There is very little that beats a punnet of something you picked yourself, still warm from the sun, ten minutes from where it grew. The Adelaide Hills has been quietly doing this for generations. The only tricky part has been finding it. Someone mentions a place doing sunflowers. You spot a hand painted sign on a fence in January, and by the time you have turned the car around it has disappeared back into the hedgerow.
So we made somewhere to look. The Harvest & Bloom Trail launched on 5 August 2026: eighteen farms, orchards and flower fields across the Adelaide Hills, all doing pick your own, farm gate stalls or seasonal visits, on an illustrated map by Chris Edser, who grew up in Piccadilly and drew our roadside stalls map a few years back. We built it alongside Adelaide Hills Tourism, with Adelaide Hills Council and Mount Barker District Council right behind it.
The map is free and printed, and it is genuinely lovely to have in the glovebox. Pick one up from the Hahndorf Academy, Mount Lofty Summit, your local library or any of the farms on the trail. You can also grab it from the Adelaide Hills Tourism website and keep it on your phone.
EIGHTEEN FARMS, SEASON BY SEASON
Where to point the car, month by month
Here is the loveliest thing about the trail: there is something worth doing on it almost every month of the year. A farm that is glorious in December is having a well earned rest in June. Treat the seasons below as a friendly guide rather than gospel, because every one of them shifts with the weather, and ring ahead before you drive.
WINTER, JUNE TO AUGUST
1. Adelaide Hills Truffle Company (Littlehampton)
Truffle hunts with trained dogs through the winter, followed by a tasting at the farm. Watching a dog work a truffiere on a cold morning is one of the most delightful things you can do within an hour of the city.
When: Winter, through the truffle season
Perfect for: A cold morning out that feels like nothing else in the Hills.
More info
2. Jurlique Farm (Biggs Flat)
Tours of the biodynamic farm behind the skincare, with guided garden walks and products you will not find elsewhere. Winter is when you get to see the resting half of the cycle, which is a treat in itself.
When: Tours run year round
Perfect for: A garden walk with someone who knows every bed.
More info
3. Kitchen Farm (Mount Barker)
A restaurant and produce store at Newenham Estate, in a restored garage and barn, with a menu that moves with whatever is actually growing. Native flowers alongside the food.
When: Open all year
Perfect for: Lunch when the paddocks are too wet for picking.
More info
SPRING, SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER
4. Blumenfeld Flowers (Lenswood)
Fifty acres of proteas and native flowers, with hands-on bouquet workshops and stems you cut yourself.
When: Spring, as the flower farms wake up
Perfect for: Coming home with an armful of proteas.
More info
5. Kidman Flower Co (Balhannah)
Pesticide free, and growing more than sixty Australian and South African native varieties. Bunches to take away, and workshops right through the season.
When: Through the spring season
Perfect for: A workshop where you leave with something you made.
More info
6. Hillview Flowers (Mylor)
A family farm specialising in field grown dahlias. Visits are by arrangement, and the tuber sale is the one to diarise if you want them in your own garden.
When: Tuber sale late October to December, visits by arrangement
Perfect for: Gardeners who want the dahlias at home next year.
More info
7. Hahndorf Flower Farm (Hahndorf)
Hands-on picking through gardens and flower fields around heritage cottages built by German settlers in the 1800s. About an hour and a half, and a beautiful way to spend it.
When: Through the season, bookings essential
Perfect for: Picking your own bunch somewhere genuinely pretty.
More info
8. Gooseberry Hill Farm (between Meadows and Echunga)
A hundred acres, spray free, with seasonal blooms, figs and cider tasting. The gate stays shut for picking most of the time, but the flowers and seedlings come to the Adelaide Hills Farmers Market every Saturday morning.
When: Occasional pick your own days, market stall every Saturday
Perfect for: Spray free flowers without leaving the market.
More info
9. Springwood Farm (Summertown)
A self serve farm gate on Cornish Road with raspberries, blackberries, figs, homemade jams and berry ice cream. It comes back from the October long weekend.
When: From the October long weekend, then berries through summer
Perfect for: An honesty stall stop on the way home.
