When is the best time to visit Our Mates’ Farm (or Tassie for that matter)?

Well, what are you doing tomorrow?  I say that only half kidding, as Tassie always has something special no matter what time of year.  But if you want to really experience a lot, and get some stable weather (well as stable as it gets), and eat some great food, February-March has to be it.  Now keep in mind I am only a new Tasmanian, and I am probably missing out stacks of stuff true locals will tell me I have missed, but after a year down here this is what I think.

In February-March the fruit is on, depending on when you are here you will get cherries, or nectarines, or early apples, or blueberries or blackberries.  For the most part you will get cool nights, warm days, and empty beaches after the kids have gone back to school.  There may be a bit of rain, but it isn’t wet.  On the downside there are more caravans and campervans on the road plus the occasional fire-ban day/week.  But the temperatures mean you can enjoy a beer in the sun in the afternoon, and a glass of red at night.  And if you get a chilly night, a wood fire.

The Taste of Huon festival is on, and after seeing how big it was last month, the secret is definitely out: The Huon Valley has some of the best food in Tassie.

You also get a bit more of the people.  Kids have gone back to school, the hay is in the shed, and there is a bit more time for them enjoy the late fruits of summer before the autumn rains begin.

So these are my thoughts on when it is best to visit, but in reality any time we get to see our friends and share a cider or two is a special one for us.  Hope to see you soon!

And what we have been up to lately…

A few of “our mates” decided that April is the best time to visit us here in Tassie, so over the course of the month we had:

-          My cousin Dan from Canada

-          Our mates Jane and Jonathan and their two kids

-          Our mate Mark from London

-          My sister Charlene from Queensland

Dan worked his butt off with us on the one day he was here, woodchipping like a demon and filling, then emptying, TWO (!) trailer loads of woodchips.  We hope he brings his gorgeous wife next time as we still haven’t met.  Of course we won’t make her work!

Dan and Tinkerbell (with one of her tiny piglets)

Jane and Jonathan had the kids to tend to, but despite this Jonathan showed off his apple picking chops (it helps that he is like 7 feet tall) helping us pick stacks of apples.  He hardly needed a ladder.  A Sunday session at the Apple Shed (awesome!) really set the tone for these guys.

Matt, Oliver and Jonathan get picking, old school style.

This time with Cor, Jane and Amelia in the pic as well.

Mark threw himself into apple picking as well and worked like a demon, but it was what he brought to Tas that impressed me the most.  Mark makes gin, and not the bathtub-you-are-going-to-go-blind gin, but a gin that destroys anything made commercially by the big boys and stacks up very well against other premium “small batch” stuff too.  Straight up, with tonic, or in cocktails.  Don’t just take my word for it, he is being supported by some of London’s finest cocktail and distillery guys.  Not bad for a former dive instructor from Hay!  It was amazing to see how far his knowledge base has come, and great to see the same “fire in the belly” we have for great food.  And now great gin!

Trying out some of the local fare at the Lark Distillery

A bottle of Mark's 58 Gin, we are keeping one to celebrate building our house

We took time out from picking for Mark and I to go for a paddle and a fish.  The final score was 5-4 to him!

Charlene came for a week and I thought it would be a cool idea for Coreen to take her on a bit of a road trip for a few days, so they headed off together to Hobart (MONA), Port Arthur and Freycinet.  It looks like they had an absolute blast while I was tending the farm.

Choppo (Charlene's nickname, short for Pork chop), meets a real pork chop

The girls enjoy Freycinet

We also had a flying visit from our legendary WWoOFers Scott and Hannah before they left their apple picking work to return to the mainland.  They came in and with their new-found skills picked a few bins in no time as a favour, which we really appreciated.  Of course their flash picking-bags from Calvert Bros may have helped (I have gear-envy), but it was great to see them again.  They truly have set a high benchmark for other WWoOFers to follow!

Scott and Hannah on their flying visit.  Look at those flash picking-bags!

So that is it for now, we will have parents here again soon, but I will try to be a bit more proactive on the updates!

Cheers from your mates on Our Mates’ Farm.

Hard work and help

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog front recently, we have had Scott and Hannah (our first ever WWoOFers) with us, and this has put a bit more pressure on us to work hard with them to really get things ticked off our to-do list.  And with their wonderful help we really smashed it in Feb!  Unfortunately we worked so hard I was always too tired to blog after work…

We are in full swing preparing for new fencing in April, and we have completely removed our back fence and cleared a number of trees from it.  There is still more tree clearing to do, but we know we can do it.  We also cleared out two blocks worth of irrigation and trellis wires and had an excavator come and pull out the apple trees.  One of the blocks will be the site of our new house and the other will be the location of some polytunnels that will allow us to grow vegetables year round.

