My mummy is here! She surprised me by showing up a few days earlier than expected! Her and Jamo have settled in on the farm, setting up their caravan amongst the fruit trees.
In exchange for free rent (hah!) we've put them to work. Jamo has been helping Josh with some manly things, like pruning trees back to bare stumps, clearing up some junk and picking SO MUCH FRUIT! The boys spent three days picking buckets and buckets of jaboticaba fruit, to make 290 litres of wine. It was an epic effort, and they're both covered in scratches - but they've done it!
We've crushed all the fruit and are using one of our largest fermentation tanks to start the process. Today, we added some sugar (nearly 40kg!) and finally the yeast. In a day or two, we'll remove the jaboticaba skins from the wine and press them to extract as much juice as we can, and then continue the fermentation process.
In a week or so after that (it depends on so many variables, it's all a little slower in the cooler weather) the fermentation should stop and we will remove the wine from the big tank and leave it to settle in smaller tanks. (Well, I think that's the plan - Josh is the winemaker, not me!)
Mum has been just as busy as Jamo. She's been on a cleaning binge, and I'm more than happy to let her! She's vacuumed and cleaned my beloved car, Betsy, and has cleaned the donga. She has also lovingly tended to our washing, taking it in and out in between rain showers. She's also our chief dishwasher, cleaning up the coffee cups etc after we have customers. She is also an expert Jam Maker now! She helped me make a ginormous batch of Spiced Jaboticaba and Tawny Port Jam - I don't think she liked it much, but she pushed through anyway.
They've spent a bit of time checking out the town, and have spent plenty of money in town already! They are VERY generously gifting Josh a new battery for the ute for his birthday (thanks guys!) and are taking Betsy in for a service. They're also testing all the coffee shops in town to see who has the best coffee and scones!
We haven't had a Mammino gourmet ice-cream yet, but I'm sure we will soon. We also missed out on going to the local fudge shop last week (it's only open Fri, Sat, Sun!), so we'll have to go there this weekend.
It's been pretty strange here lately, business wise. It seems we're busier during the week, and then dead on weekends...well, at least it seems that way for the last two weeks. Today, for instance, we had a group of motorbikers call in for morning tea really early, then a recently retired wine-lover who's moved to the area looking for a local drop, then a couple travelling up from Tin Can Bay who saw our ad in a magazine and drove the hour up to visit and have lunch, then a late drop in who was sent to buy a bottle of wine for his mum. It doesn't sound like too many customers, I'm sure, but that's a pretty solid day for us, especially for a Monday!
Aaaaaand, I think that's all that's been happening lately!
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