Sandhoppers turn mandarin pickers

Orchardists are always happy to see a horde of willing pickers hove over the horizon when fruit needs to be harvested, but those who arrived at Tony and Diane Hewitt's property at Waiharara last week were something special.

The 40-strong party of pre-schoolers and parent helpers from the Sandhoppers early childhood centre at Ahipara descended on the orchard for their annual major outing, and were more than happy to help pick mandarins, some of which went into buckets, others into little tummies.

The Hewitts, one-time dairy farmers who have owned the orchard for more than 25 years, have more than 8000 mandarin trees, a deliberate choice over the locally more popular avocado.

"I don't know anybody who doesn't like mandarins," Tony said, adding that the ability to produce crops earlier than the rest of the county was an advantage, while orcharding was a way of life.

Sandhoppers teacher Violet Horn said the outing was part of a wider programme of learning for the children.

"We like to give our kids different experiences. It's great for them to see where the fruit comes from and how things grow. It's a lovely outing for the parents too," she said.

The children certainly learned something - when she asked them prior to the outing exactly where mandarins came from, many of them had replied "Pak'nSave."

Violet was very grateful to Tony and Diane for the opportunity to visit.

"It's so lovely for people to allow us and our tribe of kiddies into their worlds and help with their learning," she said.

And at the end of their big day out every youngster went home with a bag of mandarins and kiwifruit, courtesy of KeriFresh.