Global village

Our little village of Franklin is filled with accents from around the world, as the fruit pickers come to stay and work in nearby orchards. Over the past month, we've met young people from Canada, the USA, France, Italy, China and Taiwan. There's a nice summery vibe in town with all the visitors. A tent city has sprung up in the camping ground on the river. Friends are hosting pickers in their homes and Kon's pub (a.k.a. the Franklin Tavern) is full. Unfortunately it seems the fruit season hasn't been so good this year - for cherries anyway - and the work may dry up early. Not good news, for the growers or the pickers.

The Franklin Fruit Loop

Some years back, friends and neighbours Deb and Martin and Shane and Jane had a really lovely idea - to create a public walkway lined with fruit trees along the boundary of their land, between Old Road and New Road in Franklin. The sun came out this afternoon as we gathered for the official opening of this great gift to the local community. We took the dog and a thermos of tea and enjoyed some sweet treats, the violin of Marjorie Gadd and a poem written and read by Steve Gadd for the occasion. The walk has beautiful views over Franklin village, the river and Egg Islands and north to the Wellington Range. Cattle graze in the neighbouring paddocks. The walk is being planted with fruit and nut trees and runs alongside a wildlife corridor with bandicoots frequent visitors to the property.

The first home we tried to purchase in Tasmania was in Lalla in the north of the state. On the boundary was a 'pear walk', a corridor of pear trees planted more than 100 years ago. I thought it was a wonderful idea. Now thanks to the generosity and vision of these local property owners, our community will be able to enjoy the peace, get some exercise and in time, pick some fruit along the way on this lovely pathway. From the Huon Highway, walk up either Old Road or New Road and you can't miss the signs.

#&*%^*! possums

Over the past couple of weeks, some industrious possums (I am assuming it's more than one) have eaten their way through our little orchard. All the leaves off the trees and all the fruit gone. Including two trees full of almost-ripe plums and two heavy with unripe pears. But then I spotted this in the middle of our yard and felt truly devastated.

My one-and-only apricot tree, which bore only one apricot this year. Luckily I ate it before the possum got there. However, Mr. Possum has eaten almost all of its leaves and broken almost all of the

small branches, leaving what was a nicely shaped small tree completely lopsided and bare. I felt so sad when I saw it I was ready throw in the towel and give up gardening for good. Chatting to a neighbour today, we were wondering if the possums have been pushed out of the forest behind us by the bushfires. Certainly we have noticed a lot more pademelons and some large Bennetts wallabies since we returned home.

In happier garden news, we've had a few kilos of blueberries from our two small bushes. And there is silverbeet. Beetroot. And carrots. These are all growing inside a fully enclosed chicken wire veggie patch so safe from naughty possums, even if the odd bunny or bandicoot breaks in.

Warming the bones

The flannelette sheets are gone from the bed. We're wearing fewer layers of clothing - no more "double pants", as we call it when you wear tights or thermals under your trousers. No more puffy jackets. The sunny days have been perfect for getting outdoors. We've had to start watering in the garden again, which I kind of enjoy doing in the longer evenings after dinner. Yesterday, we were able to tick a job off the list that required a dry and sunny weekend: staining the chook shed to protect the wood from the elements.

Every single one of our young fruit trees has flowered this year: the quince, the medlar, the plums, the peach, the cherries, apples, pears and even the apricot tree that we've had no luck at all with so far.

 And best of all - the warmer weather is perfect for a beer in the garden with the dogs at the end of a day of getting stuff done. Hard to beat.

In the orchard

This year, our little Williams Pear tree has excelled itself, producing a bumper crop of large fruit with delicious sweet, soft flesh. They are quite unlike the floury ones with very thick skins that we got from the same tree last year. There are a few Josephine pears yet to ripen too. This year we've also had our first Victoria plums which are very tasty indeed, although the Angelina plum tree next to it did not fruit at all this year.

Next to ripen will be a couple of varieties of apples (Cox's Orange Pippin and Pink Lady) and some Josephine pears. I'm so happy that our tiny orchard is starting to bear fruit.

A neighbourly delivery

We are lucky to have neighbours who've become dear friends. We share a lot of laughs and food and good times. We have plenty of excess eggs to share and my neighbour is a whiz at preserving and bottling. Yesterday morning, this load of 'experimental jams' arrived. I can't wait to try the sloe gin strawberry and the frangelico peach!

And yet, because of where we live, these 'neighbours' are at least five minutes walk away, so we have our own space and don't get in each other's hair. Unlike when we lived in Sydney and had five neighbours on our immediate boundary... we heard every argument and smelled every meal and cigarette. I don' miss that one bit.

From the garden

Compared to the past few years, we have eaten little from the garden. What with rabbits eating many of the seedlings (no peas, snow peas, arugula, silverbeet, beans or broad beans), work travel at planting time in spring and me leaving the greenhouse shut one hot day, killing everything in it except the oregano and sage... it hasn't been the most successful gardening year. Still, there have been some delicious things to eat. I've dug up half a bed of beautiful baby pink eye potatoes, some lovely carrots, a few cherries and the two little blueberry bushes are so laden with fruit I've had to prop up the branches with stakes. I put half a kilo in the freezer yesterday! One the way are apples, pears and (hopefully) some tomatoes. I killed the two tomato plants in the greenhouse that were already fruiting, and the four plants outside are only just starting to fruit. Green plums can also be seen on one of the two trees planted a few years back. Fingers crossed!

First home-grown cherries

Yesterday I gobbled up the first handful of delicious, freshly picked cherries from one of our two small trees planted a few years back. We've had a couple appear on them before, but either they didn't ripen or were eaten by someone else before they did. This year, there are several more small bunches almost ready to eat, nicely protected by the netting installed over the orchard for chook protection. Plus loads of blueberries on just two small bushes, some plums and one lousy apricot. Next to ripen will be several varieties of apples and pears. Despite general neglect, it's fantastic to be getting tasty fruit from our own little trees.

