And now for my real passion- trees! This old redgum was once smothered with feral olives but is now re-shooting- it must be hundreds of years old and is on ‘redgum rise’!!! There are manna gums in the valleys and SA bluegums up the slopes as well as ‘ghost’ stringybark trees high on the hillside above our house. Around the house are every possible species of tree- especially those that flower or fruit!
So far; eggs, olive oil, eating olives, fig jam from the two big trees in the valleys if we can get them before the birds, blackberry jam, lemons, oranges, limes, bay leaves, herbs, avocados, passionfruit, medlar jelly, false quince jelly, caramelised cumquat and orange marmalade, and from the orchard-plum jam, apricots, apples, pears, pistachio, pecan, hazelnuts, walnuts and chestnuts, quince paste, plum-cot jam, nectarines, peaches and jujubes.
Maybe one day- spring water now that we have learned how to tap it…..truffles, saffron, capers if they grow
See if you can spot them! Wild Deer in the first photo, a brown snake in the next……
Feral olives and blackberries gradually going by mulching, bull-dozing, chainsawing, spraying and burning- but first the cows eat all of the olive fruit and leaves so they make good fodder!
Some of the activities around the house so far- showing the old barn roof (now replaced), a new shed, retaining walls and garden around the house, the old kitchen and bathroom (now replaced), pipes and digging the hole for the underground concrete tank.
Our cows started with a black and white ‘Abby’ and as we added more with a starter herd from ‘Corfe Park’ in the South East (my Fathers’ cattle property) and bred an Angus herd by Artificial Insemination, Abby was the matriarch who oversaw everything- the births, where they grazed and who also ‘mooed’ for attention when they needed to move paddocks or if water was low. Alas she dropped dead of a heart attack at 24 years old.Calving each year is a delight. We feed out hay in a ring and the cows get very excited when feral olives are being felled as they love the foliage and fruit as witnessed by the amount of seeds in their manure! We breed these cows for ease of calving, quiet temperament and don’t need to give them any chemical treatments so they are sold only for breeding to good homes. We have got very attached to our girls who now have names, not just numbers, as each has a different personality……and this year we had our first set of twins.