Rain
The rain hammered the living daylights out of the Cherries the other day.
We had around 40mm in 12 hrs so a large amount of our Stella crop has been obliterated!
We do have some later varieties coming ripe over the next week so we will still have Cherries on the Stall, just not in the quantity that we have been having!
On a another note the Apricots are colouring up nicely so we expect to start having them on the Stall early in the New Year.
The first variety is Earli Rill with Sundrop starting a few days afterwards.
The start date for PYO looks somewhere between the 7th and the 10th of Jan at this stage.
Will keep you posted!
Right now on the Stall we have:
New Spuds: 2kg for $5
Cherries: 1kg bags for $8
Flat Out!
Red Delicious Apple in its infancy.
The early cherries being earlier than usual this season have certainly put me a bit behind with the thinning of the apples but our friend Jasna and I have finally caught up (thankfully!).
So these days I can either be found moving irrigation pipes, picking cherries or thinning apples, should anybody feel the need to locate me as it looks like I won’t be escaping the Orchard for another few months!
Doesn’t worry me though! I haven’t escaped for over a month now but I’ve got Mum running errands to for me in town.
She doesn’t mind. In fact she enjoys it!
I always reckoned she should have been a delivery driver!!!
On the Fruit front we’re well through the Dawson Cherries with Stella coming on shortly.
The Earli Ril and Sundrop Apricots are still about 2 weeks away as are the Wilson’s Early Plums.
Will keep you updated!
Fruit Update
With the holidays upon us, remember to pack your togs for a splash at Pinders Pond after picking your own fruit or purchasing off the Fruit Stall.
Pinders is only 2 km down the road from us and even has a toilet these days.
No more ducking into the bushes!
Dawson cherries are now available on our Stall along with new spuds.
The cherries are in 1kg bags for $8.00 and the new spuds are 2kg for $5.00
Ruby also has a selection of grasses and herb plants for sale.
There is a great PYO cherry place in town should anybody want to pick their own.
Our apricots will be ready for PYO hopefully by about the 7th of January and from then on there will be fruit coming on at a fast rate.
Check our blog for daily updates or give us a ring.
And if you want to picnic in the Orchard, feel free to bring along your blanket and deck chairs as there are plenty of trees to shade under!
You are welcome to wander through our tranquil gardens also.
During the Fruit Season the weeds get away on us so it can look a wee bit like a jungle at times but still ever so peaceful.
There is a selection of places in town to buy your ice creams, pies, take-aways, sit down meals, etc.
And do check out 103 The Store.
You will not be disappointed!
If you are caught short in town, the Roxburgh Loo Ladies have done us proud. Lovely modern facilities with a living grass wall and a magnificent sculpture created by Bill and Michelle Clarke adorning the entrance.
The new cycle track is also very popular, especially with families biking down to Pinders Pond or further afield.
And if you want to make a weekend of it the accommodation offered in our Valley is of an excellent standard.
If it’s a Contemporary Studio Room, Backpackers, Cabin, Motel Unit, Motor Home site, this Valley has it all!
This is Mums 23rd Fruit Season and Ruby and I have been fortunate to have spent our whole lives growing up in this wonderful area.
Dawson Cherries Almost Ready
Life is full on here as we prepare for another busy Fruit Season!
At present we only have new spuds (2kg for $5) on the Stall along with grasses and herb plants.
The first pick of Dawson cherries will be in a day or two so they will be on the Stall this weekend.
We will be selling them in 1kg bags for $8.00
They are early this year which is a nuisance but as long as the rain keeps away we will still have them until after Xmas.
Plus there are other great cherries coming on after the Dawsons like our lovely Stellas and Lapins.
On the Apricot front it’s hard at the moment to pin point a PYO start date but at this stage it looks like between the 7th and the 10th January.
Will keep you updated!
Freight Charges For This Season
Just letting all you folks know that I have updated the freight charges for the 2013-2014 fruit season.
You can find them here:
http://www.hobbsorchard.co.nz/freightcharges.html
Speaking of freight, now’s the perfect time to place your Apricot orders.
Just flick us an email and we’ll take your order and dispatch your fruit as soon as it is ripe enough.
It’s much easier to sort it out now rather than waiting until the last minute and having to quickly figure out exactly what you need!!
More info here:
http://www.hobbsorchard.co.nz/fruitorders.html
I Despise Starlings!
This is what the Starlings do to any cherry that pokes outside the netting!!
I despise Starlings.
No not because they nest in my tractor motors or make a mess in my sheds.
I despise them purely for the fact that they can destroy a nice crop of Cherries faster than you can butter your toast.
We recently completed the annual task of putting up the cherry netting and even though this works to stop them decimating the entire crop, they still try their best.
I’ve personally witnessed Starlings find a small hole in the netting and then use their sharp beaks to make it big enough to fit them and their kin folk through!
The past two years in particular have been extremely bad (last cherry season alone I shot around 200 hundred!!).
But this year I have a secret weapon named Big Bertha.
Big Bertha is my recently acquired bird cannon who I will be deploying into active duty today.
This should help keep the Starlings off the nets and away from my Cherries!!
Big Bertha
Thinning Time
Before Thinning
After Thinning
Right now I’m flat out thinning the Apricots.
It takes a lot of careful planning and thought to be a thinner.
A degree in horticulture helps as one must think of all the crap they learnt as they are driven to boredom whilst slowly and methodically thinning the fruit so that you end up with Apricots bigger than your thumbnail.
Banjo music on an MP3 player tends to help relieve the boredom. You wouldn’t want any slow music as believe me, the day already moves slow enough.
I once had a friend who thought that coming out thinning with me would be a great experience and said I was being malodramatic when I told him how boring it was.
He lasted an entire half hour before running screaming from the trees and straight for house to beg my mother to give him a job in the garden.
Weeding with Mum and Ruby was apparently much more exhilarating. Who knew?
More Frost Fighting Action
Right now we’re having a run of nasty frosts.
I’ve been frost fighting for the past two nights and the forecast is saying frosts for the next three nights.
Good times folks!
Anyway on a lighter note, I took this video yesterday morning of the some of the sprinklers in action up the north end of the Orchard.
Check it out.
A Frosty Start
We had a nasty wee frost last night.
The temperature dropped steadily from dusk onwards so I was out on patrol from 8pm until 11:45pm when the temp hit -1c and I cranked up the pump.
It ended up getting down to -3c and I didn’t shut down until 9:35am.
It was a long night!!
Here’s some frost fighting photos for you guys to enjoy.
Check out my FLICKR page for heaps more.
Bees: A Love/Hate Relationship
Bees play a vital role in fruit production.
The problem is that they only work on their terms.
When the weather is good they work away nicely.
And then the weather gets cold and/or wet and they decide to stay in their hives and sing folk songs all day long.
Thankfully we are having some decent weather at the moment so the bees have put away their guitars and are buzzing around the blossoms.
Long may it last!