Heat Wave!!!
Mum, Ruby and I have revamped the entrance to our 1950’s style Fruit Stall over the past couple of weeks.
Check it out!
Hopefully we’ll be open on 24 December with Cherries, new Spuds, Peas and Broad Beans for sale.
It was extremely hot today!!
Earthing up Spuds on a 30c day probably wasn’t the wisest of jobs to tackle!
Dad was thinning fruit under the shade of some large Apricot trees so he escaped the intense heat.
Lucky him!!!!!!
More Wind!!!
The weather has continued to act totally erratic over the past couple of weeks.
It’s gone from hot and dry, to gale force winds, to torrential rain, back to hot and dry, and so on and so forth.
It really can’t seem to make up its mind!
We had some horrendous winds last night which took down a tree in the backyard!!!
Thankfully it was a Pittosporum so no major damage was done to the surrounding trees and shrubs.
The wind was certainly strong though because the 20 year old tree had been snapped at the base!!
Mum is devastated by this as she remembers planting the tree when she was pregnant with me!
On the Fruit Front everything is still looking good (touch wood!).
Hard to believe it’s already late November.
Only a month or so until we open up the Fruit Stall again!
Blowing A Gale!
Gusty winds came in today.
So much for my plan of burning the final stack of prunings for the year!
Oh well, hopefully the winds will disappear later on this week so I can get it done.
A couple of years back I had a massive stack of prunings that I missed out on burning by one day when a total fire ban came into force!!
I’m sure every rabbit within a 2km radius took up residence in that stack that summer!!
At the moment the fruit crop looks great and should be on normal time.
But there are many variables in the fruit growing business so it’s still early days and anything can happen.
Snow In November!
We received quite a few phone calls and emails this morning asking how we survived last nights atrocious weather as the news agencies have picked it up so I thought it was good idea to update the blog.
The frost alarm went off shortly before midnight so it was all systems go (or so we thought).
Just when we were about to crank up at 1am thick cloud rolled in and the wind picked up.
Rather pleased about this until all of a sudden it started to snow!
That’s right, SNOW!
So for the rest of the night we were on edge as we watched the the snow fall and then the sky clear.
Every time the sky would clear we would go to crank up and then the snow would start again!
This cycle of snow and then clear skies continued throughout the night until 6am when we finally cranked up after the snow stopped and the temperature dropped to just below freezing.
The snow that fell on the Orchard has melted away but there is still a truckload of it on the mountain range as the photos I took an hour ago show.
Gale Force Winds, What Fun!
We had some gale force winds blow in today.
The Cecile Brunner Roses in front of the Fruit Stall got hit hard and ended up being bent over completely; hence I had to chop them in half in order to save them!
Mum loves those roses as she planted them in memory of her Grandad Cecil so it’s always sad to take the secateurs to them!
Yes, I do have a sensitive side!!
How Cute Is This!
Here’s a photo of my sister Ruby that was taken during the weekend.
She is holding Neveah, the daughter of Anne, who has been a family friend for 20 years since she was just a wee bit older than this dear little baby.
Mum (Sandra) remembers rocking Anne in her pram in the fruit stall whilst her parents were picking apricots.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Here’s a trip down memory lane, a photo of me and Ruby after a morning with Mum in the vege garden back in the Spring of ’97.
Just a Wee Bit of A Flood!!
Just a wee bit of a flood in the Apples and Plums after 36 hours of rain!
Lucky for us the water is draining away steadily so there shouldn’t be any damage to the trees.
Sandra’s Worcester Sauce Recipe
Here’s Sandra’s recipe for Worcester Sauce.
2 kg brown or raw sugar
7 onions, chopped
3 kg apples, roughly chopped (don’t peel or pip them)
9 litres cider vinegar (white also acceptable)
3-4 Tb ground ginger
6 Tb sea salt
4 oranges or lemons, roughly chopped (don’t peel them)
1 Tb ground cloves or
3 Tb whole cloves
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tb molasses
Put all the ingredients into a large pot or preserving pan and bring to the boil slowly.
Simmer for about 3 hours.
Take off heat.
Then put a clean pot in the kitchen sink and a strainer over top.
Cup small amounts of the mixture into the strainer and rub the liquid through with the back of a soup spoon. Run the spoon along the bottom of the strainer to get all the thickening that hangs on!
This really makes the sauce.
Mix all together at the end of straining and then bottle into scrupulously clean bottles, using a stainless steel jug or a jug and a funnel.
Put the lids on when warm or cold.
Hobbs Orchard Update
Gidday folks
Time for an update on life here on the Orchard.
We, the Hobbs Tribe of Hobbs Orchard, managed to survive the winter months relatively unscathed.
I will admit that there were several occasions in which we almost froze whilst venturing outside to perform necessary tasks and duties but thanks to two wood burners (which ran 24/7) the house remained nice and toasty!
We didn’t let the sub antarctic weather stop us from getting out and about though.
As usual we ventured to Queenstown several times over winter (in between the snow dumps) and despite the fact that it was colder than a penguins rear end, we still had a loads of fun!
Here's me and Ruby trying not to freeze to death on a -5 morning!
You can check out our Winter Photo Gallery here.
Once the snow melted and the days began to warm up, the buds on the fruit trees began to move faster than a caffiene addicted rabbit so before long we were in full blown frost fighting mode.
Ah good ol frost fighting.
Yep, nothing says good times like running around an ice covered Orchard at 1am checking every sprinkler to make sure there are no blockages.
Funnily enough though, this Spring has been rather non-eventful when it comes to severe weather; a welcome change considering the last couple of Springs have been full of weather related turmoil!!
You can check out our Spring Photo Gallery here.
So apart from a cold winter and a reasonably normal spring (so far) things have been ticking over nicely here at the Hobbs HQ.
I’m going to be updating the blog more regularly from now on so stay tuned for future updates!