weekend can be picking a different variety a fortnight later. Ask which variety is on, not just whether they are open.

Ripeness is smell and give, not colour

The red blush on a peach or nectarine is variety, not ripeness. Two things tell you:

Smell it at the stem end. A ripe stone fruit smells like itself from a hand’s distance. No smell means no sugar, and it will not develop.

Press gently near the stem, with the pad of your finger rather than the tip. Ripe fruit gives slightly along the shoulder. Rock hard means leave it; soft anywhere means eat it today.

Lift and twist rather than pull. Ripe stone fruit comes away with a small upward roll; if you have to tug, it is not ready and you will take next year’s fruiting wood with it.

Handle it once

Stone fruit bruises where it is squeezed and the bruise appears hours later, at home. Pick into a shallow layer, do not tip one container into another, and keep the fruit out of the sun from the moment it leaves the tree. A wet towel over the top of the box in the car is worth more than air conditioning.

Eat, or process, quickly

Ripe stone fruit keeps a couple of days on the bench and rather longer in the fridge, but cold flattens the flavour, so bring it back to room temperature before eating. If you have picked more than you can eat, halve and freeze it on a tray the same evening: stone fruit freezes far better than it keeps.

Updated 10 September 2026