Pick Your Own

A “Pick Your Own” day yesterday, bathed in warm autumn sunshine. Penray PYO just south of Otaki was the premier destination. They specialise in chillies along with other produce. Yelps and guffaws are heard from the picking lines as reckless harvesters try the strength of the various varieties. A great grandmother sits on the ground in her sari, guarding buckets of sparkling scarlet chillies, while her relatives do her bidding. We staggered back to the pay station, with about 4 kilos of Italian tomatoes as well as a bags of chillies, capsicums, apples, pears and a big bunch of parsley. The whole lot came to about £8.
Then we drove over the hill to the organic blueberry farm in the Upper Hutt. Worth a stop for the aerial view of the Kapiti coast and island in one direction and South Island in the other. A lot more of S. Island is visible from up there, than at sea level. I suspect you can see all the way to Cape Farewell.
The blueberry farm is on the tranquil banks of the Hutt river (although I'm sure the Hutt not always tranquil judging by the boulders in the river bed). They make world-class blueberry muffins in their café – definitely worth a detour if you in the Hutt at weekends. Some of the blueberry bushes had turned an intense crimson – one of the few signs of autumn. Unfortunately I had my camera set incorrectly and came home with a series of Monet like smudges.
The chillies are glistening red in bowls. The tomatoes are currently being rendered down into a vat of sauce. And the capsicums are crisp and crunchy which you chop them up. And the blueberries have a fresh taste and firm texture that you don’t find in supermarkets.