Breakfast fruit platter in October

 

From left the fruit is soursop, solo papaya with lime, star apple, mangosteen, sugar bananas - this is part of our breakfast which is served to our guests on the verandah of their cottage each morning

Ugrade completed of our self-guided walk

Time for a celebration, after a full week working to upgrade the walking trail in our forest, and replace lost markers. Here are some of the local characters who joined us to celebrate with a glass of champagne - on the trail of course. Many thanks to our wwoofa - anna who did all the hard work, and took this photo.

Visit by spanish celebrity chef

Yesterday I had Miguel Maestre and a three man film crew roaming around in my orchard and vegetable garden filming miguel 'discovering' fruit on the trees, cutting it open and tasting it in front of the camera.

This is part of a television series - 13 episodes called Tropical Kitchen. The show has already been bought by the lifestyle channel to screen in australia next year.I must say that I was a bit apprehensive - with two days notice - but we were able to set up filming opps for soursop, star apple and jaboticaba. Miguel was also thrilled with the kaffir limes and the leaves which he said tasted hundred times better than the ones he can buy in Sydney. We missed the actual cooking of the recipe - the boys took the ingregients and ran to film some rainforest shots before it got too dark.

Miguel reminded me of Jamie Oliver - with all the boyish enthusiasm for food and flavours. But he also had very strong charisma and it was great fun watching him perform for the camera. He tried to herd my chickens into the screen shot but they werent cooperating,

For more info about Miguel I found this on the internet

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Stinging tree surprise

Three weeks ago I was weeding the path behind the back door, and was stung by a stinging tree. This came as a complete surprise - my first time - and this was the last place you would expect to find a stinging tree. It was masquerading as a weed amongst a few other interlopers on the stone pathway. I pulled it out with great gusto and it stung me hard - both on the back of the fingers and on the palm - and I dropped it quickly.The seedling was only about 10cm high and had 4 leaves, but a close up look showed all the fine needlelike hairs that cause the pain. A bird must have dropped the seed on a fly-by.


This was my first sting. It had taken 20 years of living here to have this experience. There was immediate intense pain, and it continued for a few hours. When I tried to wash my hands, the water wetting the hand made the pain even more intense. For three days it was really bad - you were aware of it all the time. Then it gradually disappeared, until you wet your hands.

Now three weeks later I can say I have survived, and there are only minor twinges - a gentle reminder when I wet my hands.

Babies love Black Sapote

 

Bees triumph over Green Ants

Last week, our sole remaining beehive was attacked by a green ant nest. It was a massive onslaught, enabled by the grease drying out on the legs of the stand which holds the hive. Normally the grease is sticky and gooey, and the green ants can't get past it. But the grease had dried out and formed a skin, so the green ant colony moved into battle with the bees. When I found it, the situation was gruesome - there were dead bees being carried away from the hive by the ants, and as bees arrived at the entrance to the hive, thousands of green ants were waiting to attack them and drag them off.

I rushed back to the house to get a brush to try and sweep the ants away, and a grease gun to redo the gooey defence on the four legs of the stand. I swept away all the ants on the outside of the hive and off the stand. Standing there in shorts and t-shirt without my bee suit, I realised that this might not be such a good idea, especially as all the ants on the ground were biting and attacking my feet which only had sandals. I bent over and listened to the hive - no sound. Normally there should be a hum. I crouched down and looked through the crack at the back of the hive on the base - all I could see were bees on the backs struggling with the green ants which had overwhelmed in far greater numbers. The hive was completely riddled with green ants, and dead bees.

When Digby arrived home an hour later, he kitted up with beesuit and smoker and took the lid off the hive. NO BEES! The hive was dead.

We were quite depressed as we had already lost another hive which had deserted while we were away for May bushwalking. Now we realise that the same thing probably happened to them.

The next afternoon on the orchard tour, a few of the people noticed a swarm of bees on the Sapodilla tree, about 50 metres from the hive - the swarm had settled on a branch. We got terrible excited - the bees had survived the attack by leaving the hive. The Queen would have made the move, and all the colony would have followed her.

Now the problem was to get the bees back into the hive. We went over all the frames in the hive and brushed off the green ants which had moved into the honeycomb. In the brood frames, there were larvae hatching as we brushed. This was amazing to see bee legs, then a bee head emerge from a bee cell. Once the hive was green ant free, and greased thoroughly on the legs of the stand, Digby took a large plastic bag and a pair of secateurs to the swarm. Wearing his bee suit, he nonchalantly trimmed the leaves, around the swarm and scooped the open plastic bag up and around the swarm and sealed the neck. It was an amazing catch of the swarm. He cut off the branch and then carefully carried the bag of bees back to the hive, lifted the lid, turned the bag inside out into the hive and slammed the lid back on the hive. It was just getting dark, and hopefully the bees would settle down overnight.

Sure enough, the next morning the bees were at the entrance coming and going, the hive was humming, and a plastic bag peeped out from the entrance. Once again donning the beesuit, Digby removed the lid, and gently took out the plastic bag - all the bees had moved from the bag back on to the beeframes.

A week later and the hive is still going well. We live in hope

Rambai Fruit in April

Close up of the rambai fruit on the branch

The drooping rambai branches look spectacular.

These are the female trees which bear the fruit

Each rambai has three segments. The flesh clings to the seed.

Learn more about rambai at http://www.capetrib.com.au/rambai.htm