On the Stall today we have:
Sundrop Apricots – 1st Grade Boxes 7kg for $21 and 2nd Grade Boxes 5kg for $12. They are at the perfect stage for bottling right now.

Earli Ril Apricots – 2nd Grade Boxes 5kg for $10. Great for jams, sauce, etc

Duffs Early Jewel Plums – 2kg bags for $5. They are perfect for eating and kids just love them.

Happy New Years folks!

We have the first Sundrops of the season available in limited quantities on the Stall in 5kg bags for $15 and in 2nds boxes (5kg for $12)
We still have Earli Ril available in 2nds boxes (5kg for $10).

We also have a good supply of Duffs Early Jewel Plums in 2kg bags for $5.
Duffs Early Jewel are a lovely eating and dessert plum and kids love them!

The fruit season is starting to pick up speed now thanks to a couple of hot days.
On the Stall we have:

Earli Ril Apricots (2nd Grade) – 5kg boxes for $10

Cander Peaches – 3.5kg boxes for $10

Duffs Early Jewel Plums – 2kg bags for $5

New Spuds – 2kg for $5
Mum hasn’t got time to sort out the 1st and 2nd Grade Earli Ril so they are now being sold as 2nd Grade in 5kg boxes for only $10!
That’s a bargain!

We should have Sundrop Apricots on the Stall later in the week and at this stage we’re pretty confident that PYO Sundrop will start next weekend (4th and 5th of January)

Will keep you updated!

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  

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 7^th and the 10^th  January.

Will keep you updated!

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

Sundrop Buds Almost Ready to Pop!

I hate unseasonal weather!
Especially when that unseasonal weather is warm weather in late July that causes the buds on the trees to move!

That’s right folks, thanks to a couple of weeks of warm weather here in Roxburgh the buds are getting set to burst.
Needless to say I’m not very impressed.
If the weather keeps up the way it has been then we could have blossoms on the Apricot trees within the next week!

So in between pruning, mulching and other winter maintenance I’ve been running around getting the frost fighting system all good to go.
This involves checking sprinklers, flushing lines, cleaning out filters, getting the tractor and pump serviced, doing a full test run, etc.
Thankfully I’ve had the assistance of my 2IC (Ruby) so things have been going smoothly!
Ruby may be small but she’s certainly a little worker!

On the pruning front I’ve been making steady progress.
At this stage I hope to finished the stone fruit in around 2 weeks and then I’ll be into the pip fruit.
That’s the thing about pruning, it’s all about finding the perfect balance of speed and quality.
You can go really fast but end up doing a substandard job. Likewise you can go the other way and over analyse every cut and end up moving down the row at a snail’s pace.
Once you can move along at a good pace but still be doing a good job then you’re away laughing.

We have finished our Bon Chretian Pears for the Season.

We have just started our Coxes Orange Apples. They are available on the Stall in 5kg ($5) or 10kg ($10) bags.
They are a wonderful cooking Apple and are absolutely delicious when eaten fresh.

We also have Red Doris Plums available on the Stall in 2kg bags for $5.
They are a sweet little yellow flesh eating Plum and are very popular with children.

At the moment it looks like the Black Doris will be atleast another week ( or possibly two weeks away) until they are ripe and ready to go.
We need some nice consistent hot days to get them to move along!!

Red Doris will be ready in the next day or two and are a delicious red skinned, yellow fleshed Plum. Mainly for eating but lots of people bottle them as well.

We still have loads of yummy Purple King plums available on the Stall in 2kg bags for $5.
They are an absolutely delicious, multi-purpose plum!

We also still have heaps of Bon Chretian Pears available in 5kg bags for $5 and 10kg bags for $10

Yes folks we have a truckload of Pears!!!
So if you’re in the mood for some good old fashioned Bon Chretian Pears we have them available in 10kg bags for $10 and 5kg bags for $5.

We also have some Black Amber Plums still available on the Stall but we expect to sell out of them very quickly.

The Black Doris and Red Doris are still about 5 days away and the Omegas 2 weeks away.