The house site underway

All the rubbish that was stashed in the farm sheds has been sorted into recyclables and rubbish (one 6 cubic metre skip of rubbish alone!) and the place is looking a great deal tidier.

Burning scrap wood

We picked up some Indian Runner ducks from a friend in Franklin, they are supposed to be great foragers, and decent layers, so we are giving them a whirl in the orchard.  They have settled in nicely, and we hope to start getting eggs from them this winter.  Any boys will get the chop, and despite the runners being a pretty small bird, they are reputed to be pretty tasty.

Moving the Muscovies to accommodate the Indian Runners

We have also bitten the bullet on the ring-barking sheep, and found a great solution where we are able to agist them (let them eat someone else’s grass) year round on a property a few minutes away.  This means that we still have our Wiltshire girls (and ram) on our place, together with (Shish-ka)Bob.  We had a day of sorting and age-tagging all 60 sheep with the kind help of our neighbours Ross and Leanne.  After wrestling sheep in the race in 30-degree heat they probably won’t be so quick to offer to help next time I ask a favour!

Ross holds the girl while we check her teeth to age her

Leading a few of the Wilty girls into their next area

Which brings us to Bob… Due to popular demand, Bob won’t meet the butcher this autumn as we have too many guests coming to meet him and he is very much a people sheep.  But next spring he definitely goes to Disneyland.  Maybe.  I keep reminding myself there is room for sentiment on the farm, but not sentimentality.

Maintaining that tough outlook is made so much harder when you witness the miracle of a cow having a calf, as we did yesterday.  Two new animals added to our herd, we are now waiting on the other three.  Photos to come when I change the battery in the camera(!).

Black cows are hard to photograph...

So Scott and Hannah have left us to go picking apples at Calverts in Waterloo.  You should see the location of the pickers accommodation, right on the Huon.  Million dollar views for the help, amazing stuff.  I really should get some photos to show you all.  The jobs were organised by our new friends down here, and all I can say is that I have never known a community to help one another out like this one does.  It is a real privilege to be a little part of it and we do our best to return the many favours and help we receive.

On the visitor front we had a visit from Paul and Lulu from the UK.  I knew Paul when I was working at Anglo Pacific Group (in fact he was our largest shareholder and an old friend of one of my mentors, Peter Boycott) but meeting them both for a day on the farm, followed by Masaaki’s for lunch was wonderful.  Paul has had some experience with Tasmanian farming, and they manage quite the estate in the UK.  Some of the questions they asked were really perceptive.  We also had a visit by Katie, Kevy and young Madeleine.  It was a great day to show them round the farm and take them to Masaaki’s for lunch.  Are you getting a theme here?  Well, Masaaki is famous for the best sushi in Tasmania, and he just happens to be based in Geeveston, so what more could you want?

Kevy, Katie and Mads with Cor

Mads loved Princess most of all!

The next month promises more visitors and lots of work as we start picking our (few) apples.  Hopefully we will also get cracking on our polytunnel as well.

So that wraps it up.  Let us know when you are coming and we will wash the cows, brush the ducks, comb the sheep, polish the chickens, and book a table at Masaaki’s….

Cor modelling her new "pregnancy" workwear

Just a small taste of our autumn harvest

Letter to stakeholders

Dear stakeholders,

Oh, this isn’t for me you are thinking, they must have copied the wrong thing into their blog.  Well, if you are one of “Our Mates”, then as we see it you have a stake in the farm, so you are our stakeholders.

I haven’t done one of these for a couple of years so please be patient…tongue is firmly in cheek…. OK here we go.

Since starting Our Mates’ Farm in November we have experienced a number of challenges as well as identified a number of potential sources of revenue (and fun) for future years.  The challenges that we have faced have stemmed largely from due diligence questions that were never fully answered in the acquisition process.  The main challenge, and quite frankly, disappointment, of the year to date is that Our Mates’ Farm will not be experiencing a bumper apple crop this year.  As stakeholders I am sure you will be well aware that weather conditions have combined to produce a stellar environment for apple growing, and be expecting great results and lots of work this picking season from us.  Unfortunately the neglected condition of the trees has led them to a biennial production state, and as a result we will miss out on the potential gains that this year’s weather conditions could have provided.  This biennial situation means that with careful orchard management and husbandry next year’s crop has the potential to be phenomenal, as we attempt to return the trees to annual production.  Whether weather conditions and prices will align to yield a profit for the coming year’s expected cropping remains to be seen.

The other challenges that we are facing, and are dealing with on your behalf, are related to infrastructure.  Our repairs to the irrigation pump and system are yielding benefits, and water continues to be supplied to the trees we plan to pick this year and keep for next year.  We have recently installed a large 24,000 litre reservoir tank at the top of the property and will soon connect it to our water infrastructure, allowing us to use the existing pipework to gravity feed water to every corner of the property with the turn of a tap.

