Getting ready for 2019 season

Much of today was spent spreading lime around the trees while the weather was good. On our travels up and down the rows Stew found an unripe truffle poking up through the sand where we've previously seen one in the last 2 weeks and covered it up with sand until it ripens. A second truffle was found towards the end of the day, sitting in what appeared to be a crater, like it had landed there with some impact! On having a good sniff we thought it had rot in it so we removed it to further investigate. Much of the truffle was just unripe and a small portion was rotten from being exposed to water from irrigating last night. We wish we'd seen it sooner to just cover it up and let it grow. Live and learn!

Charlie pays a visit

We had our first visit by a truffle dog today - Charlie from Shaggy Dog Truffles. His handler Will took him over our truffiere and although he didn't sniff out any black gold today, we are feeling positive about Will's complimentary feedback on the progress and state of our trees and the fact that brules have appeared around some of the trees.

Spring has sprung

It's a lovely time of year with the trees coming into leaf again and it looks like we'll have the least amount of trees to replace this year. We're actually beginning to look like a Truffiere.

Truffle no.2 found!

A few weeks back Stew found another truffle growing next to our original find - and it was bigger and ripening nicely. He's been closely monitoring it and after a good sniff yesterday we decided to harvest it.

What a specimen! It weighed 102grams and was a great shape. Blacker than the first and hard - no signs of rot. Smelt good too - pungent enough to be the real deal. Cutting into it, it has a nice marbelling as well.

We enjoyed a very special breakfast with our best mates this morning who were staying overnight. Now to google more truffle recipes! We've already had some great tips and advice from a talented local chef.

Our first truffle!

It was the 25th of March, and perfect weather to be outdoors and get some hand weeding done. Our process is to work down a row of trees and we each work on an alternate tree. Sago accompanied us as usual, enjoying the shade some of our trees now provide.

Late in the morning Stew was working his way round an oak tree when he stopped and called my name with a strange tone - like he was unsure of himself. While weeding around there base of the tree  he noticed an unusual growth appearing out of the sand. He had a scratch around and although our trees are about only 3 and a half years in the ground, and it's the end of summer, we found our first truffle!

It's a little underripe - with a reddish appearance, but had a great shape and smells like truffle already. Estimated to be about 50g.

He went back in the ground to mature and spread the truffle love underground. A momentous day!

Like all special occasions should be marked, we took ourselves off to a celebratory lunch at the new Amelia Park Lodge not long after the photo above.

Close call

11 September 2016 - A storm ripped through the Yallingup hills this week and took out two large dead trees in the paddock. Miraculously both fell between rows and our oaks and hazels and did no damage. Thank you guardian angels! A bit of mess to clean up and fences to repair but it could have been a lot worse.

Tree progress - Feb 2015

Tree progress, Feb 2015

Blue wren

We get some lovely birds on the property but get excited each time we see a blue wren.

Aerial views

Jan 2016 - As part of Stew's 50th birthday celebrations we had a flight with Scenic Helicopters along the coastline. Our pilot Jackson picked us up from home and on the way home we had the bonus of seeing our trees from the air.

Taking shape

November 2015 - some of our trees are really beginning to take shape - the oaks in particular are now looking strong and more tree-like. The ride-on mower is also helping to keep the paddock looking sharp.

Growing taller

Tree inspection, 6 September 2015. Excited that some are now taller than us!

May 2015 progress

Tree progress photo - May 2015

Tree progress - Jan 2015

8 Jan 2015 - Tree progress

December 2014 update

Tree update - Dec 2014, along with new veggie garden.

Different aspects

August 2014 orchard views

Early challenges

It wasn't an easy job keeping the trees fertilised before we had our injection system installed.

November, 2013

 December, 2013

March, 2014

Another new family member

March 2014 - After a lot of searching we have gained a new family member - Fred the tractor. He's a great little workhorse, making Stew's paddock maintenance work far more enjoyable.  

We've also had a massive session over a few days making wire tree protectors after having a steady flow of roos in the paddock.

Another weekend, another job!

Fencing around the paddock is now a priority with roos getting stuck into the trees. Stew's doing it all himself and doing an amazing job.

New year new life - but not ideal in the paddock

1 January 2014. Our paddock has traditionally been a bit of a kangaroo thoroughfare so our young trees are a bit under threat of being munched. Fencing and wire tree guards are on the cards.

Irrigation and tree planting

November 2013 - we laid the irrigation after work for a week which was pretty hard yakka and then spent a weekend getting the trees planted.  Getting the trees delivered and planted had to wait til the ground dried out a bit after a really wet winter.

Sago threw herself into the challenge