Orchards-where it all begins

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 those now grafted, there are a few more apple trees on their way to being planted in the near future. Well, that is, if the grafts take! There’s always a little bit of hope and patience involved when you’re propagating your own trees, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop.

The cold and windy weather also forced me indoors and gave me the final push to tackle another long-overdue job—our application for Australian citizenship.

It’s something that’s been waiting patiently for quite some time, and with it being an application for the whole family, it was no small job. I finally sat down, worked my way through it all, and submitted it.

Too wet to farm? Fine. We’ll become Australian citizens instead!

Another job ticked off the list!

When the weather did play nice, we ventured outside and managed to get some mulching done. There isn’t much more we can do while the ground is quite literally sodden, so we’re making the most of the small windows when they appear.

Friday was spent where I seem to be happiest on these winter days—in the kitchen. Cooking, baking and preparing food for tomorrow night’s Patch to Plate Dinner kept us busy, and we’re almost booked out once again.

Tomorrow is also our last Saturday of trading before our winter break. We’ll be open as usual from 11am–5pm, followed by our Patch to Plate Dinner in the evening.

Then the barn will have a little rest before we resume our normal Saturday trading on 5.September.

Our next Patch to Plate Dinner will be on

12. September.

And with that, another week of negotiating with the weather comes to an end. I’m sure spring is somewhere around the corner… we just have to be patient enough to let it find us.