The fencing of the property remains a challenge, with fences on all four sides of the property proving porous to wildlife, and occasionally Princess.  We know that adding quality fencing will improve the value of our farm, and we have therefore arranged for new fences to be installed in April.  Clearing the existing, overgrown fence lines is a challenging and time-consuming task, and the installation of new fences will be expensive, however we believe you will see the benefits of the investment when you come for a stakeholder site-visit.

The challenge posed by the sheep situation will soon be resolved, with the surplus assets disposed of and profits reinvested into ongoing activities.  All members of the Wiltshire division will be retained, with the exception of one member who is “looking tasty”.  The decision on whether or not to send kaBob to “Disneyland” is still under discussion and stakeholder opinions on this will be sought closer to the time.

In relation to the potential future revenue streams, we have been in close consultation with our apple customer in relation to identifying which varieties of both eating and cider apple would most align with their future ambitions.  The current plan is to graft up to 3 blocks of trees to desirable eating varieties this winter, and graft a number of trees in the blocks with larger rootstock to cider varieties.  A testing program on the success or otherwise of the cider grafts will determine the rollout of these varieties over the balance of the large rootstock trees over the coming years.  In the meantime efforts will be made to return the trees not being removed to annual production.  A holistic, organic program of pest management is currently being developed.

We have identified a number of potential uses for the trees we are removing, including high-value woodchips, however as commercially-sensitive negotiations are currently underway in this segment we cannot provide further specifics without compromising our first mover competitive advantage.

The livestock business is still in a fledgling stage, with our first lowline Black Angus calves expected in March, and our first litter of piglets expected the same month.  Once trees are removed work will have to be undertaken to level paddocks from their current undulating form which is suited for apple trees.  Until hay production is required this is not a pressing concern.  We have an inventory of 80 bales of hay purchased for spring as an insurance policy against our grass.  This policy had a very low purchase cost.

There are also a number of potential side-businesses that require investigation, including, but not limited to:

-  Egg production (we are waiting on the response of the bureaucrats in relation to the stamping question)

- Market gardening

- Accommodation

- Aquaculture (provided we can figure out how to stop cormorants eating the trout)

Finally, to staffing issues.  We have added two WWOOFers who are proving very useful in helping us tackle our challenges.  They are staying in the guest bedroom and Coreen is doing her best to “feed them up”.  Coreen will be leaving the farm on maternity leave in June, however we look forward to bringing our little one into the fold and getting them working for you all just as soon as we can.

Thank you all for your continued interest in Our Mates’ Farm, and with your ongoing support and assistance we can deal with the challenges we face and make our stewardship a shining example for others to follow.

The trench to connect our water tank to the orchard irrigation

Matt, Scott and Hannah (the WWOOFers) work on getting crushed rock out for the tank base

Tank is in place!

Blackberries are coming on!

New life on the farm

Some time for fishing (but no fish!)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Or Happy Chinese New Year!  It has been a great week with Cor’s parents and Uncle Robert visiting for both Australia Day and Chinese New Year.

On Australia Day we took them on a tour of the farm, and then headed to the Apple Shed to enjoy some great pizza and cider.  If you are down this way, you simply must check it out.  The cider is great (if not the cloudy Somerset style I prefer), the food is outstanding and their display of apple production history is also good.  I would like a bit more on the history of apples coming out of the Huon, but then you would expect that from a Geeveston orchardist!  Still, it is a gem of a place and a wonderful addition to the district.

The Tahune airwalk was also on the list of things to do, and lived up to its billing.  Walking through the wet eucalypt forest, checking out Huon pines and massive eucalyptus trees and then doing it again all at the treetop level was just great.  The swinging bridges were also a fun walk, and it was all topped off by short walks to the Waratah lookout and Arve River falls up the Hartz mountains, where we saw trout!  We learned a bit about our newly adopted home of Geeveston at the Forestry centre, and are now armed with facts sure to bore future visitors to tears.

The junction of the Picton and Huon Rivers

Cor's Dad, Uncle Robert and her mum

We gave them a bit of a food tour, buying farmed salmon direct from the fish farm, in addition to roadside cherries and other stone fruits, but this was just the entrée to the main course… the food that was to come with the resumption of our annual Chinese New Year barbecue.

Chinese New Year was always a great event for us in London and a great reason to get our friends together.  We had missed it while we were travelling and were determined to make up for it now that we had a house, not to mention a new home.  We couldn’t invite everyone we wanted to, as our place is pretty small, but we did OK.  Matthew and Sadie brought Hedley, Ross and Leanne brought Cooper, and James and Samara brought Will and Molly for a bit of a barbecue and Chinese feast.  We had the New Year yeesang salad, chicken and pork buns, pork ribs, BBQ duck and ox-tail stew, finished off with coconut jelly and fruit for dessert.  It was a great feast everyone seemed to enjoy, especially Cor’s parents who got to meet some of the people helping us to settle into our new life in Tasmania.

