Sunny Harvest Day.

 Kiwifruit picking 2017.

Thursday was a sunny warm day. After overnight rain the clean up spray got reapplied and the sprayer went through just blowing to try and dry the fruit as it was so calm. Despite the late start we just got finished before dark This photo shows just some of the 25 pickers working flat out. There were 4 tractors pulling bin trailers each carrying  3 bins. 

 The 2nd trailer load of 3 bins has arrived back at the loading area. The 1st 3 can be seen on the left behind with the bin cards ( identification etc ) attached.The other bins are as yet empty, soon  to be filled.

 Some of the pickers were female.

 Pickers from many counties. This man from Iran.

 Note how the bottom of the picking bag unlatches so the fruit gently slides out.

 Some were happy to pose.

The tractor driver and the supervisor smooth the top of the bins and check for any leaves or stalks to take out.

Joey on the forklift ( for lifting full and empty bins and loading the trucks )  just giggled when the back right wheel got stuck. He waited till a tractor came and pushed him out.

One of the curtain sided trucks partly filled with full bins 

Lots of people; lots of fast picking and bag  emptying.

 Well that's done for this year. It was our 36th crop.

Any Fine Day Now.

 The Eurofins fruit sample collector has been this morning and taken our 2nd 100 kiwifruit sample to test for dry matter. The higher the dry matter the more the grower gets paid. Whichever is the best result is the one that is used. ( we get one free sample and pay for any more we request )  The fruit sample gets taken back to the Katikati office where it is cut and dried to get the test results. That takes about 24 + hours.

 We have been told that we are the next orchard after the one they are picking at now, so tomorrow or Friday if it stays fine. A cleanup spray has to be applied and dry before picking starts.

Quilting Retreat.

Yesterday I spent the day ( a very cold one ) with some of my P and Q friends at Retreat. Some ladies stayed over Friday and Saturday night. About half like me just went for all day Saturday. I hope they were warm last night as it was our coldest so far this year.
 8 ladies made a quick jelly roll quilt. All finished their tops in the day.

 A pattern is not really required. Just join all your strips together across the narrow 2.5" ends. Either diagonally or straight. This makes a very long continuous 2.5" strip of fabric. ( One or 2 jelly rolls could be used.or you could cut your own lengths from scraps. )Some ladies added in a 2.5 " square of another bright fabric, just every now and then. You then take the 2 ends and lay the strips side by side and join down a very long seam. This is repeated cutting at the end each time.

The rest of the ladies worked on their own projects . Here are some of them having a tea break.

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AM asked all the club members ( about 85 ) to make one or more of these 12.5" wonky blocks with a solid coloured square in the corner. She got the idea from a  tutorial on The Quilter's table  site. 

 Today I set to and made mine.

 All the blocks to be plain white and a black patterned with a coloured square.

 The blocks will be joined to make several quilts.

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 I finished Grandson beanie and have seen pics of him wearing it .

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 We are meant to be picking our kiwifruit later this coming week.

Foraging.

I've been out foraging......... Well that's not strictly true as it was all on our own property and we planted the respective trees. Anyway I was well pleased to find the last few Avocados had dropped to the ground and were still usable. ( the birds had been into lots of others ) 

 The first sapotes ( custard apples ) looked ready enough to pick a few ( that's the green round ones at the back )

 The persimmons are now colouring up and I know the birds and wasps are into them so I picked some that will ripen inside.

 We are getting this bowl full of feijoas ( pineapple guavas to my Oz friends ) every 3 days . They are strange trees...in that 2 months ago I would have said we will get 50 total, but as they get larger and begin to fall there is a never ending stream of them ( I'm not complaining ).

 Of course the kiwifruit will be ready to pick when it's our turn - hopefully with in the next 2 weeks.