We had been following the Willabrand Australia fig orchard website, and when I saw they opened on Feb 16, I immediately arranged to go on Sunday. I prepared in advance by bringing disposable gloves and wearing long sleeves and long pants. But the 35°C weather was still extremely hot, and forgetting to bring water was the biggest mistake.
I thought figs were like strawberries, where you can just eat the fruit and don’t need water but we were wrong! Actually, figs are very sweet, rich, and a bit dry. All I could think about was ice-cold Coke, and I just wanted to leave as soon as possible. So you must bring water!
Because the orchard had just opened, only one variety of figs had ripened, Brown Turkey, which is said to be the most common and cheapest variety. Other varieties were still green and hard like little stones, probably needing another month to ripen gradually. The entry fee is $5, and figs to take away are $15 per kg. The key point is that the paper box they provide is weighed together with the figs.
Because we didn’t pick many figs, the final weight was a little over 1 kg. Calculating it, it was almost $1 per fig, and it felt like the money was spent on the box. So if I go again next time, I’ll bring my own small bag instead of using the box!
A week before we also went to the Glen Ewin Estate.
We only walked through two rows on one hill, eating while picking, and finally brought 3.4 kg home. Gently press the fig lightly — if it’s soft, it’s fully ripe, sweet and delicious. It actually has nothing to do with the color. Even figs with green skin can be very sweet and big — it’s just because of different varieties. But since I don’t really understand the varieties, I just picked whichever looked good.
Originally I thought the price was $15/kg, but when paying in the end, it was all calculated at $10/kg. The most important thing is to bring gloves. When you pick the fruit, the stem releases white sap, which is sticky and itchy, so gloves are a must. Before, a friend suggested bringing scissors, so I brought them this time, but then realised they weren’t necessary at all. If the fig is ripe, just twist it gently and it comes off — much easier than picking cherries.
After picking figs we got hungry, so we went to the restaurant next to it to find food. We ordered three courses, and all of them were pretty good. Glen Ewin duck & gin sausages, although there were only three sausages, the taste was very good. It doesn’t taste like duck, actually more like pork, but it was very well made. It comes with fig jam, and the combination is sweet and salty. Fig leaf spaghetti, $28 all we can say is it’s very delicious. The pasta is made with fig leaves, served with pistachio and pumpkin purée. The pumpkin purée is slightly sweet. Later we even dipped the chicken into it, and it tasted great. Half free-range BBQ chicken, $33 The grilled chicken was better than expected, and the meat was very tender. Originally we didn’t have high expectations for this dish. We actually ordered fish first, but they said the fish was sold out, so we changed to this!