Grower Profile: Mark & Annabelle (Ashley River Organics)

by Ooooby crew

Ingredients

Mark and Annabelle at Ashley River Organics have an orchard which has been cared for by them for over 25 years; apples and pears they grow with over 20 different apple varieties! They very much believe in a zero-waste philosophy with many of the seconds being made into 100% premium fruit juices in 3 different flavours: apple, apple and lime and pear.

Directions

Located on the banks of the Ashley River, North Canterbury, the Orchard was first established in 1966. Mark and Annabelle brought the Orchard in 1990. At this point, the orchard was used for producing export apples. The initial intention was to grow organic produce, but time was taken to establish a sound philosophy and confidence.

Promoted by fellow organic growers, in 2008 Ashley River Organics was born. An onset of three years was required in order to fully convert the orchard to organics through the Biogro certification process.

We've been getting our veg box for 18 months and we always look forward to our delivery. It's like Christmas every time, opening the box and finding what we've got! The seasonality and range is always good.

— Rachel

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