October in the Orchard This is noisy month. As I write this month’s events in the orchard you can hear the noise from my office. This year I am convinced there is more noise than other years. There is the baa baa from the sheep who now live in a flock of 50. There is...

September in the Orchard Winter has officially finished and the first month of spring has arrived. This year has been the wettest winter since we purchased Chestnut Brae and the farm is still exceptionally wet. This has meant that it has been difficult to get into the...

 'Grandy's Long Walk' by Linda Stanley We were so excited when Linda Stanley's book 'Grandy's Long Walk' was featured on the podcast Radio WA Conversations with Barry Green - Western Tourist Radio A conversation, recorded in July 2020, with Linda Stanley for our...

The Farm in August Water Chestnuts are a reed and grow in water, they are in fact a root tuber. In July this year I am sure our sweet chestnuts became water chestnuts.It rained almost every day of the month and we had the wettest and what felt like the coldest July in...

The Chestnut Orchard in July Chestnuts need around 600mm a year of water, mainly in the winter and cool weather when they are dormant. They got both this year. We have had an exceptionally wet and cold June which is ideal chestnut winter weather. The winter storms...

Blackwood Chestnut Ale wins Gold Blackwood Valley Brewing Company’s (The Cidery, Bridgetown) Blackwood Chestnut Ale has confirmed its reputation as one of the world’s best beers with its second Gold Medal at the 2021 Australian International Beer Awards. The 2021 Gold...

Orchard in June The harvesting has finished. Let me qualify that, the winter rains arrived two weeks early and forced the harvesting to be finished. There are still nuts on the ground, but these will be contaminated by fungus and will not be fit for human consumption....

Golden Tree with a Golden View  Visitors to our farm stay at this time of the year always comment on the golden views from the deck. For the month of May the view is more spectacular than at other times of the year. The reason: Fraxinus excelsior “Aurea” is in full...

Doug Hardman's Visit Doug visited us at Chestnut Brae and to find out all about chestnuts, catch a marron, feed the pigs, cows, turkeys and much more. While he was here he learnt all about the processing of chestnuts and along the way, Doug made a great video and...

The Irish Strawberry Tree Comes from Spain Every plant has story to tell, one of the most amazing stories comes from the Irish Strawberry tree. Arbutus unedo is an evergreen tree that grows near our farm stay The first surprise it presents that it is member of the...