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...

Opera in the Orchard Jay Weston at Chestnut Brae & Chestnut Farm Tour Experience Saturday, October 31st, 2020 Gates open 11:00, Tour 12:00 repeated 13:30, Concert 15:00 This concert is limited to an audience of 100 in the orchard. The Opera will be held at...

Sweet Chestnut is a native of the Mediterranean and first introduced and grown in the UK  by the Romans , who used the fruits to make a porridge, called pollenta in Latin, which  is still consumed but only in the poorer regions of southern Europe.  It grows well on...