Your Ultimate Guide To Jeju Orange and Tangerine Picking
Getting ready for a trip to Jeju Island? One of our FAVORITE things to do in Jeju Island is picking citrus fruit, eating citrus fruit, and just enjoying everything citrus fruit. If you’re like us, then get ready for a zesty adventure. One of the top autumn experiences to have on Jeju Island is picking citrus like the famous Hallabong and tangerines, so if you’re visiting Jeju in the fall, it’s a must do.
The beautiful orchards on Jeju Island fill the air with a sweet aroma and while you pick, you eat, and while you eat, you pick, and at the end, you have a basketful of citrus you can also take home with you.
Get ready for some tangerine picking fun on Jeju Island in Korea:
- Discover the Citrus Varieties
- A Glimpse into Jeju’s Citrus Heritage
- Best Time for Tangerine Picking
- Planning Your Visit
- Tangerine Farms On Jeju Island
- Harvesting Tips
- Experiencing Tangerine Picking
- Cafe The Container (์นดํ๋์ฝํ ๋)
- FAQ
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Discover the Citrus Varieties
Jeju Island is home to a remarkable array of tangerine species and they each taste a bit different so you might want to know a bit about them before you go. To say they are delicious is an understatement. Once you try them, you won’t want other kinds.
Among these, the Hallabong (ํ๋ผ๋ด) reigns supreme and is one of the most popular and well-known from the island thanks to its juicy sweetness and easy-to-peel nature. But, there are others to enjoy too.
Other notable citrus varieties from Jeju Island include the large and succulent gamgyul (๊ฐ๊ทค), the tangy hagyul (ํ๊ทค), and the vibrant red hyang (๋ ๋ํฅ), a blend of hallabong and noji gamgyul. There’s also the sweet cheonhyehyang (์ฒํํฅ) and the unique and tangy dangyuja (๋น์ ์). You could spend some time delving into Jeju’s citrus options. The good thing to know is that they’re all delicious! Honestly, we like them all.
For those with a penchant for sweetness, aim to visit orchards specializing in hallabong, red hyang, or gamgyul. If sour flavors pique your interest, the hagyuls and jingyuls are for you. These sour varieties are perfect for refreshing citrus-ades or to add a tangy twist to your meal. You can do a lot with them.
A Glimpse into Jeju’s Citrus Heritage
Tangerines on Jeju Island are not just fruits; they are a legacy of royal delicacy and agricultural mastery. With a history dating back to the 4th century, these citrus fruits have been cultivated on Jeju’s fertile volcanic soil for centuries, contributing to the island’s rich culture and economy. If you want to learn more about the history of citrus on the island, make time to visit the Jeju Citrus Museum during your stay.
If you’ve visited Jeju before, you’ve probably already learned a bit about how fertile the soil is here if you visited the OSULLOC green tea fields, another hot spot on the island. As you drive around, you’ll find citrus farms aplenty as well as green tea, kiwi, and other vegetation growing abundantly.
Back to the citrus though, during the Baekje period and then into the Silla and Goryeo periods of history, these fruits were gifted seasonally to the royal family. Thankfully, the culture of cultivating citrus on Jeju Island is still robust even without a royal family to gift to and now everyone down to the commoners like me can enjoy the sweet tangy fruits.
Best Time for Tangerine Picking
The tangerine picking season on Jeju Island peaks during the winter months, from November to February. During harvest season, visitors can pick at farms all over. Pay attention to signs though as some farms are just for pickers and some are not. Some farms have half of the space for visitors and half of the orchard for sale to consumers.
Planning Your Visit
Reservations are recommended during peak season to secure your spot in the orchards, but you can definitely just rock up as well. While most farms provide necessary tools, including baskets and gloves, it’s always best to inquire ahead about specific policies if you have further questions.
Most of the farms are a bit out there as are a lot of places on Jeju Island which is why we recommend renting a car in Jeju if you plan to really get around and do a lot. If you want to plan an epic adventure, check out the other great spots that we recommend visiting in Jeju Island.
