Flash flood wipes out our nursery

We have just spent the last ten days cleaning up after heavy rains caused flash flooding . We received 435 mm in a 12 hour period, and the river next to the house burst its banks and then a 2 metre wave flowed down the creek at a hundred miles an hour and straight through the house and garden area.

The nursery was a disaster. The flood carried away more than 2000 plants in pots in the nursery, and deposited silt in thick layers around the house. In some places the silt was more than a foot deep, and pot plants were buried. Using a small spade to dig them out, we actually did recover some of the precious grafted stock that I had been working on over the last few months.

Empty pots are strewn along the creek bank below the nursery, and they are even washing up on the beach which is more than a kilometer away.

Here are some photos to give you an idea:

Solomon sojourn

Digby has now been in the Solomon Islands for three weeks as part of an Ausaid project to improve the availability and quality of fruit in the local markets. He will be running workshops throughout the country in fruit tree propagation and introducing new species and varieties of appropriate fruit trees. This note gives an idea of current events. "I'm sitting at the bar in Gizo hotel looking out into the bay. Thunder rolling on Kolombangara island, rain just setting in for the evening. Been two weeks now getting set for the training with visits to farmers and research stations and tomorrow it should all come together in the first workshop. Agriculture people, staff and farmers appearing around the town with lots of chatter between wantoks (one talks, people from same language groups). English, pidgin and home language all mixing freely.My personal tension rising, but solbrew is light enough to calm". Digby

Bud Grafting a Seedling

I have exotic tastes!

 

Digby models our new t-shirt, with our fruit logo in full colour, and which is now available for you to buy from our NEW ONLINE SHOP, which was set up today, after 6 months of research and development. Now you can buy jams, t-shirt, poster, recipe book and Rare Fruit Australia magazines. Isn't technology amazing!

Jakfruit Season nearly here

 

First jakfruit has been picked - just a small one! It will probably take at least a week to ripen. A wonderful taste of banana flavoured bubblegum! And if you love the 'I have exotic tastes' t-shirt, we now have them for sale.

Honey from our bee hives

As the weather warms up, it is possible to take some of the honey from the hives, as the bees do not need it all to survive. We had not robbed the hives for more than 12 months and yesterday, Digby looked inside the hives and found the frames packed with honey. The slideshow below shows how we get the honey from the frames.

Fruit starts to ripen in September

I love September - it is the month when the seasons change from the cold crisp nights to warm balmy weather and sunny blue skies. The orchard comes to life as many trees start to flower, and fruit ripens overnight. We have started picking Malay Roseapple and Star Apple - two fruit with wonderful flavour. The smell of roses is an amazing thing to find on a fruit, and the fruit tasters are delighted - it tastes crisp and delicous just like an apple. The birds and the bats love them too.