Arborvitae Farm in Sebastian, Victoria, Australia | Farm

Arborvitae Farm

Locality: Sebastian, Victoria, Australia

Address: Bassett Road 3556 Sebastian, VIC, Australia

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24.01.2022 The shadehouse is closer to completion. Only one and two thirds of the roof to go. This is a fiddly job, time consuming but, we are already noticing a difference in shade and a small micro-climate happening in and around the shadehouse.... The bay tree on the east side, (the right hand side but not shown in the photo) has shown his pleasure in the shade, by growing another third of his size already. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey!

22.01.2022 A few samples of the colours of our cornflowers...They really are a favourite of mine and look super in clusters.

22.01.2022 Homemade Watermelon sorbet, with last year's homegrown Watermelon, and Orange sorbet.....went down a treat this morning in the escalating heat. If you are interested, I am happy to share my own recipe, although I go by feel rather than correct measures! #arborvitaefarm #primaryproducers # freshisbest #buylocaleatfresh #sorbetrunningdownyourhandmakesyoufeellikeakid

22.01.2022 A collection of our herbs that went to a lovely home this morning, along with a stack of fellow roommate vegetables. Bye herbs, it was lovely to grow and harvest you! #arborvitaefarm #primaryproducers #freshisbest #buylocal #welovethisfarmingcaper

21.01.2022 These heirloom variety radish are heading off to their new home today. They were sown and harvested at the same time and yet notice the difference in sizes, and of course their colour and taste vary too. We use the leaf in our salads, and cook them in stir fry. ... This is a two-in-one vegetable! Another win-win! #arborvitaefarm #primaryproducers #rockingthislife #hardworkcleanheart #dirtyhandscleanmind

20.01.2022 Can you see him behind me...in the horse trough? What a cheek! Is he looking at me? HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.......and a belated Merry Christmas. Wishing you all a wonderful, safe and happy 2019.

20.01.2022 I spent a few minutes today, walking the farm, enjoying every single minute, every sound, aroma, and sight. Can you see the two creatures taking refuge? Take a very close look.

18.01.2022 When your heirloom radish looks too pretty to eat! These radish tend to be slightly smaller than the generic variety, but they are tastier and far more palatable. They look super in a salad too...they really add zing and zesto your plate!

18.01.2022 To brighten up your Summer drinks, particularly your Christmas drinks.....try ice-cubing edible flowers. They really are fun, and create a bit of merry conversation. I am addicted!

17.01.2022 It is extremely windy here today, so instead of trying to finish the slats on the shadehouse, I have been planting watermelon and more canteloupe, checking chickens, and this........cutting roses and hollyhocks. #arborvitaefarm #slowinglifedown

16.01.2022 Good Morning Everyone! Last night I promised to write up a post of the 'happenings' around our farm. Well! I did, however, I decided to re-write the information into a few different posts, which I will share with you over the course of the day. This then keeps the posts shorter, albeit, still lengthy, but this cannot be helped, as there truly is so much to tell you all and so much information to share. For now, I let you know this:... If you are local -ish, and you put yourself on our mailing list for eggs and vegetables, by 8pm this evening, then you will be eligible for our Christmas give-away! If you buy $50 or more of free range eggs and /or vegetables, you will receive a beautiful, cut glass preserving jar with 300g of our freshly harvested Arborvitae Farm honey. What a gift! Simply message us with your Email address (Your details truly do remain with us. We are NOT a big corporation, nor are we unethical. We will NOT share youur information with anyone) and we will send out our usual Monday morning product list to you. It is then up to you if you wish to buy. Stay tuned for more informative posts today.

16.01.2022 A lovely sight for primary producers. Dark clouds......stay a while

15.01.2022 Artichokes from our farm being designed into glorious bouquets by local florist, The Flower Mint.

13.01.2022 Our beautiful Golden round (or yellow round) Zucchini. This zucchini holds firm, has more taste that the more general ( Black Jack) variety and looks super on the plate when stuffed! #arborvitaefarm #primaryproducers #lovethisfoodcaper #buylocalbuyfresh

