Roadtrip to Bilpin

A few months ago, a few friends and I decided to go on a road trip together to visit a friend working in the Windsor vicinity. After doing some research into the surrounding areas, a friend suggested that we visit Bilpin for a day trip.

Bilpin is located just over 1.5hrs drive north-west of Sydney and is popularly known as the 'Land of the Mountain Apple', due to the rich fruit orchids and bountiful gardens that line the main (Bells Line of) road, which runs through the Blue Mountain region. The famous produce from the region are the locally grown/produced apples, juice and cider. Since they don't usually advertise the source of apples at the local supermarkets nor do I usually partake in cider (or any alcoholic drink), this place didn't really ring any bells so I was up for the challenge.

Roadtrip!

On route to Bilpin from Sydney, we passed through the Kurrajong area (i.e. Kurrajong; Kurrajong Hills; Kurrajong Heights), which is famous for the calls of the Australian bellbird. If you travel through this area, make sure to open your windows to hear the bell birds chiming!

Pie in the Sky Roadhouse

Our first food pit stop was for lunch at the Pie in the Sky Roadhouse in Kurrajong Heights, which is famous for their home-made meat and apple pies.

Street Sign

Front of Building

Front Counter

I personally got their steak and mushroom pie, which was filled with soft, chunky beef steak and large (flat or portobello?) mushrooms, and topped with flaky puff pastry. The sauce inside was a little salty and rather thick (especially more so as the inside of the pie was warm, rather than piping hot) but still satisfying. I was too full after consuming the pie (it's bigger than the regular frozen meat pie) so I had no room to fit in some of their infamous apple pie.

Steak & Mushroom Pie ($6.5)

Bilpin Fruit Bowl

Further down the Bell Line of Road, is the Bilpin Fruit Bowl, which has this gigantic fruit bowl by the road directly outside their cafe selling homemade apple pies. On the other side of the road is The Pines Orchard, which unfortunately was not open for fruit picking over this weekend.

Street Sign and Giant Fruit Bowl

Front of Bilpin Fruit Bowl

If you drive ~100m from the cafe and off the main road, you'll approach the driveway leading to their orchard, in which you can pick fruit (peaches and nectarines) or vegetables (lettuce, silver beet, eggplant, tomatoes, etc.).

Giant Strawberry and Tractor

Extensive Vegetable Patch

Entrance fee here is $2.50, free for children under 3yrs old, and the price of fruit was $5/kg (or $10/kg if you picked too-small fruit that was not ready for harvest).

Front Desk

Sign at Entry
(Is it just me or are there a lot of 'not's?)

As it was early in the season, only the peaches were big enough for harvesting - the nectarines weren't quite large enough - but there was ample to choose from. Several long lines of peach trees were open to the public and each bore large amounts of fruit.

Entering the Orchard

Orchard

Peaches

I ended up buying 10 or so peaches to personally eat or to give away to relatives back in Sydney.

Bilpin Cider Co.

Our next pit stop was the cellar door at Bilpin Cider Co., in which you can sample their various ciders made using apples sourced from local farms. They also do a pear cider, which is made from Packham pears.

Front of Bilpin Cedar Door

Grey Butcherbird Sighted Here

Inside the Cedar Door, they had several displays of local produce for sale:

Christmas Hampers

Local Produce

Bilpin Cider

The staff at the cellar door were super friendly and introduced each apple or pear cider on offer, including their new brut cider (supposedly very dry, hence we all passed).

Ciders for Sampling

My favourite of the lot was the blush apple cider, which is made from 100% crushed Pink Lady apples. Surprisingly most of their ciders weren't that sweet - mainly because the sweetness of the cider is all from actual apples, rather than added sugars. The flavour of the non-alcoholic cider reminded me of Appletiser but less sweet.

Officially a cider convert now. Since Dan Murphy's was having a sale on the blush cider, I subsequently went and bought a case...

Tutti Fruitti

On the way to the Bilpin Fruit Bowl, we drove by Tutti Fruitti, which is known for their real-fruit ice cream made from vanilla ice cream and real mixed berries. Considering that the temperatures were soaring into the 30s during the daytime, this place looked more and more like a definite pit stop to give us some relief from the hot weather.

Hence, on our way back home, we stopped by to take shelter from the harsh sun:

Street Sign

Front of Tutti Fruitti Store

Inside the store, they sell a range of local produce including honey, jams and juice, but we were there for one thing only - ice creaaamm!

Cabinet Filled with Ice Cream Ingredients

Food on Display

They make each ice cream on order, churning two scoops of vanilla ice cream with various (frozen? - since in same compartment as the ice cream) berries of choice, and then served in a cup or waffle cone. As we all chose the tutti fruitti flavour (i.e. mixed berries including strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry), every ice cream came out a different colour depending on the fruit that ended up in the ice cream.

Real Fruit Soft Serve ($5.50)

Okay, sweet dessert craving satisfied and time to go home. 😢

Awesome Curbside Plants