Category Archives: Farmer
-
Fertiliser Spreading
3Thursday 19 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Spreading the fertiliser is a slow and laborious job, taking the best part of four hours for the main orchard …
Continue reading -
Fertiliser Preparation Time
6Wednesday 18 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
So the time has come to ‘do’ the fertiliser… a rather long storm has recently passed through, so the earth is …
Continue reading -
My Fertiliser Truck
7Tuesday 17 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
. Following on from my car’s recent tractor-type duties with shifting the wood cut from the olive trees after this …
Continue reading -
My Logging Truck
22Sunday 15 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Having pruned a number of the olive trees for regeneration, and lopped a few branches from wild Bay trees, the …
Continue reading -
A spot of wood cutting
11Thursday 12 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Having pruned over 250 trees this season, I can finally declare that job to be behind me, at last. It’s …
Continue reading -
Lemon recovery
14Wednesday 11 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Although two of the lemon trees look pretty much ‘gone’, and the largest is still in panic shut-down mode, we …
Continue reading -
Bay leaves anyone?
11Tuesday 10 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
I remember these things in cookery lessons, but to be honest, that was about as much knowledge I had on …
Continue reading -
Olive Tree Regeneration
13Sunday 08 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Olive trees need a particular style of care which is altogether different to the fruit trees we have on the …
Continue reading -
My ‘little’ sprayer…
9Sunday 08 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Remember this year I hired the tractor and pump for the main orchard copper sulphate tree spraying? Well it saved me …
Continue reading -
Citrus Tree Care – Copper Sulphate
10Tuesday 03 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike
With the citrus trees afflicted with a fair degree of moss, lichen crustaceans, and general leaf decay, the best treatment by far …
Continue reading -
Citrus Tree Care – Shoot Pruning
15Thursday 26 February, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Pruning of the citrus trees is really only necessary every three years, when you can end up cutting large branches to …
Continue reading -
Trees in Need of Some TLC
15Tuesday 24 February, 2015 by Uncle Spike
As posted a while ago, the citrus trees have had a tough year, with a long hot dry summer that went …
Continue reading -
Them Poor Lemon Trees
14Tuesday 10 February, 2015 by Uncle Spike
As I posted recently, we had a short sharp cold cold snap where temperatures dropped to -5C (23F) on a few nights, which is …
Continue reading -
Iced Lemons?
9Thursday 29 January, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Icy weather plays havoc with fruit farming, but the worst affected tend to be lemons I have found. Their internal …
Continue reading -
Last of the Winter Citrus
27Tuesday 27 January, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Citrus fruit are harvested in one of two seasons, depending on the variety. For example, we have lemon and orange …
Continue reading -
Winter Storm Wastes Tonnes of Fruit
6Saturday 24 January, 2015 by Uncle Spike
As well as the damage that very cold weather can do to the trees and leaves, the fruit obviously suffers, …
Continue reading -
Kumquat
22Friday 23 January, 2015 by Uncle Spike
Mid January: time for one of my favourite fruits, the humble Kumquat. Not a bad crop this year of our …
Continue reading -
Ice Damaged Fruit Trees
9Thursday 22 January, 2015 by Uncle Spike
The problem with a cold snap, is that whilst it looks nice and wintry with snow in the mountains that …
Continue reading -
Picking Time
14Wednesday 07 January, 2015 by Uncle Spike
It’s that time of year when there are tractors and trucks and workers everywhere – it’s fruit harvest time. . …
Continue reading -
Olive Oil Harvesting – How Much?