Cherries and berries

The Green Shed in Grove opened last Saturday, a much-anticipated event in the Huon Valley. It's your one stop shop for cherries, pink eye potatoes, raspberries and other Christmas-time delights. David visited a customer in the same road today, so on the way back he picked up a big bag of new season cherries. Delish!

Meanwhile in my own garden, the strawberries are ripening and the blueberry bushes are laden with clumps of green berries waiting to ripen. And aside from the berries, there are green cherries and plums, tiny apples and pears. And before you ask - all are under nets this year so hopefully the birds won't get them. The possums still might though.

 

Tomatoes are in

October is the busiest time of the year for me at work, so the poor old garden doesn't get the attention it needs in spring. Despite that, on the weekend (between work trips) I bought some tomato seedlings from Cygnet Market and planted them. I chose some 'cold resistant' varieties and planted a couple in the greenhouse and some outside in the raised garden beds. Last year I found buying seedlings a much better approach for me than starting them from seed in the house in August. Maybe one day I'll get to do that again. The local wisdom says that tomato plants can go in 'after show day' (meaning the Hobart Show), but based on how cool it is at our place this evening, I'm wondering if where I live, the rule should be after the Huon Show day.

The new chicken run

While I was traipsing around in the southern forests on Easter Monday, David installed netting over our fenced orchard containing six young apple trees, two pears, a peach, two plums and two cherries. The new net is not designed to protect our young trees and their fruit, but chickens! I currently have eight young pullets around 13 weeks of age, six of my favourite Barnevelders and two very pretty (and large and strong) Huon Blues, a new breed under development by Paul Healy. They are such beautiful birds, I'm so happy to have them. It's part of replenishing my flock, which has dwindled due to random deaths and disappearances over the past couple of years. The orchard is the perfect place for them to forage, but there's no shelter. It's out in the open and basically a smorgasbord for hawks. Except now it isn't. Now, these beautiful young girls get to roam around a large fenced area, pecking grass and bugs, protected by white overhead netting. They are having a great time.

Bloody rabbits

I know, I know, it's Easter, but I'm not feeling very charitable towards those cute little bunnies at the moment. Everyone around here has been complaining about the growing plague of them over the past year or two. They are super cheeky. There are piles of droppings on the lawn right close to our house. You can see below their attempt at ringbarking one of my young plum trees, and below that my latest attempt to foil them - that's the trunk of an apricot tree painted with bitumen rubber to deter chewing beasties. I've painted all the exposed trunks of the fruit trees and the olive. In the bottom photo, you'll see the fine tunnel a rabbit has dug in one of my freshly dug over raised garden beds. I won't be planting carrots in it.

Trouble brewing

It hasn't been a great season for cherry growers in Tasmania. Rain over summer meant much of the fruit split and the crop was smaller than normal. We were offered 40 kilos of split or otherwise damaged cherries, which are now happily fermenting in three large plastic tubs. It smells incredible. After removing the stalks and the mouldy ones, I guess there was about 30 kilos. Kirschwasser, anyone?

Greengages

Almost seven years after moving to Tasmania, I'm still trying things I never knew of in Sydney. A friend was visiting last week and we stopped at the Green Shed in Grove to pick up some cherries. She grabbed a bag of greengage plums too. I've had locally made greengage jam before (delicious) and just assumed that the fruit would be a bit sour or tart and not that great to eat uncooked. Wrong! These little gems are delicious. Yesterday, a friend emailed to say her neighbours are on holiday and their greengage tree is overloaded with fruit... would I like some? Oh yes please. Some to eat fresh and some for crumble cake. Think I'll have to plant a greengage tree.

A tiny punnet of blueberries

Two years ago, I planted two small blueberry bushes. Last year we had maybe ten berries in total. This year there are about ten bunches of them, and the first ones were ripe enough to pick yesterday. The freshest blueberries ever - straight from the bush.

This year, we also saw the first cherries; only six or seven in total, and we didn't get to eat any. They either fell off before they ripened, split after the rain and a couple had ants inside. But still, it is the first year the trees have flowered.

Baby fruit

I didn't spray the trees with bordeaux mix in time, haven't done much at all to them really, but still, they are bearing tiny pears, apples, cherries, strawberries, blueberries and plums. I hope these babies survive to become a small feast of fruit for us to eat over summer!

Something you'll find in every Huon Valley kitchen

Here's something you'll find in pretty much every Huon Valley household, but I don't recall ever seeing in Sydney: the apple peeler, corer and slicer, also known as the apple slinky machine, as that's what the apple looks like after processing with this contraption. Ah, the slinky. I loved sending mine down the stairs as a kid.

Last weekend I bought a couple of kilos of different types of apples from the ladies on the Stoney Banks Orchard stall at the Franklin Market. Sturmer, Pink Lady, Gala, Mutsu and more, $2.50 a kilo. They are so juicy that I ended up covered in apple spray while turning the handle on the peeling machine! Crunchy and delicious. If you are in Hobart, keep an eye out for them at Salamanca Market each Saturday.

Possums don't like pears

For the first time, our little orchard has borne fruit. We have two small, espaliered pear trees (one Williams pear, one Josephine), both laden with fruit. They are definitely  not the perfect supermarket variety, more the lumpy and bumpy organic variety, and I am so looking forward to trying them! I have picked a few but they are still very hard and need to ripen. No apples, but happily, our little trees were not attacked by possums this year. Two of my apple trees died last winter and I had to pull them out, the others are all stunted after two years of having all their leaves eaten by possums. The pears were spared. It seems possums don't like pear tree leaves.