Fruit coming into peak harvest can be pilgrimage-worthy in the regions that grow it best. For those who want to be in the middle of the action, these countryside hotels put the season’s freshest fruit—apricots, apples, and olives—at arm’s reach.
LessPuglia, for Olives. 175 acres of olive trees—many nearly 1,000 years old—surround the dwellings at Masseria il Frantoio in the Salento region of Puglia. The trees’ gnarled and imposing trunks “seem carved by the expert hand of some local artist,'' according to the hotel, which each year harvests the fruit using organic methods and produces four different extra-virgin olive oils. The property has been an active farm for five centuries, and today is a classic southern Italian guest house as well.
Puglia, for More Olives. Due south, in the Baroque province of Lecce, the land is covered with more of the 60 million olive trees that grow in Puglia. Use one of the nine crisp, contemporary rooms at Palazzo Daniele, an art house in an aristocratic 1861 palazzo, as a base to explore. Trees both old and young fill the groves of countless olive oil producers nearby, many of whom are in a quest to save their precious groves from a blight called Xylella. Now is the time to see and support them.
Austria, for Apricots. The Wachau Valley produces some of the world’s most flavorful apricots. Around the bends of the Danube river, bordering castles and villages, terraces of saturated green are washed with cascading pink & white blooms in late March, when the region’s 100,000 apricot trees begin to blossom. The show is especially dramatic in the Rossatz-Arnsdorf. Perch across the river at Hotel Schloss Dürnstein, a Relais & Château built into a castle from the 1600s, for incredible views.
Tasmania, for Berries. Some of the world’s best blueberries, cherries, and raspberries emerge across Tasmania in December and juicy blackberries follow in January. Since the early 1800s, small family farms have operated along the banks of the Tamar River around Launceston. At Stillwater Seven, a sister hotel to a restaurant that came before it, it's less than three minutes’ ride to a thriving hub of farms, farmers and local cooks and chefs called the Harvest Launceston Community Farmers’ Market.
India for Mangoes. Mango is India’s national fruit, and a dizzying swirl of smells, colors, and sizes are stacked high in markets from April through summer. The petite, juicy, golden variety known as Alphonso is grown largely in western India’s Maharashtra region. On the Konkan Coast, Coco Shambhala’s four private beach villas, surrounded by wild tropical gardens and sandy coast, are close to the growing plains. Eat the fruit on its own, or find it in local markets in candies, pickles & paratha.
England, for Apples. Dotted with small farmlands, moors, stone houses, and barns, Somerset, in the country's southwest, has fostered apple trees for centuries. At The Newt, a Georgian-style limestone estate, the property is lush with pristinely tended gardens. This includes vast swaths of apple orchards containing nearly 300 varieties of the fruit interplanted with chives, rosemary, and thyme. Explore from the walled Parabola garden area, edged by a winding Baroque-style maze of apple trees.
New York, for Apples. Closer to the Hudson River, the Hasbrouck House—a restored 18th century Dutch Colonial mansion with 25 rooms—will put you in proximity to several U-pick farms (Saunderskill, Stoneridge) as well as Westwind Orchard, the first organic apple orchard in upstate New York. There, 32 acres of fruit grown holistically are used and sold exclusively in their own ciders, jams, and wood-fired restaurant dishes.