Strawberries!

With all the rain we've been having, I worried that the strawberries would be a big, soggy, mushy mess this year. But thankfully, we've had our best crop ever!

Masses of the delicious, red fruit.

You can't help but smile whilst harvesting them, and eating them. Its a bit like 'one for the bucket, three for me...'

There are lots of picking helpers too when we are harvesting such a delicious crop.

Thanks Mum and Dad!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

So far there's been many, many strawberries eaten, one and a half kilos turned into eight jars of jam and still more put aside for ice cream.

Is there a better way to start the day than with strawberry jam on toast?

I don't think so.

And don't forget we'll be at The Slow Food Farmers' Market at The Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne tomorrow evening (Thurs 23rd) from 3pm-8pm with the freshest, most delicious free range organic eggs and garlic.

Have a great Wednesday!

Picking plums.

I took my number one helper with me this morning to pick some plums.

She started off well and was excited to be able to reach the 'tippy toes ones'.

But soon lost interest and was happy to sit in the crate and eat her weight in plums.

Once home I made plum muffins from this recipe. Substituting the rhubarb for plums.

And a batch of blackberry and plum jam.

Will we see you on Saturday at Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market?

Hope so.

Picking peas and beans.

All these peas and beans as well as so much more will be available at our stall at The Lake House Producer's Day tomorrow. Hope to see you there.

In the meantime, check out a discussion about radishes and a great photo of Daylesford Organics radishes at Matt Wilkinson from Circa's blog.

Sugar snap peas.

First of the season.

Less than a minute after the top photo was taken.

Garlic.

Yesterday we finished harvesting our garlic.

We grow several varieties of garlic, the main one being Japanese purple.

While we were harvesting we continued the annual conversation about different uses for garlic including clothing, icecream and jewelery.

We also discussed different planting, weeding, mulching and harvesting methods.

Due to the large rainfalls we've been having, this year we could pull the garlic out by hand without the use of a fork which saved time and the amount of damage.

The garlic will now rest and dry out in the shed full of these hammocks. Over the next few weeks we will put next year's planting seed aside and pull the rest down to braid and sell.

I hope you have a great weekend. I know its late notice, but we'll be at Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market tomorrow and we'd love to see you.

One month to go.

With one month to go until we open up for farm gate sales I have decided to post here everyday until January third. These posts might just be a few pictures of what we are doing or they might be a more detailed description.

I hope you can come along for the ride.

Today at Daylesford Organics we are picking strawberries.

And we are finally starting to harvest our garlic. Because of all the rain we've been having we are able to pull the garlic out by hand rather than using a fork which often damages the cloves.

Chooks go bush

During the warmer months our flock of chooks follow behind the vegetable harvest. After the vegetables are pulled up, the chooks go in and enjoy the leftovers, scratch up and fertilise the ground.

Now it's Winter and it's time for them to come up onto higher ground which for us means into the bush.

But first we have to make a few modifications to fit their houses in.

Cutting a few trees down to make way for their houses means firewood for next year,

some bush poles for building our tractor shed,

and some sawdust.

Every year we are surprised by how much the chooks look at home in the bush and then we remember that they were originally jungle fowl.

I love this one of Mr Rooster mid crow.

Collecting the eggs.

This Mrs chicken stayed home....

Doesn't this look like the definition of free range?

Hello Banjo, we are friends.

Enjoying a dust bath.

We try to offer them pasture as well as bush but given the choice they much prefer the shelter of the trees and scratching amongst the leaf litter.