Dear All,
We commenced the bottling process on Tuesday, and have delivered our pre-orders in the last few days.
There is still more to be bottled: get your orders in.
Pricing in this fast moving world, will remain the same as 2025:
For our standard 500ml bottle with built in pourer:
1 bottle $25
2 bottles $50
4 bottles $90
8 bottles $180
Since harvest we have pruned the whole grove, some of the trees had grown too tall for our harvesting rakes. For these trees the technique is with a chainsaw to take out the tall branches on the north side, and leave, for the time being, the tall branches on the south side. The theory is we will not put the trees off cropping this year if we are moderate in our pruning. Come November we will assess the crop and if all seems well: take some of the tall branches from the south side of the tree as well.
Post-harvest the trees got an antifungal Copper spray, with added Boron and Mineral oil. The Copper spray suppresses fungal activity, the Boron is quite an ephemeral element and a foliar spray is the best way to keep the trees topped up. Finally the mineral oil makes it harder for Olive Lace Bug critters to latch onto the leaves.
The grove is looking bonny, we final got some good rain in May.
The 2026 cycle should be an ‘on year’ so fingers crossed we will have a decent crop to harvest in April 2027.
The Choughs are still about the grove, Anthony, my son in law, has taken this
brilliant photo of a Chough in flight. On the ground, wings folded they are all black in colour like crows!
Whilst pruning and woodchipping, the Choughs slowly got used to me. Initially the twenty or so would head off to the nearest tree when I turned up. Later on we coexisted in quite close proximity.
Anthony has been documenting our birdlife: whilst it is a work in progress, we have loaded the 21 pictures of birds on Shalumar on the website. To come, hopefully, is a picture of the elusive black cockatoos, and probably 10 or so other birds. We until now did not realise the variety of birdlife on our farm, which includes visiting Pelicans and Swans on and off through the year. All our creeks are fenced off for the local wildlife, most of which was done 20 plus years ago. The only wildlife downside is feral deer: they make a terrible mess of any tree they do not like. Fortunately the olive grove and main house have a deer fence around them.
Current farm activity is replacing our 700m boundary fence with one of our neighbours. The fence is around 50 years old and starting to fail, Phil and I are hard at work, so far 250m completed. I do hate working with barb wire, very tough on the hands!
The Angus cows will be calving from July onwards; the mums are surprisingly skittish considering their advance condition!
Alan
0419255949