More info
10. Beerenberg (Hahndorf)
Strawberries open in November, which for a lot of Hills families is the official start of the picking year. They have been welcoming people into the rows since 1975, and the farm shop carries more than a hundred jams and condiments.
When: Strawberries from November
Perfect for: The first pick of the season with small kids.
More info
SUMMER, DECEMBER AND JANUARY
11. A.T. Thompson Cherries (Lenswood)
A biodynamic pick your own cherry farm, grown without weedicides, hormones or fungicides.
When: Cherry season, from around late November
Perfect for: Cherries picked the way you would grow them yourself.
More info
12. Bishop Orchards (Forest Range)
Growing cherries since 1871, with more than twenty varieties, plus jams, nougat and Marble Hill Wines. Worth knowing before you drive: this one is farm gate sales, not pick your own.
When: Cherry season
Perfect for: Buying by the box without picking a thing.
More info
13. Kenton Valley Cherries (Kenton Valley)
Six generations of the same family growing cherries and figs, with the much loved Cherry Shed Cafe alongside.
When: About mid November to mid January
Perfect for: A pick, then a coffee, without moving the car.
More info
14. Jauma Farm (Lenswood)
A certified organic orchard and a natural winery in one place. Organic cherries to pick, and a cellar door small enough that you end up in conversation with whoever is behind the bench.
When: Cherries in summer, cellar door Saturdays from midday
Perfect for: Cherries for the kids and a glass for you.
More info
15. Hahndorf Lavender Estate (Hahndorf)
Fifty thousand plants across forty three acres, at peak bloom in summer, and you can cut your own bunches to dry at home. The retail store on the Hahndorf main street carries the lavender products.
When: Peak bloom in summer
Perfect for: Cutting a bunch that scents the house for months.
More info
16. Atkins Farm (Meadows)
A 1920s farm with pick your own sunflower fields, booked in fifty minute sessions. Far and away the most photographed thing in the Hills for about three weeks every January.
When: January. The 2026 season has finished and they reopen in January 2027
Perfect for: The one photo everybody asks you where you took.
More info
LATE SUMMER AND AUTUMN, FEBRUARY TO MAY
17. Glen Ewin Estate (Houghton)
The largest fig orchard in the country, twelve thousand trees across five varieties, with the Gatehouse and the Figbar alongside for when you have finished picking.
When: Fig season, from late summer
Perfect for: Figs, then a fig gin, without leaving the property.
More info
18. Plummers Pick Your Own (Forest Range)
Five generations of apple growers, and the longest picking season on the trail. Pink Lady, Fuji and Granny Smith from late February right through to May.
When: Late February to May
Perfect for: School holidays when nobody can agree on anything.
More info
MAKING A DAY OF IT
Give them a ring, or check their socials that morning. This is the single best thing you can do. Seasons shift by weeks with the weather, and a really good Saturday can sell out of pick your own by lunchtime. Two minutes on the phone and the day is yours.
Know how the money works. Most pick your own places charge a small entry fee, and then you pay by weight for whatever you take home. Bring a card, and a bit of cash too, because phone reception on some of these roads is more of a suggestion than a service.
Two farms is the sweet spot. The map will make you ambitious, and the loveliest days are the unhurried ones. Pick two, find lunch somewhere in between, and let the afternoon go where it wants.
Dress for a paddock. Closed shoes, a hat, sunscreen and something you do not mind getting a bit of fruit stain on. It is always cooler and windier up here than the forecast for town suggests.
Take the esky. You will buy more than you meant to. Everyone does, and honestly that is half the fun.
WHY THIS ONE MATTERS TO US
Every farm on this map is a family who decided it was worth opening the gate and letting you in. That is a generous thing to do, and it is a big part of why the Hills feel the way they do. When you buy a bag of apples from the person who grew them, you are keeping something rather wonderful going.
So go. Take the kids, take your parents, take the visitors who love a Sunday drive around the Adelaide Hills. Buy the fruit.
And if you run a farm in the Hills doing something seasonal and you are not on the trail yet, we would love to hear from you at hello@adelaidehillspantry.com.au. We want this map to keep growing.
Header image and trail map: Adelaide Hills Tourism, illustrated by Chris Edser. Used with permission.