Rare Fruit - Rare Stories

Mangosteen Update

2011-09-09T10:09:00.001+10:00

An erratic mangosteen flowering over the last two months so we now have at least 60 trees with small fruit in a variety of sizes from marble to golfball. This means a harvest over October November. With any luck there will be another flowering in the next few weeks for a crop in Jan.

February is a fruitful time

2011-02-11T17:13:00.001+10:00

Breakfast platter for the Bed and Breakfast in February - beautiful sugar bananas, salaks, red panama passionfruit, abiu, mango, pommelo, and red papaya. A yummy treat.

Harvesting the fruit using the back of the slasher to bring in the fruit.

Cyclone Yasi - the good, the bad and the ugly

2011-02-04T17:35:00.007+10:00

For those of you who have missed the news, our farm has been in the path of Cyclone Yasi, and has been 'saved', when the cyclone, considered to be the worst in 100 years, veered to the south, and crossed the cost over 400 kms from us.

Here is an image of the cyclone path

We have lost about 20 fruit trees due to the high winds. You can visit our photos at Picasaweb to see a detailed selection of the images.

But there have been some good news stories as well. My vegetable garden came through the cyclone really well and the eggplant survived.

The durian flowers are still on the trees.

The Galup nut tree lost its top - and in cutting up the broken branches, we found lots of galup nuts - which otherwise would be too high to pick. So I will get to taste galup nut for the first time.

The farm is now cleaned up and looking fantastic. The rainforest has kept its leaves, the beach is as good as ever. The two B&B cottages are fine, and the garden around the cottage is looking good. We are back and ready for fruit tasting and B&B guests. The fact that we had no mangosteen harvest was a plus. So no damage to the harvest because it was non-existent. This makes us very hopeful for a November crop of mangosteens.

Waiting for the cyclone and a new fruit

2011-02-02T13:06:00.002+10:00

Cyclone Yasi has been coming for 5 days now. Digby has been pruning the overhanging branches from the gazebo. This photo shows a man who had a new knee replacement operation only 8 weeks ago.

Boarding up the bedroom window by screwing iron against the frame. The bedroom will be our 'safe' place to wait out the 24 hours of high wind.

We have grown Langsat Duku trees for 24 years, but they only fruited for the first time last year, and then all the fruit dropped off, before I could taste them. I was disappointed. Then Digby found some at Rusty's market at Alf's stall, so I am able to taste the fruit for the first time. They are really yummy, and have become one of my top favourites.

What do they taste like - would you believe they have a grapefruit flavour. Certainly tangy - not sweet, and very more-ish. Flesh is very soft and no doubt some people will say it reminds them of lychees.

Divine weather and a young cassowary

2011-01-24T16:37:00.000+10:00

A teenage cassowary is out on its own roaming on the farm. We were thrilled to have it come and visit during the fruit tasting, which made a great day for the tasters.

And just to show what great weather you are missing here is the early morning shot taken when I walked the dogs a few days ago. Calm, sunny and a great day to remind me why I live here.

January - bits and pieces

2011-01-24T16:25:00.001+10:00

January weather has been sunny and the fruit is ripening rapidly. We decided to set up a fruit stall at the farm gate, with an honesty box. This has been quite a lot of fun, particularly collecting the money - usually all in 20 cent pieces. The bank is going to love us.

The dragonfruit harvest is amazing. Like picking little aliens off the cactus!

With the heavy rains last month I decided to try and grow kang kong - a tropical swamp spinach which grows in water gardens - as nothing else was growing very well.

Oh mangosteens! Wherefore art thou, mangosteens?

2011-01-01T17:59:00.000+10:00

The first day of 2011, and it looks like it will be a year for NO mangosteen crop. Heavy rains and warmer than normal temperatures are predicted until April, with the La Nina effect. This means the trees are very happy thank you very much, and have no need to burst into flower. We must now pin our hopes on a dry cold winter with an early flowering for a harvest in November- December.

And you get to eat the jakfruit too!

2010-12-20T17:46:00.001+10:00

Dig in - best to use gloves - yummy jakfruit.

You don't need to jump off tall buildings to be adventurous.

Find out more about jakfruit

Photo-shoot for 'Adventurous by Nature' campaign

2010-12-20T17:39:00.001+10:00

Our neighbours, Amy and Jasmine Davidson provided the talent, along with their dad, Pete and friend Jy. These photos will be used to promote Tropical North Queensland as an adventurous destination.

Breeding tiny jakfruit

2010-11-08T16:39:00.002+10:00

This wheelbarrow tells a long story that has taken more than 6 years to unfold. Manipulating fruit characteristics is not something that happens overnight. Fruit growers need patience.

