The top orchard.

Ten years ago we bought this farm off a guy called Tom and his wife Lois. When Tom and Lois first moved here about 15 years before that, they hadn't been too sure of what to do with this place, so Tom made an orchard up near the house and planted one of every fruit tree he thought might do well and then watched them to see what would happen.

He planted a few varieties of plum, lots of different apples, some pears, a quince, cherries, apricots, lemons, mulberries and peaches.

After a few years he saw that this area is not suitable for growing peaches and apricots and lemons because it gets too cold but he also saw that the apples thrived.

So Tom set about planting an apple orchard and while they lived here he grew and sold certified organic apples.

In the ten years since we have been here we have planted about five hundred more apple trees and lots of other fruit trees too. These apples are the working apples. The farm fruit trees. But the top orchard is a bit like the home orchard. It doesn't always get as well maintained as the other orchards and often the fruit doesn't look as good and the birds and kangaroos get a lot but its always worth a walk through in Autumn to see what's around.

Today we found lots and lots of apples. Most are spotty and starchy still but we'll keep checking them now and pick them as they ripen.

We picked the last of the plums, including this love heart one.

A crate of quinces.

A crate of Pepper.

Jazzy upside down fruit.

And loads and loads of pears.

Its been a horrible year for the farm apples with the humidity and mould, but somehow these fruit trees on the top of the hill haven't done too badly. I'm not going to question why, I'm just going to enjoy them.

Have a wonderful week.

Buzzy bees!

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The blossom in our orchards is out, but the forecast for the next week's weather isn't great. It looks like today will be THE POLLINATION DAY.

Bees like still, warm weather.

Look at what a wonderful job that bee is doing. It is amazing that he be able to fly with all that pollen on his legs?

Go bees go! Pollinate the orchard, make lots of fruit for this season.

And thank you for the wondrous, important work that you do.

Ducklings & Chicks

Last Wednesday Bren brought home 300 day-old chicks and 25 day-old ducklings.

The chicks are made up of three different varieties. The whites are Leghorn cross New Hampshires, the blacks are Australorp cross New Hampshires, and the browns are Gingerhams. The ducklings are Khaki Campbells.

We have had never had ducklings before and are all absolutely taken with them.

When we brought home our last batch of chicks in July they were very sleepy for a few days and stayed huddled together, some barely opening their eyes. This time the weather was a bit warmer and they were quick to jump out of their boxes and explore their new surroundings.

Some even jumped off the side of the brooder, ready to take on the big wide world.

Did you see the Discover Daylesford exerpt in yesterday's The Age newspaper?

On page 12 there is an article about local producers.

And page 13 has a big picture of our betroot.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Quack quack.

Designing a logo.

We are working with a graphic designer on our branding and logo.

It is such an interesting process to try to get across to a third party who we are and what we represent, as well as who we want to appeal to.

When we first created Daylesford Organics it was an apple farm. We called ourselves apple farmers and I appliqued us apple T-shirts to wear to market.

Due to draught conditions it soon became obvious that we would have to diversify. Mixed farming (biodiversity) soon became an important part of our ideology.

A biodynamic egg farm up the road was closing down and we saw the gap in the market and overnight went from being backyard chook keepers to having a flock of up to one thousand.

At that stage the majority of our income came from the eggs.

And then over time the vegies started to take the spotlight.

How will we ever be able to get all this across in a picture and a few words?

We've chosen a wonderful designer, gone into great detail with her about us, our farm, our vision and our likes and dislikes. We've discussed the personalities of different fonts and different colours and now we have to walk away and leave her to it.

I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Apple Cider.

This week we've been making apple cider.

In our new orchard we have planted 2 rows of specific heritage cider variety apples. These trees will be 5 years old and ready to fruit next autumn.

In the meantime, every winter we make apple cider from the ugly, unsellable fruit.

We are not really set up with all the equipment for cider making so each year when the time comes around, we try and invent new ways to better last year's experience.

This year we have been using the garden mulcher to pulp the apples.

I wasn't there when they first filled it up and turned it on but I saw the aftermath of apple dripping from the roof and in beards and eyelashes.

Once pulped, the fruit is then poured into this old wine press, a lever is wound, the fruit is pressed and the juice pours out the bottom.

The pulp is finer this year than other years which means we are getting more juice but also that it is coming out the sides of the press.

Next year we'll line the barrel with shade cloth before we pour in the fruit.

Yeast was added to the juice to start the fermentation process and now these drums will gurgle and hang out inside our warm house for the next month or so.

We could really have used the final product to warm our insides today when it is 4 degrees at 1pm.

In other news: we had a film crew from Channel Ten's 9am with david & kim's program here last Tuesday. Some of the footage they took will be shown on next Monday's program.

I'll post the link to the video once it is up.

For those who can't wait until then: here's another video that was shown on that program a few months ago, before I started this blog. Wait for that wiggly thing on the right to stop turning and it'll play.

I hope you have a great weekend and stay warm wherever you are.

Matt & Bridie.

Matt Wilkinson, head chef at Circa, The Prince, and his breakfast chef Bridie have been staying with us for the past few days.

This is the face of the man voted equal second sexiest chef participating in the second annual Taste event taking place later this month.

The article is here, scroll down to the end of the second page.

While they were here they fed the chooks and collected their eggs, planted some onion seeds in the hothouse, made some apple cider, discussed seeds, plants and recipes, made lots of plans for the coming growing season and even ate my cooking!!?

We had a lovely time but I think they'll notice the change of pace when they come back for another trip in mid January.

Stamps.

Look how gorgeous these fruit and vegie stamps are.

My friend Beck bought them from here for me and I just adore them.

Carrots.

Peas.

Beetroots.

And apples.

I'm thinking swing tags, labels, row markers....

I LOVE them Beck. Thank you so much.