Angus and Ben’s is a small family orchard business based at Muriwai, 20 minutes south of Gisborne. Angus and Ben are two boys who wanted to start a roadside stall to sell home grown fruit; and that’s how Angus and Ben’s began. There are two other key players at Angus and Ben’s, and that’s Sheryl (Mum) and Nick (Dad)
At Angus and Ben’s we are focused on growing great tasting fruit; this is contrary to most modern growing practices which focus on fruit appearance and maximising yields through the use of a wide range of chemicals and fertilisers. Instead we get great tasting fruit by working with our natural advantage on our fantastic soils and temperate climate to get the maximum goodness and flavour into every fruit. Angus and Ben have a small roadside fruit stall and we now offer our fruit outside of Gisborne via our website store.
Angus and Ben are pretty typical kids. Angus is 7 and Ben is 5; getting them to eat biscuits or chippies is easy; but put your typical fruit in their lunch box, and HELLO it’s still there at the end of the day; That expensive fruit just had a trip to school and back. Unless it’s good fruit they don’t want to know it. That’s where we can help, all our fruit is tree ripened, and unless Angus and Ben like the Mandarins and Feijoas, we don’t sell them. Our feijoas and mandarins are an easy way to your kids to eat fruit.
We endeavour to get great fruit direct to your door; unfortunately – because Winter Gems are so full of natural sugars and flavour that is wrapped in a very thin skin that has no nasty fungicides or wax’s added, they can develop rots very easily when packed in a box. We carefully hand harvest and pack Winter Gems in layers to minimise the risk of rots. When your Winter Gems arrive – “Get them out, and Spread them out”, they don’t like being all boxed up. With some air flow around them, they can last well - IF ONLY they didn’t get eaten so fast.
We recommend opening your box as soon as it arrives; for any Mandarins, spreading them out as much as possible to get air around each fruit will maximise their shelf life; even spreading them out for a few hours in a dry place before putting in a fruit bowl or loosely packed box will extend their shelf life. Check them regularly for any rots that may develop and remove those fruit to prevent it spreading to neighbouring fruit.
Our fruit is all seasonal, and we don’t harvest until they taste great. Because of this our fruit may still be on the tree getting packed with more flavour; by all means drop us any query and we can let you know when they will be available.
Once they are gone they are gone until our trees produce some more. Lemons can produce more than one crop per year, whereas most fruit is only available once per year.
Our fruit is Home grown; grown using minimal inputs to produce great tasting healthy fruit. We have a strong environmental focus as nature can do a fantastic job. We are not tied into any certified organic regime. Our orchards are full of beneficial insects that do a great job of eating the baddies. We work with and understand our environment, and our management starts with a healthy soil, producing a healthy tree, which in turn produces great fruit.