Digby is proudly holding a wheelbarrow full of tiny ripe jakfruit weighing 1-2 kg. Most jakfruit we grow on the farm are big - over 10 kgs and sometimes up to 40 kgs. Six years ago we found a baby jakfruit and decided that this would have much more marketing potential - nobody wants to buy a 40 kg fruit - they will never eat it all. Unless of course you grew up with it in Sri Lanka or Malaysia. We want to be able to sell our jakfruit to our fruit tasters - this is the fruit that we think will work.

Now we are saving the seeds to grow more small trees and as our old jakfruit trees reach senescence, they will be replaced with trees growing tiny jakfruit. Will I live that long? Who knows!

Read more about Jakfruit

Diving back into the orchard

2010-10-30T18:05:00.000+10:00

I am now back to being a farmer, after 6 months away in the US, hiking the Appalachian Trail. Dirt between the fingernails is something that hikers and farmers have in common! I spent some time today digging and weeding around the dragon fruit plants. Some of them have died from neglect - the weeds were too high for the young newly planted ones to survive. As I moved the weeds away, a Children's Python was curled up against the post of one plant. It was really tiny and a vivid black and white stripey colour. Didn't seem too disturbed by me. The dragonfruit is just starting to set tiny buds.

Packing Shed Mural

2010-03-27T18:42:00.001+10:00

If you look closely at the photo below you can see the Mangosteen Mural on the wall of the shed. This is a series of 5 paintings that I recently completed showing the development of a mangosteen from bud to fruit.

The Harvest Team

2010-03-27T17:56:00.000+10:00

Mangosteen Harvest in Full Swing

2010-03-18T20:27:00.000+10:00

The Zen of picking mangosteens

2010-03-02T17:51:00.000+10:00

I am at peace with the world. I have finally arrived at a place which feels exactly right - get up in the morning, go and pick mangosteens, pack mangosteens, send mangosteens to market, receive cheque.

Twice a week, at the moment, Digby and I wander the orchard, tree by tree, look up into the canopy, find mangosteens which are purple or starting to turn purple, and pick them with the special picker - a metal contraption on a long bamboo pole. The best way to describe the metal contraption is that it looks like a kings crown - you catch the mangosteen stem between the crown bits and the fruit drops into the little bag attached.

At the moment we are picking 3 laundry baskets every 3 days. Not much compared to what is still green out there and waiting. Soon it will be picking every day.

I look at the fruit in the orchard with new eyes - what else can I pick and send to market? There is a new assessment of all our fruit and a re-alignment of possibilities for making a living at Cape Trib. Maybe fruit can really give us the economic independence, we dreamed of twenty years ago when we started planting the orchard.

Mangosteens in waiting

2010-02-21T17:35:00.000+10:00

Mangosteens are being difficult

2010-02-21T15:41:00.000+10:00

We had predicted that the mangosteen harvest would commence in earnest around mid Feb. It is now the third week of Feb and there is only a small dribble trickling out. Most are still green.We are all ready to go - and we wait and we wait. Last week we sent 6 trays to Sydney - less than 20 kg. It looks like it will be around the same this week. We want the deluge!!! And we want it now!! If it delays much longer we will be on the plane to Los Angeles, with the crop still on the trees. So we are desperate to get the crop in before the end of March.

Ro and Kieran get ready to step into our shoes

2010-01-24T12:35:00.009+10:00

Two old friends of ours are about to step into our shoes for seven months so that we can achieve our lifelong ambition of walking the Appalachian trail, on the eastern USA, from end to end - 2,120 miles. Rosemary and Kieran have recently retired and are very excited about taking on the role of looking after our B&B guests, running the fruit tasting and the farm. We are booked to fly to the USA on the 29th March and return on 20th October. Rosemary and Kieran have stayed with us on several occasions over the years at Cape Trib, and love the area.

Rosemary most recently worked as a child psychologist in schools, but has swapped problem parents and challenging adolescents for the peace and quiet of the vegetable garden. Now there’s also more time for other interests such as the local environment, listening to music, reading and cooking home-grown food. Travelling has always been a particular passion, and after spending six months last year exploring outback Australia, especially the Kimberley and Pilbara, it’s time for the next adventure sampling life in the Wet Tropics and eating lots of exotic tropical fruit while Digby and Alison take a break.

Kieran has a background as a culinary herb farmer and has worked both as a voluntary and professional bush regenerator for the National Trust and a private company in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Kieran’s main interests are bird-watching and environmental weed control. In 2003 he was awarded the Centennial Medal by the federal government for his efforts in protecting native vegetation and was named environmental achiever of the year by his local government authority. He is the founder of several conservation groups and is the editor of a monthly 14-page conservation newsletter.
Kieran and Rosemary are both looking forward to the experience. The photo above shows Kieran, Rosemary and Digby enjoying a hamburger at Glen Helen Gorge in the Northern Territory. Ro and Kieran acted as our back up team while we walked the Larapinta Trail over 21 days.

