Sunday, May 06, 2007

Live calendar makes booking simple

Well we have moved into the 21st century, with people interested in coming to the farm able to book directly online without having to ring us first to find out if there is space.

This is now working for both the B&B and the Fruit Tasting.

Having the actual available dates online is amazing to us. It means I won't have to freak out when the advance booking book goes missing any more! There is no advance booking book. Our full manifest is now online. Don't worry - for those of you who still like to talk to a real person first we are still answering the phone.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Mating Snakes in my Wardrobe

The title says it all! I was trying to go to sleep around 11pm last night, and I could a sound in the wardrobe. When I went to investigate, it was coming from the top cupboard.

I opened it and two brown tree snakes intertwined, and writhing fell out of the cupboard above my head. Oh my god! Absolutely beautiful copper and white markings and really big and fat - they looked at least a metre long.

Digby came to the rescue with a broom, though he did take a while to wake up and get his act together. And the dogs? Kimmy and Mia kept their distance out on the verandah watching Digby do the snake removal. You could see it on the faces - snakes are not part of my job description.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Getting 'certified'

After nearly 20 years of growing our trees organically, we have decided to become officially certifed as an organic farm, with the BFA. The reason for the formality is that we are now have the potential to produce a large crop of mangosteens. We posted the application yesterday - it took us about 3 months to assemble all the information that they required, and then a JP had to witness the 20 page application.

What happens next? We wait for the inspector to arrive and check us out, in the next 4-6 weeks.

Will being certified make a difference to selling our crop? Probably not as the mangosteen customer is not likely to care too much if they are grown with chemicals and sprays or not.

Hopefully there will be a niche organic market which will clamour for our fruit and will appreciate the efforts we have taken. But don't hold your breath.

http://www.bfa.com.au/