Mangosteen harvest starts in 2 weeks

Mamgosteens by mail order in a 4.5 kg box

We will start picking mangosteens in about 2 weeks. This fruit comes from a small flowering about 3 months ago, and we only expect about 100 kg. The main harvest is due to ripen during April and May and we expect between 3-6 tonnes at that time.

If you would like to purchase a box of mangosteens please visit the link below to place your order, and you will be invoiced.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/193ImNVLWsMb8w7a_GmoOATRTNkmjXryNgwDu2tdNUwA/viewform

Retiring from tourism

We have sold off part of the property, with the homestead, the rainforest, and two B&B cottages. We plan to keep the mangosteen orchard for another few years, but our base will be Mossman. We have been involved with tourists since 1994, and this is the end of an era.

Our plan is to sell our fruit directly to customers via farmhouse direct, an online market stall for australian farmers hosted by Australia Post.

Visit by UK Masterchef Judge - JohnTorode

Digby participated in a documentary about Australian Food, with John Torode. They spent a pleasant morning wandering around the orchard checking out the fruit, and tasting and talking about the flavours, with a director and a cameraman. It will be shown on the UK 'food' channel in March 2014, so keep an eye out for it. A great experience!

Mangosteen Update

An erratic mangosteen flowering over the last two months so we now have at least 60 trees with small fruit in a variety of sizes from marble to golfball. This means a harvest over October November. With any luck there will be another flowering in the next few weeks for a crop in Jan.

February is a fruitful time

Breakfast platter for the Bed and Breakfast in February - beautiful sugar bananas, salaks, red panama passionfruit, abiu, mango, pommelo, and red papaya. A yummy treat.

Harvesting the fruit using the back of the slasher to bring in the fruit.

Cyclone Yasi - the good, the bad and the ugly

For those of you who have missed the news, our farm has been in the path of Cyclone Yasi, and has been 'saved', when the cyclone, considered to be the worst in 100 years, veered to the south, and crossed the cost over 400 kms from us.

Here is an image of the cyclone path

We have lost about 20 fruit trees due to the high winds. You can visit our photos at Picasaweb to see a detailed selection of the images.

But there have been some good news stories as well. My vegetable garden came through the cyclone really well and the eggplant survived.

The durian flowers are still on the trees.

The Galup nut tree lost its top - and in cutting up the broken branches, we found lots of galup nuts - which otherwise would be too high to pick. So I will get to taste galup nut for the first time.

The farm is now cleaned up and looking fantastic. The rainforest has kept its leaves, the beach is as good as ever. The two B&B cottages are fine, and the garden around the cottage is looking good. We are back and ready for fruit tasting and B&B guests. The fact that we had no mangosteen harvest was a plus. So no damage to the harvest because it was non-existent. This makes us very hopeful for a November crop of mangosteens.

Waiting for the cyclone and a new fruit

Cyclone Yasi has been coming for 5 days now. Digby has been pruning the overhanging branches from the gazebo. This photo shows a man who had a new knee replacement operation only 8 weeks ago.

 

Boarding up the bedroom window by screwing iron against the frame. The bedroom will be our 'safe' place to wait out the 24 hours of high wind.

 

We have grown Langsat Duku trees for 24 years, but they only fruited for the first time last year, and then all the fruit dropped off, before I could taste them. I was disappointed. Then Digby found some at Rusty's market at Alf's stall, so I am able to taste the fruit for the first time. They are really yummy, and have become one of my top favourites.

 

What do they taste like - would you believe they have a grapefruit flavour. Certainly tangy - not sweet, and very more-ish. Flesh is very soft and no doubt some people will say it reminds them of lychees.