There is something satisfying about picking fruit straight from the tree. During citrus season, several South African farms open their orchards to visitors, offering the chance to pick your own citrus, explore the countryside and take your harvest home.
Photo by Văn Long Bùi / Pexels / Illustrative purposes only
From blood oranges in the Cape Winelands to citrus orchards in the Eastern Cape, these are places where you can get closer to the country’s farming landscape, fill a basket and take the harvest home.
Boschendal, Franschhoek
Boschendal’s annual Citrus Festival is one of the country’s more established citrus-picking events. Held in winter, the festival gives visitors access to the estate’s orchards, where they can pick their own citrus with guidance from the farming team.
The 2026 festival included a picking experience, bucket and 3kg of hand-picked citrus, alongside live music, food stalls, tractor rides and children’s activities.
The historic estate dates back to 1685 and remains a working farm, with food, wine and seasonal produce central to the experience.
Even if you are not particularly interested in wine, the citrus festival is a good excuse to spend a winter day in the Winelands.
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Babylonstoren, Franschhoek
At Babylonstoren, the citrus season is considerably shorter, but no less appealing. The farm’s annual blood-orange harvest gives visitors the chance to walk through the orchards and fill a harvest box directly from the trees.
The ruby-fleshed fruit is a winter speciality and can be eaten fresh, juiced or used in everything from baking to preserves. Babylonstoren describes the harvest as a once-a-year tradition.
The farm is one of the Cape’s oldest Cape Dutch farms, with a fruit and vegetable garden at the centre of its farm-to-table philosophy.
Make a day of it by exploring the gardens, booking lunch or visiting the farm shop after your harvest.
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Waterfall Farm, Citrusdal
The name gives away the location, but the experience is about more than citrus. Waterfall Farm lies in Citrusdal, surrounded by mountains and orchards of lemon, lime and orange trees. The farm has been cared for by the same family for decades, with the original fruit trees growing into established orchards.
Guests can combine time among the fruit trees with hiking, swimming and exploring the area’s San rock art. The farm is also a useful base for exploring the wider Cederberg.
It is the option to choose if you want your citrus picking to form part of a proper weekend away rather than a quick farm visit.
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Bydand Farm, Addo
Citrus is part of the landscape around Addo, and Bydand Farm offers visitors a chance to experience that agricultural side of the region.
The working farm sits beside the Sundays River and has citrus orchards where guests can pick fruit when it is in season.
The bigger draw is the combination of farming and wildlife. A stay here can easily be paired with a visit to Addo Elephant National Park, making the citrus harvest a small but memorable part of a longer Eastern Cape escape.
Padlangs, Patensie
In the Gamtoos Valley, Padlangs offers a distinctly road-trip-friendly citrus experience. The country restaurant and shop sits among the orchards outside Patensie, where visitors can pick oranges when the orchards are open for harvesting.
The surrounding Patensie area is one of South Africa’s established citrus-growing regions, producing oranges, lemons, grapefruit and soft citrus.
After picking, stay for a meal at Padlangs before continuing towards the Baviaanskloof. The restaurant overlooks the valley and the Kouga Mountains, making it an easy stop rather than something requiring a dedicated detour.
Why go citrus picking?
South Africa’s relationship with citrus stretches back centuries. Citrus trees were introduced to the Cape from St Helena in the 17th century, with oranges and lemons among the first trees planted in the Company’s Garden. Commercial citrus farming developed much later, eventually turning the fruit into one of the country’s major agricultural exports.
Today, citrus is grown across several regions, including the Western and Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.
A pick-your-own experience offers a different perspective on that industry. Instead of seeing an orange neatly stacked in a supermarket, you see where it started: on a tree, in an orchard, on a working farm. And there is something particularly nice about leaving with a bag of fruit you picked yourself.
Plan around the season
Citrus picking is not an everyday activity. Harvest dates depend on the fruit, farm and weather, and some experiences only happen for a few weekends each year.
That means checking directly with the farm before making the trip is essential. Babylonstoren’s blood-orange harvest, for example, is a short seasonal event, while Boschendal’s picking takes place as part of its annual Citrus Festival.
Go for the fruit, but stay for everything around it. A morning in the orchard can easily become a farm lunch, a mountain walk, a wine-country afternoon or a weekend in the Eastern Cape. Sometimes the best souvenirs are the ones you picked yourself.
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