10.01.2022 HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.. My Gosh! One minute we were preparing for Christmas, and now it is the first week of the new year. Where did that time go? Much has happened here on the farm. We are expanding! ....Not just our waistlines after Christmas, but our chicken and vegetable growing areas!! ... Our pesticide/herbicide free vegetables and free range eggs are in such demand (and we think, rightly so), that we simply cannot keep up with demand, so we must expand our operation. We will try to keep you updated on activities here, but you know that, as much as we appreciate your love, we enjoy working and being, in our gardens, more than we do at the computer! Fingers crossed we can reach a happy medium this year! So, there is much building and fencing to be happening in the coming weeks and months. The heat over Christmas, has certainly knocked a lot of our vegetables and chickens, around. We reached a disasterous, 48.9 degrees here on one of the days over Christmas, but luckily, with much dedication and care, we did not lose one chicken or hive....the vegetables and flowers did get a little burnt, but nothing we cannot cope with.....Thankfully! I have never seen Mr AVF working so quickly, so high on ladders, in extreme heat, battling shadecloth, to save our wonderful produce. A huge thank you to him. The farm loves you Mr AVF! So, to begin the year with joy and happiness, I leave you with our current favourite flower...... ZINNIAS.... originating in south America, being more popular and prolific in Mexico, this flower LOVES the sun, is easy to grow and comes in a huge range of colours. Some have these marvellous centres that replicate a beehive...just gorgeous! Our farm is just brimming with them at the moment. Happy New Year Everyone....Here's to a bright, happy, healthy beginning to 2019.

09.01.2022 Hot and humid here today, but no rain.....I am thinking of conducting a raindance ceremony.....I will be googling the process and reliability.. I will try and post a massive update of farm activities, later this evening. There has been a lot going on! In the meantime, please enjoy today's floral display from our vegetable garden.... #arborvitaefarm #primaryproducers #couldnothaveabetterlife #lifeissoexciting #thNkgoodnesspunkisnotallowedintheveggiepatch #gilbertchristopherisbannedfromtheveggiepatchtoo

09.01.2022 The sunsets here are something else! Definitely a wonderful time of day to reflect and be grateful.

08.01.2022 Just scrummy. Let's get behind Australian made.

07.01.2022 Gosh! We cannot believe this year is nearly at an end. What happened? So much has taken place here on the farm. We have had amazing adventures, building of a new shadehouse, building of relationships, and business ideas, saying sad goodbyes to those taken too early from us, laughter, excitement, hard work, back breaking work, success, failures and we would do it all over again, in a pinch. ... Overall, we have had a wonderful year, but, whatever type of year you have had, do not forget to take time out for yourself. Read, garden, meditate, bushwalk or simply listen to music on a comfy couch. Whatever it is to help you relax and be still for just a moment each day.....do it! ...............

07.01.2022 This year we planted a few hundred sunflowers because they truly do make my heart sing. We have a number of varieties. My aim for next year, is to plant a few thousand, in patterns around the property.... #arborvitaefarm #lifegoals #couldthesegirlsmakemeanyhappier

06.01.2022 Throughout the year, we have heard many small and large commercial and backyard beekeepers have lost hives (as in, lost bees) and/or, have very little honey production, due to drought and bad weather in general. We are a very small concern (less than five hives), we never kill our queens, we harvest every two years, not every year and we only harvest a minute amount ( usually the lid of the hives, not the frames). We interfere with the hives as little as possible.... When we harvest, Mr AVF is on hand to save any bees found drowning in the cut honey ( he washes the honey off each girl, so they can fly off and do their thing. This is a very delicate operation and much kudos to Mr AVF for his love of our girls and his patience). This is not to say that we do not lose a girl or two during harvest, but we try our very best not to harm and to save any who are in difficulty, because of us. We try to live in harmony with our girls. This year we sowed much seed, of vegetables, herbs and flowers, and we have planted many trees, both ornamental (shade giving) and fruit, that also flower prolifically at various times throughout the year. Every plant, every tree must have a purpose for our bees. Having heard all of these dire stories from other beekeepers, we were dreading opening our hives this season. We were prepared that we may have lost some of our bees. Late Winter saw us terribly concerned about one of the hives, as it was suffering a disease known as chalkbrood, but I applied an old fashioned remedy and left them alone to clean the disease with the remedy. Over the last few days, there has been a strong and distinct aroma of honey in the air...a bit sickly really, so yesterday, we opened the first hive! Yes! we were correct.....the aroma was certainly honey....IT WAS EVERYWHERE! The girls had gone mad and had comb and honey in every nook and cranny of the hive. It was melting everywhere! So, we cleaned out the lid of the hive, tidied up, added another super (honey box) to the hive, now making it a three stack hive and left them to it. This lid alone, gave us five litres of honey! We are so grateful to the girls and a little thankful that we are not greedy. We do not rob the hives to make copious amounts of money, otherwise it is most likely that we would not have the stunning and healthy hives that we do. The girls pollinate our fruit and vegetables, share their food source with us occassionally and we try to give them the best, closest food source to their hive. Win-win! A lesson for some farmers to learn, we think!