Sun-B McIlroy Avocados & McKee Exotics

A dozen years ago, Fiona McIlroy planted a small 100 avocado trees orchard to be able to live a good family life with an income on their 15 hectare farm. To keep harvesting a family affair, the trees are kept significantly shorter than the usual avocado orchard trees, not many stretch beyond 4-5m in height- and this is now the norm in California too. The conditions on the property means Fiona is constantly finding out more about Phytophthera and how to work with/around it. For family requirements there’s a diverse fruit tree orchard with chickens and ducks roaming. Fiona sells her seasonal produce at the Clevedon Farmers Market.

Alan McKee is a very active Auckland Tree Crops member and known for bringing the most unusual fruits from his orchard to our monthly meetings for us to sample. Fruiting finger limes, Etrog lemons, Tropical Guava, cinnamon and many more unusual plants make this lifetyle block worthwhile to visit. In the September 2019 issue of TreeCropper magazine he has written about growing Cinnamon in New Zealand.