Tangerine Farms On Jeju Island
There are a lot of farms on Jeju Island that provide the opportunity to pick fruit. To find them, search “์ ์ฃผ ์ฒดํ๋์ฅ” on Naver and it will bring up all of the current opportunities. You can also look into these great farms that have been open in the past.
| Odeung Gamgyul Orange Farm (์ค๋ฑ ๊ฐ๊ทค๋์ฅ) Address: 8-15 Odong 14-gil, Jeju-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ ์ ์ฃผ์ ์ค๋ฑ14๊ธธ 8-15) | Hyosung farm Hallabong Experience Farm (ํจ์ฑ๋์ ํ๋ผ๋ด์ฒดํ๋์ฅ) Address: 8987 Iljudong-ro, Seogwipo-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ๋ ์๊ทํฌ์ ์ผ์ฃผ๋๋ก 8987) |
| Gyulhyanggi Experience Farm (์ฒดํ๋์ฅ ๊ทคํฅ๊ธฐ) Address: 3118 1100-ro, Jeju-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ ์ ์ฃผ์ 1100๋ก 3118) | Harye Tangerine Farm (ํ๋ก๊ฐ๊ทค์ฒดํ๋์ฅ) Address: 5607 Jungsangandong-ro, Pyoseon-myeon, Seogwipo-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ๋ ์๊ทํฌ์ ํ์ ๋ฉด ์ค์ฐ๊ฐ๋๋ก 5607) |
| Bongbong Tangerine Farm (๋ด๋ด๊ฐ๊ทค์ฒดํ๋์ฅ) Address: 16 Jungsangangdong-ro 7141-beongil, Namwon-eub, Seogwipo-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ๋ ์๊ทํฌ์ ๋จ์์ ์ค์ฐ๊ฐ๋๋ก7141๋ฒ๊ธธ 16) | Jeju Kim’s Tangerine Farm (์ ์ฃผํด์ค๋์ฅ ๊ทค์ฐฝ๊ณ ) Address: 567 Seoho-dong, Seogwipo-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ ์๊ทํฌ์ ์ํธ๋ 567) |
Harvesting Tips
Upon entering the orchard, you’ll be equipped with a basket and scissors. It’s crucial to handle the fruit with care, selecting those that are ripe and heavy for their size. A gentle twist and a precise snip ensure that you collect your tangerines without harming the tree or the fruit.
If you’re unsure, not to worry, the farm staff will be sure to let you know how to harvest and what to look for. And if you have kids, they’ll take the time to show them as well so that everyone has fun, is safe, and gets the goods.
Experiencing Tangerine Picking
Tangerine picking on Jeju is a very fun, fruitful, and Instagrammable experience, as so many things are in Korea. Beyond the joy of harvesting, many farms offer other activities to upgrade the experience like tangerine chocolate and soap making.
And as I mentioned, they even make it fun for the photographers as they string up rainbow garland, provide tangerine inspired hats and accessories, and more to make it memorable and cute. If you have kids, they’ll love this experience.
In our experience, the farms really want to ensure that everyone walks away happy so they’ll look through your haul at the end, and may even add nicer citrus to your batch. When I took my daughter the last time, they added quite a few because I had let her pick until she was content, but her content, and the amount we could have was different so they added them to make up the difference.
Cafe The Container (์นดํ๋์ฝํ ๋)
For a little bonus, have you heard of Cafe The Container yet? If you’ve ever wanted to see the largest tangerine picking basket around, then head to this Jeju cafe and orchard. The hilarious design of the main cafe space in the orchard draws people from all around. It’s humorous, fun, and delicious. Stop in when it’s harvesting time, or stop in in other times just for a drink and a snack and a humorous view.
- Address: 513 Hamwa-ro, Jocheon-eub, Jeju-si, Jeju (์ ์ฃผ ์ ์ฃผ์ ์กฐ์ฒ์ ํจ์๋ก 513)
- Hours: Thursday – Tuesday: 10:30am ~ 6:00pm
- Note that this cafe doesn’t allow children under 5 to enter.
FAQ
- Can I eat the tangerines on the spot? Yes, most farms allow you to enjoy the fruits of your labor immediately. Though they may tell you to eat just a handful while you snip and measure your haul before consuming the rest.
- Do I need to book in advance? It’s advisable, especially during peak season, to ensure your spot, but not always necessary.
- Can I bring my basket? Policies vary, so check with the orchard beforehand. Some of them tell you that you can fill a specific sized container that they provide while others work on weight.
One of the top activities to enjoy in the fall in Jeju is tangerine picking and you shouldn’t miss it. Get your basket of citrus the next time you visit the Hawaii of Korea so you can take the sweetness home with you.
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