Sep 3, 2010 Posted by Tiffany

Thinking about our garden

So you’ve probably noticed the massive shortage of gardening posts these days when we should be ankle deep in produce. Our aquaponics system is doing ok but our tomatoes still have a ways to go before they turn red. I really hope they start turning soon because the weather is starting to turn cool here already. And I fear that we’re not going to get anywhere with the tilapia in this... read more

Mar 4, 2010 Posted by Tiffany

Revising our plans for 2010

The weather here is still yo-yoing between winter and spring…but I have little doubt that we will turn around twice and spring will be passing us by, with summer setting in strongly. Which makes me turn to thoughts about our garden, our hopes of growing all our own produce one day and all the work that still needs to be done back there and around the house in general. And let’s not forget the... read more

Aug 11, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Making mirabelle plum wine

We went down to the orchard today and harvested about 22 pounds (10 kilos) of mirabelle plums from our trees. We really should have harvested them a week or so earlier, but we simply haven’t had the time. Thank God we found Nico, our new farm hand, when we did or a lot of other things around here would be looking as bad as our orchard. But he’s going to be here tomorrow and will hopefully be... read more

Jun 2, 2009 Posted by Ayla the Newfie

Storing water at the orchard

A few weeks ago, we bought 3 huge IBC tanks to hold rain water for the farm. One of those containers was destined for our orchard and I guess my dad got tired of seeing it sitting in the courtyard because he offered to help Stefan move it down there. We just bought a little wagon that was on sale at Hagebau and it proved to be the perfect assistant for this move. The guys loaded the container up on the... read more

May 26, 2009 Posted by Ayla the Newfie

A day of work in the orchard

Don’t let my lack of posting let you think we haven’t been busy or that I don’t have TONS of things to blog about. I’ve just been in a bit of a blogging funk I guess and also have been having a hard time finding time to sit down and git ‘r done. But I’m trying to get back on track and finish a few of the dozen or so drafts I’ve started… We went down to the... read more

May 12, 2009 Posted by Ayla the Newfie

Neem oil – a gardener’s best friend

Although our winter was insanely cold, we didn’t have a very hard freeze when it finally started to warm up here. Thus the bugs are out in force because they didn’t get killed off by the cold wave. I’ve often read about using neem oil on plants to combat aphids, scales, spider mites, white flies, locusts and other common pests. It’s also used as a fungicide and helps against... read more

May 11, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Meet our newest acquisition

Now that all the paperwork has finally been finished, I’d like to introduce you to our new orchard! Our name for it perhaps is a bit dramatic since it’s only around 1000 sq. meters or a quarter of an acre. But it’s only 10 minutes walk from our front door and has 19 apple, cherry and peach trees growing on it, most of which are young trees. When we started looking at the property about 2... read more