Our History
Ashton Valley Fresh came to life in 2008,
but our family's history in produce goes back much further.
The Migration
In 1950 our great grandfather, Antonio Ceravolo, moved from Calabria, Italy,
to the Adelaide Hills. He rented a house in Uraidla and began working on the Nicol's family orchard.
He was joined a few years later by his wife, Maria, and his first five children: Ralph, Francie, Connie, Joe and Joyce. They were soon followed by Phyllis, Rosie, Mary and Grace who were born here in Australia.
Valle di Sant’Antonio
By 1957 the family were able to purchase their own property in Ashton, known today as Valle di Sant’Antonio. The heart of our family business is still nestled there today.
Our humble beginnings were in market gardening. The whole family helped to grow anything from potatoes, onions, cauliflowers and cabbages to planting our first apple trees.
Planting the seed...
In 1978 Antonio’s first son, Ralph, and his wife, Josephine, bought a property down the road from the first family farm. They began filling it, as well as the original farm, with apple, cherry and nectarine trees and grew vegetables in between the rows.
Once we began selling the fruit from these trees we realised we were onto something, and soon the market garden was taken over with our focus now on pome fruit and cherries.
Ceravolo Orchards
1982 saw the third generation of Ceravolos enter the family business when Ralph’s oldest son, Tony, began working on the land. His younger brother Joe joined him and Ralph on the orchard a decade later.
Their addition to the company brought about a rapid growth and expansion as well as improvements to the Ashton site.
From our family to yours
Today Ceravolo Orchards is run by Tony and Joe along with their respective wives, Sandra and Anna. The orchards now span over 300 hectares and consist of 7 orchards across the Adelaide Hills.
The company have continued to diversify. Ceravolo Orchards now grow more than 10 varieties of apples, 4 different pears, 30 varieties of cherries, nectarines, and own a strawberry field in Myponga.
Ashton Valley Fresh
Our juicing business was concieved from a great need we identified in local industry. We realised that our business, and other local orchards in S.A., were having to sell our apples interstate for juicing at a fraction of their worth.
This was an opportunity to expand our family’s portfolio. So in 2008, with no customers on our books, we produced our first retail batch of juice to see if we could find a market for it.
From blossom to bottle
This is where Ashton Valley Fresh began its juicy journey to where it stands today. From 2013 the fourth generation of Ceravolos jumped on the apple cart with Tony’s children, Joyce and Joseph, being handed the reigns at Ashton Valley Fresh.
We pride ourselves on being leaders within the industry and boast a state of the art juicing facility with a core focus on sustainability.
We specialise in servicing the wholesale fresh cider and drinking juice market. We also have an extensive specialist range of retail products that represent the highest quality fruit juice on the market.
