Kia ora koutou,

As we wrap up the apple season at Newstead Orchard, we extend a heartfelt thank you to all those who have purchased our fruit and supported this little local orchard. It’s been an awesome fruit season and a great introduction to orcharding for Annie Perkins, new owner of the orchard business, working alongside head orchardist John Woolford. He and his sister Jean are third-generation McMiken orchardists and remain the landowners.

Newstead Orchard is one of the very last commercial stone and pip fruit orchards in the Waikato that still sells direct to the public. This says something about how challenging it is to keep small local orchards viable. We are still here because you chose to buy our fruit. It's as simple as that, and we are immensely grateful for your choice to support our orchard.

Your positive feedback has been encouraging! We have especially loved hearing from families who have been buying fruit from the McMiken orchards for generations.

Within 15 minutes of putting the sign at the gate, loyal customers arrived, delighted to see that we were open. You told us that it's the quality of the fruit you value, the varieties not found in the supermarkets, the freshness, that it’s produced simply, or that you want to support local farming.

There have been many early mornings growing and harvesting fruit and vegetables in the orchard, long afternoons in the orchard farm shop, and busy weekends at the Cambridge and Hamilton Farmers’ Markets. Through it all, you’ve shown up at the orchard shop or the farmers' markets, rain or shine.

You fed your families wholesome, nutritious goodness. We helped you fill your lunch boxes, jam jars, pantry shelves, and freezers. Chefs made beautiful meals for local restaurants. Cooks and caterers created plum sorbet, apple danishes, pies, cakes, crumble, chutney and jam. I see you all, and I’m so grateful.

Many have also supported us in minimising food waste, choosing our great value slightly less perfect fruit (the “seconds”), bringing your bags or returning ours, and volunteering to help us pick fruit for those in need. Our apples have also fed a few pets and livestock, made a few brews, and baited possum traps. And last, but certainly not least, we have fed our soil to grow the next harvest, something we are truly passionate about.

Whether you’ve bought our fruit and produce, shared a post, told a friend about us, given us advice and feedback, shared a recipe, thank you! Your support has helped keep this little orchard thriving. Orcharding is certainly not easy work, but it feels worthwhile because of you. We close the doors for this season on the 25th of July and focus on growing fruit for next season, and have a rest.

We hope to see you at the orchard or the markets from December, when our summer fruit begins again. All the best and warmest thanks from us. Ngā mihi nui.

Annie, John, Lucy, Fiona and the whole orchard team