She misses out on tasting the cherries but Gillian Vine still gets excited by an English fruit collection.
It's a fruit-lover's dream - 550 varieties of cherries, plums, apricots, apples, pears, currants, gooseberries, medlars, quinces and grapes packed into 60ha of beautiful Kent countryside.
The downside is that at the beginning of June, the cherries are hard green marbles and the other fruit will not be ripe for months. Perhaps I could return to Brogdale later, cherry specialist Jonathan Fryer suggests.
A bit tricky, I explain, handing him my Otago Daily Times card.
''Dunedin,'' he exclaims.
''I've been there for the cricket. Do you know Iain Gallaway?''
When I say yes, the success of my visit to the Government-owned research centre is guaranteed.
Brogdale Farm is the home of England's National Fruit Collection, one of the largest fruit collections in the world with 3500 trees. Near the pretty town of Faversham, Brogdale was established in 1952 and first opened to the public in 1990. Each variety has to be one commonly grown in Kent, although some - notably the perry pears and cider apples - were sourced elsewhere.
What could be called modern fruit-growing started in Kent in Tudor times and it remains England's main fruit-growing county, although acreage has dropped to a fifth of what it was 50 years ago.
Brogdale's trees are grown as part of an international programme to protect plant genetic diversity for the future and the University of Reading is responsible for the maintenance of the collection.
''Education's obviously very important to us ...
and lots of kids visit,'' Mr Fryer says, as a school group chatters past us.
It is not just for youngsters; part of the educative process is a fruit variety identification service and advice on such things as pruning and pest control.
Many of the varieties at Brogdale are unfamiliar to me, so Mr Fryer kindly leads me to a Cox's Orange Pippin tree sourced in Otago.
Then we move on to the cider apples. Because cider is not my tipple and I have never even tasted its pear equivalent, perry, I'm astonished so many varieties have been developed just for these drinks.
Cider apples and perry pears are varieties especially selected for making the drinks. Since ancient times, apples and pears have been crushed and fermented into cider and perry, using sharp, astringent varieties of each fruit.
Their popularity was such that it is thought that, until the 19th century, more apples were used for cider making than for eating fresh. Cider and perry are also distilled to make spirits - Calvados cider in Normandy, Somerset cider brandy and Poire William from perry.
Brogdale has 95 cider apple varieties, mainly from the West Country (Somerset, Devon, Hertfordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire) and France, plus 20 perry pear varieties from the West Country and Europe. The collection was planted in 1991 and the trees are grown on quince rootstocks, which keeps them to a more manageable size.
One of the shops at Brogdale has some delicious-sounding alcoholic drinks, including sloe gin, but given a choice, I would go for fresh cherries or - better still - gooseberries, of which Brogdale has an enviable collection.
I would pass on the familiar Invicta, developed in Kent and named for the county motto, ''Unconquered'', and opt to try Golden Drop. Apparently, this was a favourite of the Queen Mother and, when they were ripe, Brogdale's Golden Drops were sent to her at the Castle of Mey, in Caithness, Scotland.
What happens to them now, I inquire.
''I eat them,'' Mr Fryer says.
Getting there
• Brogdale Farm, Brogdale Rd, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8XZ is off the M2 motorway, near the town of Faversham.
• Trains from London's Victoria Station stop at Faversham and it is about a half-hour walk from the town to Brogdale.
• Brogdale is open November to Easter 10am-4.30pm daily; and from Easter to the end of October 10am-5pm daily, with guided tours available at set times and fruit-related festivals during the summer and autumn.
• Admission for adults is 10 ($NZ20), children under 16 5.50 and families 25.
