Autumn 2012
Summer this year, while far from dry, has enabled our
paddocks to lose the consistency of a wet sponge. There was enough rain
and sun for the pasture to keep growing such that we have hardly needed
to feed out at all. ("Feeding out" means to supplement the
grass available on the paddocks with hay and silage cut from the property
earlier in that Spring/Summer.)
We have our first crop of walnuts - not enough for
commercial sales but enough for us to know that our trees will be
producing top quality nuts. We don't know how much yet since we have to
let them dry out before we weigh them. As they come off the tree,
walnuts have too high a moisture content (although there is a big market
in Europe for walnuts in this form.) They need to dry out enough for the
septum between the nut halves to become dry and crisp. In this state,
they will keep fresh for up to a year.
Real walnuts are not to be confused with the yellow,
waxy walnuts you see in supermarkets. If they are yellow and waxy
looking with a strong bitter taste, they are rancid!
Far too many people have never tasted a real quality
walnut. It is a matter of re-educating them (one at a time!) as to what
a delicious nut the walnut really is.
(20/3/2012)
About DeadHorseCreek
Dead Horse Creek is situated in picturesque Neerim
East in a valley in
the southern foothills of Victoria's eastern ranges. We have enough
rainfall (about a metre a year in non-drought years) to remain green all through summer
and, with 2 permanent creeks, we manage to escape the Australian
archetype of the "Wide Brown Land" during summer.
We are surrounded by bush* on two sides and farms on
the other two (see Farm Photos).
With the bush to the south and east, we are protected
from the worst of the bushfire season with the prevailing wind pattern
in summer coming from the north and west, especially on hot days.
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