Uncle Robert went back to Sydney with some fertilised chicken eggs from one of our local chicken gurus, and Cor’s parents have now flown to New Zealand to spend time with Casey and the family over there.  We are moving on, with our first WWoOFers due to arrive today, and a new chapter beginning as things really ramp up on the farm.

So we wish you a wonderful Year of the Horse, and hope it is the year you make it a bit closer to your own good life (even if that just entails paying us a visit)!

 Some more photos of the week....

Princess sleeps through the preparations...

Samara jokes about her chopsticks

It has been hot enough for swimming....

... and the pigs need cooling off too!

Old MacDonald's Farm.... in progress.

So as usual when we update our blog, lots has been happening.  However, to avoid boring you, there are two ways to read today’s blog.  Actually, there are always two ways to read it.  You can skim the pictures and get a general picture of what we have been up to and a recent day in our lives, or you can read the boring prose.  I know which one I would do if I were you…. but then maybe you haven’t had your monthly dose of “farming life” and need to top up!

So we have been busy fitting into Geeveston life.  We have had sushi at the famous Masaaki’s (who it turns out used to live in the house we are renting), we have made friends with our neighbours and the people behind the wonderful Geeveston Roadhouse, James and Samara, we went to a charity bingo night at the local services club (which I have joined) for young Will, watched a woodchopping championship, and went to the Cygnet release of Matthew Evan’s latest book.

Sadie and I submitted the egg petition to Parliament.  The response from the politicians was all very placatory, however the draft legislation that has since been released is nothing short of nonsense.  I guess it will take a pelting of rotten eggs to wake these pencil pushers up, so stay tuned for my next blog post from prison.

On the farm front when last we spoke we had 14 Wiltshire horn sheep.  Well Matthew put us in touch with a lady who was giving away 8 Wiltshires, including a ram.  Comedy ensued getting them in the trailer, however lucky for us there was no camera crew around.  They settled in quickly and we thought we were all done on the sheep front.  Until we spoke to our neighbour.  He has been grazing his 55 sheep in our orchard for the past few years and we thought that after we took it over he would simply send them to the saleyard and keep a few as “lawnmowers”.  Instead his response was to offer them all to us!  The price?  All he wants is for us to give him a couple lambs every Christmas.  Not a bad deal, but now we have 22 Wilties, 55 mixed breed sheep, and Bob, who probably can’t believe the amount of company he has now.  Do you like how I said that?  Almost as if we didn’t spend the morning with 5 people running about the orchard like idiots trying the herd the 55 into the same paddock as the Wilties, and failing.  The job is done now (with lots of pratfalls and swearing), we will have a few of them butchered this week so we will have a fully stocked freezer come Christmas.

In a vain effort to get our grass growth under control, we also got 5 cows.  Despite our hankering for hairy Highland cows, Matthew and Sadie had 5 pregnant “lowline” Angus cows that they wanted to move on as part of their ambition to move towards a more dairy-focused herd, and that made the decision-making process easy for us.  As an added bonus they are trained to electric wire for strip grazing and they now have settled into a routine of daily morning moves to a fresh salad bar.

One of the cows flew over the fence the first night, we still don't know how...

But the new animals don’t stop there!!  We have also agreed to be the retirement site of choice for a couple of Matthew and Sadie’s old Wessex Saddleback pigs, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.  We hope to get a litter or two from them while they spend their later years exploring and rooting up part of the old orchard.  They have already caught the imagination of both the neighbours and the local kids, as pigs are wont to do.

We also bought 5 Muscovy ducks from a friend up the highway, 4 girls and a drake.  They have settled on our dam and are coming up every morning for their grain breakfast.  To add to our little chick flock we also bought half a dozen Plymouth Rock chicks from Ross on Bruny Island, taking us up to 11 little cheepers who now running about a little fenced area at the farm.

And finally, we are now open for WWoOFers of our own!  We have joined WWoOF and are hoping to have an extra couple pairs of hands helping us out and sharing our great food as soon as we can.  Want to volunteer?  Your room is ready, step this way…

Luxury indeed!

OK, now that that is all over, here is a recent day in our life on Our Mates’ Farm.

Open up the chicken house

Walk the dog

Feed the pigs

Feed the ducks

Check on the vegetable garden

Top up the water for the cows

Hook up new electric fence

Move the ladies onto the new salad bar

Brushcut a line for sheep electric mesh

Move them in

 

Phew, time for a cuppa and morning tea

Some of Cor's home-baked treats

 

Back to work: fixing irrigation, cleaning off water shoots and thinning some apples

But we do get some time to go fishing occasionally!

Until you arrive to take possession of our guest room, stay tuned for more of the Good Life!