Opening of our new packing shed

2010-01-10T18:45:00.000+10:00

A gathering of supporters for the official opening of the new packing shed by Mayor Val Schier

A poem to celebrate the completion of the new packing shed

2009-12-31T14:40:00.000+10:00

Journey of a lifetime - By Alison Gotts

Who would have thought it would take twenty one years?
I could have raised a child,
Become a barrister or a town planner.
Instead I chose to be
A mangosteen nurse-maid.
Twenty one years - weeding, feeding, weeding, feeding.
Don’t forget the whipper-snipping
Five whipper-snippers - four slashers - three tractors
Weeding, feeding, weeding, feeding
Feb 99 - Cyclone Rona
Her eye on our orchard
A message received in Tasmania
Gotts, your property destroyed by cyclone
Two hours to get from the front gate to the house
Breadfruit trees like toothpicks
Durian trees - that dream is dead
The lychee screwed out of the ground and gone
Mangosteens still standing
Leaning at 45 degrees in heavy rain
Get them up – stake them
Thanks Gill and Kellie
That job wasn’t in the house-sitting agreement
Chainsaws, cutting, loading, clearing,
Day after day, month after month.
Am I too old for this?
What if it happens again?
October 2000 - petals on the ground
The first flower
Mangosteens at last
Eleven years hoping
More years creep by - the fruit dribbles out
Hoping, waiting, weeding, feeding
April 2006 - a small commercial crop
Don’t complain
5,000 bucks is better than a kick in the pants
Raining, raining, hoping, waiting, weeding, feeding
No crop – too wet
Is this how I want to spend my life?
Waiting for fruit that never comes
September 2009 - Hot – too hot – no rain
Trees start dying
Brown leaves - dead branches
Stress – mine and theirs
I didn’t plant these trees to die
Heavy rain at last
Flowers - more flowers
Three flowers on one stalk
Twenty one years of waiting
Here it is – so many fruit
Every tree loaded
How to pick them all?
Get organized
Ladders, scales, boxes, pickers,
New packing shed
Paint it purple
Count down to zero
February ‘10
Twenty one years of waiting
Ready for a new journey
FREEEEDOM!

Repairing erosion after the flood with gabions

2009-12-24T14:54:00.000+10:00

Last January our creek overflowed its banks, and the walls of the creek undermined our driveway, very close to the house. We discovered that this could be repaired using Gabions - strong wire baskets wired together and filled with rocks and built in stacks, each layer slightly overlapping the layer underneath.It has taken nearly a year to get to this job. Here you can see Digby with Suzy and Alistair, two WWOOFAS from Scotland who are spending Christmas with us, starting the rock layering. Very hot work.

Recipe for mango salsa to serve with grilled prawns

2009-12-21T15:17:00.000+10:00

This recipe is a winner - we tried it at our staff christmas party and it tasted excellent. . Serve mango salsa on the side with prawns or duck breast or scallops. We ate the salsa with cooked prawns - the hot spicy and sweet flavour of the salso worked well with the prawns. The recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander - 'The Cook's Companion'. Thankyou Stephanie!

Mango salsa

Ingredients
1 mango peeled and diced
2 slices of red onion chopped very finely
1 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method
Combine all ingredients and allow to stand for several hours before using.
We think that vietnamese mint would work well instead of normal mint too.

Drinking Mango Bellinis for Xmas

2009-12-20T14:39:00.001+10:00

A christmas celebration with all our workers - we couldnt do it without the team.

Make a soursop daiquiri for christmas - here is the recipe

2009-12-14T14:17:00.000+10:00

Prepare the fruit to get the juice
The soursop should be avocado soft but not squishy. Hold the fruit with one hand and peel away the skin with other hand. Once you have removed as much skin as possible, break the ripe fruit open, and remove the core and the flesh with your hands. Place the flesh in a mouli or a sieve and push the fruit through the mesh so that the seeds and pulp are left behind and the juice is collected underneath.

The cocktail ingredients
60 ml juice, as prepared above
45 ml bacardi rum
15 ml white curacao
5-8 ice cubes
a maraschino cherry for decoration

Method
Place all ingregients in a blender and blend until smooth, pour into a large cocktail galss and decorate with cherry. Yum!

Soursop Juice

2009-12-13T18:42:00.000+10:00

We are currently researching a new product to add to our jams - soursop juice. We have received many requests for fresh soursop and juice from people looking for the fruit as a medication against cancer. Research has shown that the fruit, the bark and the leaves all have medicinal properties and anti-oxidants which have shown promise against cancer cells.

It is very difficult to send fresh soursop to the market as it is very perishable. It is also difficult to preserve the juice without adding sugar. We have imported a large pressure cooker from the US and completed a trial batch of bottling the juice and then heating it to extremely high temperatures to kill the bacteria. We are still testing the product to determine its USE BY date, but it appears to be at least a couple of months.

Hopefully this product may meet some of the requests we receive.