It’s been a bit of a week, and somehow I’m rather glad we made it to Friday and I was back in the kitchen! The focus in the garden is very much on sowing, pricking out and getting seedlings ready for planting, which isn’t far away now. The weather has been in our favour, with plenty of sunshine to help everything along. Spring is moving fast, and after a few slow springs in recent years, I’m working hard to keep up! This week, we had two opportunities to cater, which is a fir

We finished the week with a busy Saturday at the Barn, serving brunch, lunch and our Patch to Plate Dinner. It’s lovely to see the Barn being enjoyed throughout the day, with plenty happening from morning through to evening. On Sunday, we were invited to visit the new Twelve Apostles precinct with friends and family. It’s a massive building, and certainly something different architecturally. It’s hard to imagine just how busy it will become once thousands of visitors start pa

Work continued on our hedge project this week. There was still straw to spread and some edging to finish, so we’re getting closer to having it all done. It’s exciting to see this project finally taking shape after all the planning and growing of plants along the way. We also spent some time in the vegetable patch, pulling out the irrigation and mulching down the spelt crops. There isn’t much left to do before we can start preparing the beds for planting. Spring certainly does

We had a big day in Melbourne this week, but the highlight was definitely picking up my Mum. She arrived in the morning, which gave me a good reason to line up a few warehouse pick-ups while we were there. By the time we headed home, we had a van load of jars and glass bottles, flour, gluten-free flour and a new toy for the kitchen. I can assure you, we saw quite a bit of Melbourne from north to south! Thankfully, our son Timothy did some of the driving to get a few more hour

Last Saturday, a few ladies joined us for our wreath-making workshop, which was really lovely. It was so nice seeing everyone create something beautiful together. The workshop was led by Rachael from Handpicked Flower Farm, and we already have another one coming up in November. We also had our annual kitchen inspection at the beginning of the week. Once a year, the Shire comes along to check that everything is in order, so it was nice to get that over and done with as we head

Last week was rounded up with our Patch to Plate Dinner, which was a really lovely community night. From there, we’ve had a much better week, getting back into more of our normal pace. We managed to get most of the homeschooling done in the earlier part of the mornings, which meant we could spend much of the rest of the days outside. And honestly, that’s where we like to be! We’re just about finished mulching around the berries and bushes before we move into the vegetable pa

This week was full. Really full. Sometimes I wonder how we actually get it all done! Tuesday brought us a pretty big meeting with our farm consultant. There was a lot to cover, and having someone from the outside sit down with us is always helpful. We were able to nut out some of the bigger, longer-term things, as well as the decisions that matter right now and sometimes need to be made almost instantly. Some of it is exciting, some of it is hard, and some of it is simply bus

I knew I had another week of negotiating with the weather in front of me, and I wasn’t wrong! But we made it through, and somehow it’s Friday night again. Did I say I had finished pruning the orchards? Well… a few more fruit trees decided otherwise. They needed some attention, so I sharpened the pruners once more and got the job done. I’m definitely calling it finished this time! A while back, I ordered some rootstock and have been keeping a few scions along the way. With tho

Last Sunday we welcomed another wonderful group to the barn for our sourdough bread making class. It was an afternoon spent talking all things flour, dough and bread, with plenty of questions, hands-on learning and, of course, the smell of fresh sourdough filling the room. Monday brought our usual trip into Warrnambool, delivering a few orders before the girls headed off to their music lessons. In the evening we held our final winter workshop at the Warrnambool Community Gard