The Morrison family has been working the land near Warkworth, north of Auckland since the early 1860s, and in 1873 Edward Morrison established  the Red Bluff Orchard and fruit tree nursery on the banks of the Mahurangi River.

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For a number of years, the nursery was the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, supplying thousands of trees to other orchards as well as private home orchards.  Cases of fruit were sent twice a week to the Auckland markets by scow down the river, and they were one of the biggest employers in the district. 

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Our current family orchard, located just south of the Warkworth township on State Highway One, was established as an offshoot of Red Bluff - the ground was tilled using horse drawn plough and trees sourced from the parent orchard were lovingly planted and nurtured to maturity by Athol Morrison (Edward's grandson and great-grandfather of the latest generation of Morrisons).

 

The orchard is currently run by Tom and Robyn, with support from their four adult children - Paul, Bevan, David and Jo.

Collectively we have a vision for the future of a vibrant community space with the orchard as a living central hub that we can share with others. We are incredibly proud of our history and look forward to starting on the next stage of growth.

 

We believe passionately in the value of growing your own food on a sustainable basis, with minimal chemical input, the pleasure it can bring to create something with your own efforts and the therapeutic value of working the land, as well as having a strong ethos of minimising waste and food miles.  

 

We look forward to sharing more of our journey with you as we work to reinvigorate the orchard and bring our vision to life. 

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