Our Website Online Store

Wholefoods House | Organic Food Sydney

Organic & Artisan foods in Sydney

  • Home
  • Online Store
  • About
    • About Us
    • About Organic Food
    • Our Farmers
    • Community
    • In the Media
    • Testimonials
  • Our Stores
  • Products
  • Recipes
  • News
    • Blog
    • Nutrition & Food Articles
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Employment
    • Privacy Policy

Our farmers: the Wallis brothers at Colo River Orchard

September 11, 2015 by Alex McLeavy 2 Comments

organic orchard

Update – July 2019: The Wallis brothers have sold the farm and the orchard is no longer producing fruit for sale.

When he was 14 Anthony Wallis spent a month helping his aunt and uncle plant an orange orchard on their property at the confluence of the Colo and Hawkesbury Rivers, an hour from Sydney. “I didn’t go too well in my school exams that year,” he laughs. Thirty-five years later he and his brother Jeremy took over the running of the orchard, with Anthony managing sales and Jeremy the growing.

organic orchard

Visiting the certified organic Colo River Orchard is like stepping back in time – even the irrigation system is the original Anthony laid all those years ago. In the old tin packing shed a vintage “Universal Fruit Grader” sorts the oranges by size after the seconds are separated from the premium fruit. On the day we visited the wide river flowed sleepily, the sky was clear and blue and the scent of citrus oil heady in the warm Spring air: it was idyllic.

organic oranges

Navel oranges are Anthony and Jeremy’s main crop, available from about May each year until they get too sweet and ripe to eat. From then warm weather Valencias take over and continue through spring and early summer. The brothers also grow a small number of bitter Seville oranges (for making marmalade) and Emperor mandarins – they’re not a commercially popular variety but we savour the few boxes of these sweet, fragrant and juicy mandarins we receive each year so keep an eye out for them next winter.

organic orchard

In season, Anthony delivers a van load of oranges direct to Wholefoods House at least once a week. Whether you juice them or enjoy slices fresh from the skin we know you’ll agree that the Wallis brothers produce the most incredible oranges available, otherwise we wouldn’t see them so often!

organic orchard

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: organic farmers, producers

Comments

  1. Peter de Merindol says

    July 14, 2019 at 11:44 am

    Sunday 14 July. Do you have Seville Oranges and where can I buy them in Sydney?
    Thanks, Peter. Phone: 9389 3063

    Reply
    • Alex McLeavy says

      July 15, 2019 at 9:19 am

      Hi Peter, unfortunately there are no longer any organic growers producing Seville oranges. We may be able to source non-organic for you, if this is of interest please email [email protected]

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Want Membership Discounts?

Sign up now to receive your loyalty card.

Connect with Wholefoods House

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe to our newsletter

Follow us on Instagram

A post shared by Wholefoods House (@wholefoodshouse) on May 10, 2018 at 2:01pm PDT

Find us on Facebook

Woollahra Store

Address: 112 Queen Street
Woollahra NSW 2025, Australia
Tel. (02) 9363 9879
Fax. (02) 9363 9815
Email [email protected]
Trading Hours

Rosebery Store

Address: 14/61 Mentmore Ave
Rosebery NSW 2018, Australia
Tel. (02) 8123 1700
Fax. (02) 8123 1719
Email [email protected]
Trading Hours

Wholefoods House logo

It’s all good. It’s all here.

© Copyright 2019 · Wholefoods House PTY LTD