Hallabong Girl: Orange Picking in Jeju
Part of my Jeju series.
For Spring Break, I traveled to Jeju Island off the coast of Korea.
Short disclaimer: traveling around Korea right now is acceptable and safe, and I got complete permission from my school (in fact, they were confused why I even asked…).
We knew when we planned our trip we wanted to pick tangerines and oranges. November-February is prime orange season in Korea, and there’s a couple of great orange-picking orchards around Jeju.
We chose the one closest to us in Jeju-si, but there’s also:
Odeung Gamgyul Orange Farm 오등 감귤농장
Hyosung farm Hallabong Experience Farm 효성농원 한라봉체험농장
Baengnokdam Farm 백록담제
So, double-masked, social-distanced, and covered in sanitizer, we headed out bright and early to Gyulhyanggi Experience Farm 체험농장 귤향기.
Upon arriving, we paid 10,000 won. This includes the orange picking experiences, plus gloves and up to 1kg of whatever we picked.
After we put our stuff in lockers, we donned our pickin’ gloves and followed the farm’s ahjossi (older man) to the green house.
Inside, he showed us how to clip the hallabong fruits from their stems, and set us loose. We had as much time as we wanted to walk around, take pictures, and of course, stuff our faces with citrus.
We spent probably an hour or so carefully collecting oranges. After grabbing a few, we took off our gloves and peeled them.
They had small mandarins and tangerines. The hallabongs, which are Jeju’s special tangerine-orange crossbreed, were especially cold and delicious.
After we got our full of oranges, we collected the rest and headed back outside. The outside orchards had several other kinds of oranges, some so small they were the size of cherry tomatoes.
While getting some sun, we spotted several puppies running around. They weren’t interested in getting any love, though (probably cause they get so much attention from tourists).
We went back to the office and weighed our oranges. My friend and I had stacked our buckets and we paid about 7,000 won for a second kg. They also gave us orange tea and fresh jam and crackers to try.
I can’t speak to the other farms around Jeju but I thought this was a fun experience, so I’d recommend!
Thanks for reading.