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July
1999 NEWSLETTER
WEATHER
REPORT - a cold dry snap
FRUIT - Bananas are back, Durians
are flowering
FRUIT TASTING - Popularity continues
to grow
FARM ACTIVITIES - hand pollinating Salaks
RECIPE OF THE MONTH - Tequila Passionfruit
Shooter
BED AND BREAKFAST - holes
are dug
OUR WEB SITE - goes professional
HOLIDAY PLANS - Caretaker needed
WEATHER REPORT FOR JUNE
Facts and figures are provided by Gail and Cliff Truelove at the
Pilgrim Sands Weather Centre, operating since 1982.
Despite the VERY WET start to the year June
has been quite dry. Only 95.3mm of rain fell on 17 days which is
just over half the June average of 184.3mm. However this was not
the driest June, 1991holds that record with only 36.9mm. Friday
4th was the wettest day boasting 38mm.
Hasn't it been lovely and cold! It is soooooooo
nice to snuggle under the doona and be able to sleep through the
night. The average maximum temperature for the month was 25.6 degrees
Celsius. The first day of the month was the hottest with 28 degrees.
The average minimum was 21degrees with the coldest night beings
the 20th and 29th with 19degrees. These temperatures are very close
to the averages taken over the past 13 years where Junes max. is
25.3 and min. is 20.5.
The big question is has it been cold enough
for long enough to set a good crop of lychees for Christmas???
Back to top
FRUIT - what's flowering,
what's being harvested.
The Black Sapotes have now finished and the crop has been pulped
and frozen for tastings and ice-creams. We are now picking large
quanitites of Soursop, and pulping and freezing the pulp. This pulp
allows us to make icecreams which are sold through the local take-away
through-out the year.
The Mamey Sapote crop is large and almost ready to pick. The only
way you can tell if they are ripe is to scratch the surface and
if it is green it's not ready yet - wait another week and scratch
again until it has an orange colour. Needless to say there are lots
of fruit with little scratch marks!
Bananas have finally produced the first fruit since the cyclone
wiped them out - lots of bunches which are newly formed and need
bagging to protect them from insects.
Salaks have started to set fruit in small quantities. Abius are
still scarce though golfball size fruit tell us another month will
give us some fruit.
And the EXCITING news - there are now 2 Durian trees with huge
flower buds. We live in anticipation.
Back to top
FRUIT TASTING - numbers, what's
on
There has been unprecedented interest in the tasting and we have
now increased our limit to 30 as we were having to turn away so
many people. Digby continues to receive rave reviews, and spontaneous
applause. I even did a few tastings this month so Digby could take
a few days off and go bushwalking for a few days to Pieter Botte,
2 days walk inland from the coast. People find it hilarious to hear
Digby complaining about how chilly the weather is. The large Golden
Orb spider, known as 'Charlotte' who only has seven legs and has
been a talking point at the tastings for at least the last 3 months
has disappeared. The hope is that she has gone to ground to lay
her eggs, but I fear the worst as we celebrated Digby's birthday
in the Gazebo the last night she was seen, and the lights in the
Gazebo may have attracted the bats to come in and catch her. We
will keep you posted.
The fruit on the menu for the tasting is currently:
- West Indian Lime
- Breadfruit Chips
- Pommelo
- Papaya
- Carambola
- Yellow Sapote
- Golden Passionfruit
- Soursop
- Black Sapote
- Custard Apple
- Jakfruit
Back to top
FARM ACTIVITIES - hand pollinating,
bagging, and mowing
The cold weather has meant the grass growth has slowed down and
we have been able to catch up. At one stage last week, we actually
had the whole orchard looking absolutely fantastic - neatly trimmed
everywhere - which is a rare occurrence. Usually there is at least
one area which is out of control.
We are now walking the salaks at least twice a week checking for
red flowers and hand-pollinating them as we find them with the pollen
from male flowers of the Javan salaks which have been frozen.
The spraying routine is underway with the seaweed spray now being
put on the plants about every 3 weeks. The Mangosteens look fantastic
with a huge flush of growth.
Back to top
RECIPE OF THE MONTH
Tequila Passionfruit Shooter
Take a yellow passionfruit and bite a hole in the top.
Pour in a measure of Tequila.
Stir up the flesh and the liquid into a pulp inside the case.
Drink by raising to lips and squeezing.
A truly tropical taste.
Back to top
THE BED AND BREAKFAST
PROJECT
The holes for the poles have been dug by the local bobcat operator,
and then followed up by Digby with a crowbar. As with our other
building projects, the ground below the surface is boulder infested
and almost impossible to dig a straight clean hole. But they are
now dug and concrete pads have been put in the bottom, ready for
the poles and the council inspection. We ended buying new timber
from a small sawmiller who operates on the Tablelands, and it is
due to arrive last week!
The planned opening date - watch this space - at this time is still
June 2000.
Back to top
OUR WEBSITE
We were advised by our Internet Service provider that in the month
of June our site had 8000 hits. As we are only allowed 1000 hits
as a 'free web site' we are now in the process of upgrading to a
professional web site. The first step in the process is to have
a business name registered, and we have decided to change our name
to 'Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm' as the old name confuses many people.
We have yet to hear if this name choice will be successful. We will
keep you posted as to what our new URL and email address will be.
The counter on our Web page shows us what words people use in search
engines to find us - how about this - type in Digby's fruit farm'
and see what turns up, as some of our visitors have done and actually
found us!
Back to top
HOLIDAY PLANS
We are planning to spend February 2000 in the South Island of
New Zealand, and the farm will need a caretaker for this time, a
person who loves and cherishes dogs and can look after all our poultry
and lock them up each night, as well as cope with a solar system
without destroying the batteries.So if you know of somebody who
could be interested, let us know.
That's all the news from Cape Trib for July.
Alison and Digby
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