15Monday 22 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
So, we have now covered the end to end process, from olive growing through to oil production. But how much …
Continue reading -
Olive Oil Harvesting – One Year
15Saturday 20 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
In the preceding four part series, we looked at, preparing for, harvesting and processing olives to make our olive oil. But what was the …
Continue reading -
Citrus fruit update
10Thursday 18 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Most of the fruit is now being harvested, dodging in-between storms. Clementines are our primary crop, and sweet and juicy …
Continue reading -
Olive Oil Harvesting – Factory Time
20Tuesday 16 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
In part one of this post, we looked at the harvest season and preparing to pick. In part two there …
Continue reading -
My autumn colours #3
11Tuesday 16 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
This is the third in the series looking at our late autumn colours around the farm. We get the usual windswept …
Continue reading -
Olive Oil Harvesting – Off to the factory
22Sunday 14 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
In part one of this post, we looked at the harvest season and preparing to pick. In part two there …
Continue reading -
Cheating Death While Olive Picking
10Tuesday 09 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Olive trees grow in the weirdest of places, and seem quite happy on the sides of mountains, steep inclines, as …
Continue reading -
Olive Oil Harvesting – Picking
19Saturday 06 December, 2014 by Uncle Spike
In part one of this post, we looked at the harvest season and preparing to pick olives for oil production. …
Continue reading -
Olive Oil Harvesting – Preparation
7Friday 21 November, 2014 by Uncle Spike
2014 has been an average year for our olive harvest. This year was a ‘harvest’ year in terms of yield, …
Continue reading -
Mediterranean Fruit Fly
12Tuesday 04 November, 2014 by Uncle Spike
One of the most prolific pests that affects citrus fruit production is the humble Ceratitis capitata, or Mediterranean Fruit Fly. In short, from late summer …
Continue reading -
Fluffy Squeaky Things
16Monday 03 November, 2014 by Uncle Spike
We only had one hen ‘sit’ this year, but it was her first year and first attempt, and as is …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #12
Leave a commentMonday 13 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #11
2Sunday 12 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #10
2Saturday 11 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #9
2Friday 10 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #8
3Thursday 09 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #7
3Wednesday 08 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #6
10Tuesday 07 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #5
8Monday 06 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #4
2Sunday 05 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #3
10Saturday 04 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #2
6Friday 03 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Handful of Autumn Fruit #1
8Thursday 02 October, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Late September, early October, and the winter fruit season is marching ever closer, whilst some other summer fruits are still …
Continue reading -
Peaches – Best Year Yet
19Wednesday 03 September, 2014 by Uncle Spike
No chemical fertilisers, fungicides or pesticides Just sun, water and goat poo… Bring it on I say 😀
-
No…. Not THAT Tap…!
12Sunday 17 August, 2014 by Uncle Spike
The laws beset by Marriage 101 dictate beyond any reasonable doubt, that whosoever was to ‘blame’ for ANY incident, should …
Continue reading -
Life n Times of a Pomegranate
27Saturday 16 August, 2014 by Uncle Spike
These fruit fascinate me. They grow on tough, not particularly pretty bushes, have magnificent delicate crimson red flowers, some evil …
Continue reading -
Fruit : Oranges
5Tuesday 05 August, 2014 by Uncle Spike
These are one of our main crops. Mostly we have large, thick skinned Washington Oranges, which are very juicy and …
Continue reading -
Fruit : Pomelo
16Thursday 31 July, 2014 by Uncle Spike
These large ‘pink grapefruit’ are called Pomelo, or Citrus maxima (or Citrus Grandis) to use their posh name. Ours are now …
Continue reading -
Fruit : Pears
10Tuesday 29 July, 2014 by Uncle Spike
As with the apples mentioned the other day, growing hard fruits like pears is also notoriously poor in this hot …
Continue reading -
Fruit : Jujube
5Sunday 27 July, 2014 by Uncle Spike
Jujube, or Ziziphus jujuba, Red Date, Chinese Date, Korean Date, or Indian Date… Here we call them Hünnap. But as you …
Continue reading -
Fruit : Sloe
13Saturday 26 July, 2014 by Uncle Spike
What is called “Deli Erik” (or Wild Plum) here in Turkey is sort of a wild Sloe. Most folk cut …
Continue reading
Uncle Spike's Adventures 