Party time in the Black Sapotes

We are currently harvesting Black Sapote - and so are the Pied Currawongs, Pale Headed Friarbirds, Spotted Catbirds, and several species of honey eaters, and Spectacled Flying Foxes (no they dont actually wear specs - it's a ring of pale fur around each eye. This afternoon we picked about 6 cartons - and left some of the fruit at the top of the trees too high for us to reach for the bird gang. It's a small crop compared to previous years - caused by the tree being stressed last year.

It's great to have Black Sapote on the fruit tasting. The name 'chocolate pudding fruit' captures everyone's imagination - people are amazed at the texture (yes it really is puddeny) and the colour (yes it really LOOKs the colour of chocolate) - and we cannot keep up with the demand for our fruit leather of Black Sapote mixed with coconut. Which is why we have picked as much of the fruit as wevcan today, before the birds and bats finish the crop for us.

The sad story of the vegetable garden

This year, the vege garden has been replanted THREE times so far - first in March, as an optimist before we left for the UK I thought it might be possible to get the veges going early - you never know what the weather is going to be - of course they were washed away with the heavy april rains. So Diane our house sitter tried a second time - she did not realise what she was up against and once again little survived. Now dad has been up here for a week and has put in a complete replant. This morning I woke up to a heavy downpour and thought - oh damn - the tomato seeds will never survive this. We are now talking about how to roof the vege garden beds with plastic to protect them. Time will tell.

Two weeks On

Pigs are having a nice time
There is major pig damage throughout the orchard - digging up areas under the breadfruit and on the edges of orchard with the neighbours who have long grass. Rod - a neighbour - was driving past and saw the pig - a very large boar - in our orchard and completely unconcerned by the traffic. He rang us when he got home - Digby was just getting breakfast for the guests, so he got the gun and went off to see if he could shoot it. Alas, long gone.

Fertilising after the mangosteen crop
The mangosteens have now finished - there were the odd small ones still to be found scrabbling around under some trees. So now we are concentrating on feeding the trees to replace the nutrients from the fruit which has been picked and removed from the system. Last year, DPI researchers were able to give the exact nutrient breakdown for a mangosteen, so we could actually calculate the weight of fruit, and then the exact fertiliser load. Our main problem is we need large amount of potassium, which does not come easily in organic form. However we have managed to find a premixed blend which is organic certified which will fill the gap.

New mangosteen seedlings refound
Before we left to go overseas in April, we planted out 20 small new mangosteen seedlings in the back corner of the farm. We had tried to grow Salaks there, but they were not happy in the red clay soil, so we pulled them out to replace them with the mangosteens. All these seedlings were now hidden in 2 metre grass, and it was difficult to find them. One tree was accidentally slashed in the search and will have to be replaced. I guess I should be happy it is only one. I have been spending time down at the local grocery store digging around in their rubbish to extract the cardboard to use as mulch. This should keep the grass at bay for 12 months.

Pruning the breadfruit
Digby is madly pruning the breadfruit. I can't bear to look - high up the tree, hanging on with one arm, and using a chainsaw in the other. The pruning needs to be done now to give the trees time to recover before the next harvest in 2007. The idea is that by cutting the tree from a 20 metree tree to a 3 metre tree, the fruit will be easy to pick. The worry is that there will be no fruit at all.

Wanderers Return to the Cape

It is great to be back - 8 weeks is a long time to be away and the work to bring the orchard under control is huge. The grass is about 2 metres tall and apparently it hasn't stopped raining since we left with the annual total now up to 6 metres for so far for 2006.

We have launched into the farmwork with great enthusiasm, and we managed to get the first fruit tasting running last Monday, searching for fruit amongst the jungle to discover what there was to put on the menu. so now we are all systems go with both the B&B and the tasting operating again.

Digby climbed the Yellow Mangosteen tree to pick Mangosteens and the Cassowary and two chicks appeared while he was up the tree to browse underneath for the fallen fruit. They must be hungry. An interesting viewpoint looking down on them - one not many people have!

The beehive looks like it has had problems - only a few bees left and they appear very sluggish, though it is cold at the moment.

We are still picking Mangosteens and able to put them on the tasting - this must be one of the latest crops - normally they are around in March/April.