When last I had a moment to write
an entry for this blog, we were starting two straight months of hectic
activity, both on the farm front and the personal front. Well we have now welcomed Rachel Li Qi into
our little family, and the apples have been harvested. While we have both been reasonably active on
social media, like Instagram and Facebook, I thought it was time for a quick
recap for our blog readers.
First, the apples, and we had a
better harvest this year. We picked fewer
bins of apples overall, however the bins we did pick were of a higher quality. We had a great group of pickers, and they
responded to our requirements for clean fruit marvellously. Particular thanks is owed to Kerrin, Sommer
and Gemma. The best fruit we picked has
yet to be packed, and is currently in controlled atmosphere cool storage. We have high hopes that when it is packed it
will yield us a good return for our year’s efforts, however we won’t really know
until it happens.
 |
| Picking underway! |
 |
| Some beautiful Galas this year |
And therein lies the rub for most apple
growers. You pick your fruit, put it in
storage, but you don’t know how much money you will make until it is sold,
which could be 8 to 10 months from picking.
Which means you could be just about to pick your next crop before you get
paid for your last one. It certainly
makes cash flow management a challenge.
Of course the situation is worse for dairy farmers, who may be asked to
pay back part of what they have already been paid if the processor doesn’t
realise the profit that they hope to, but it is a challenging prospect nonetheless. I wonder at what point the risk in the whole
food chain got pushed back down to farmers?
Was it sudden or was it a gradual process? Surely if the big supermarkets want apples
they should buy them and then pay to store them until they can sell them right? At what point did farmers say, “yes, we will
store them for you and bear the risks in case you change your mind or reduce your
price down the line”? We are lucky that Willie
Smiths recognises this and helps us manage these cashflow challenges, and we do
grow some apples for juice and cider which provides a short term cash return. However perhaps it will give you something to
think about when you are next buying fruit or milk!
 |
| Picking during some of the nicest days of the year |
 |
Some of our cider apples destined for Willie Smiths
 |
| The last load of the apple season leaves the farm |
|
In other farm news, we have
finished 12 pigs and taken them to the abattoir, with another 7 to go. The first group were disappointing in average
weight, however the second group a fortnight later were significantly
better. Perhaps it was the additional
apples we fed them in the interim, or it could be that some of the first group
were from the youngest litter?
 |
| They love apples! |
We were also very grateful to
receive a loan of Neil’s awesome apple mill and juice press, which enabled us
to press almost 240 litres of our own apple juice, for making into cider. We used a few cider apples as well and it
will be interesting to see how our cider experiments come out. It gives me even more motivation to grow
great cider apples when I imagine how good the cider they make could eventually
be. Now just to wait 6 months for the
fermentation to finish…
 |
| Pressing juice for home cider experimentation! |
More capital was invested into the
business this autumn, in the form of a second hand forklift (which we really
needed after last year’s hiring debacle) and a coolroom to allow us to store some
of our own apples here on the farm for farmgate and market sales. The farmgate stall did quite well before the recent
bout of cooler rainy weather arrived, and tourist traffic up Arve Road slowed
somewhat. I only regret that I didn’t
build it and get it out there sooner! As
is so often the case, I had a perfect ideal of what I wanted the stall to look
like and where I wanted it to be in my mind, and this got in the way of actually
getting started. The signs that Suzy
sent us look great and I am happy we have taken the first step.
 |
| The new forklift |
 |
| Bringing in the cool room |
 |
| Grading apples by hand for the stall |
 |
| The farmgate stall |
We have also been upskilling a
little, with this coming Saturday being the final day in the NRMSouth small
farm planning workshop series. It has been
a great course, given us lots of food for thought, and I would highly recommend
it to anyone with a bit of land trying to maximise their results from it.
 |
| Gerard at one of the NRM South small farm planning workshops |
The presence of our parents as
baby sitters has also allowed us to attend a few social gatherings as well as host a few of our own. We have been luck enough to go to the launch of Willie Smiths’ new still, Matthew Evans’ 50th
birthday, and Ruth and Darren’s end of season party. Hopefully there will be many more of these to
get us through those long winter nights.
 |
| Pig on a spit for Chinese New Year |
 |
| Matthew's awesome birthday cake by Michelle, delicious! |
 |
| The beginning of "bottling season" back in February, it has only just finished! |
And finally, of course the most
important news, Rachel’s arrival. I have
been running around telling everyone who will listen the story, so I may as
well share it here. I was at the NRM
South workshop for the day, and when I came home afterwards Coreen casually mentioned
that we should perhaps head to the hospital soon. I asked if I had time for a shower, and I was
told that was fine, and then Cor had a shower too. However when she asked her Dad if we had time to
stay for dinner (her mum was cooking Hainanese chicken rice, a favourite), he
lost patience with our cavalier attitudes and told us to hurry up and get to
the hospital! Lucky he did too, because
when we got there I found out that Coreen had been having contractions since
the morning (!), when she was moving the cows (!!), and that she wanted to get
the jobs done first (she is a farm girl this one!). And of course, within a couple of hours of us arriving
at the hospital little Rachel joined us.
She had a full head of hair (as usual) and was a couple ounces heavier
than Julian was, at 8lbs 6oz. She has
settled into life well, and Julian is being a great big brother. Having Cor’s parents here to help at first
and then my Mum after that was fantastic, and gave us time to adapt to the new routine
with our little one.
 |
| Rachel Li Qi Tack |
So that is it from us for
now. I hope to have more time to blog as
autumn’s rains set in, but until then stay tuned to Our Mates’ Farm on Facebook
and Instagram. Check out the pics below for more family photos. WARNING: photos of kids and family, look away now if this sort of thing offends you!
 |
| Julian comes face to face with another Tasmanian devil |
 |
| He is a tough apple critic |
 |
| Showing Aunty Bee and her friends around the farm |
 |
| Lovely family photo |
 |
| The little fella supervising |
 |
| Our little terrors |
