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| Our jackfruit babies are getting huuuuuuuuuge! (Still a month or two away from being ripe though...) |
Tuesday, 28 July 2015
Jackfruit!
Friday, 24 July 2015
A weekend in Queensland
Today, we had the team from Queensland Weekender (a QLD based show, like Postcards WA) here to film a segment at Ohana Winery!!!
It was such an incredible opportunity and an absolute privilege to have Dean, Sarah and Aaron here to share some stories, fruit and booze with.
We called in a few favours and pulled an impressive 'rent-a-crowd' to be in the background of the shots, and did our best to showcase our winery. We also did an epic clean up and re-organise of our wine cellar. It looks incredible in there now, and we're about to launch our 'tour package' to take guests through the cellar to learn about the winemaking process, then through the orchard to look at the trees and then back to the cellar for some tastings. By having a 'trade ready' product, it means we're ready to start selling ourselves to tour companies and can have some larger groups come through.
Todays adventure started with Aaron the cameraman taking some shots around the place, and then a few takes of "ok, bring the coffee out and put it down on the table...ok, great. Now take it away and do it again, but at this angle instead. Awesome. Now, same again, but use your other hand....perrrrfect".
We then moved out the back into the cellar to give Dean, the host, a sample of our tawny port straight from the barrel. We had some casual banter, and he gave us a great sell - raving about how great our port was!
We were then filmed picking some carambola, and using our crusher to show the start of the winemaking process. Next, we showed the gang around the fruit trees, and with some creative camera angles made it look like we still had heaps of jaboticaba fruit.
All up, the guys were here for nearly three hours, and they seemed pretty impressed with our set up.
It's pretty incredible to think that we've only been here for a few months and have already received so much free publicity! We've been in the regional newspaper a few times, and now national tv - it's pretty ridiculous! Sarah, the producer, thinks the show will go to air in September sometime in Queensland, and then national a week later. I'm so excited - I'll definitely let you all know when to tune in!
We've also just found out that a new boat charter from Bundaberg to Lady Musgrave Island (on the Southern Great Barrier Reef) will be stocking our wine and liqueurs as part of their 'premium tour' service! I'm not too sure what we've done to deserve all this good luck and great news, but I'm incredibly grateful. It gives me a bit of hope that we've actually made a good decision moving here and we might actually make a bit of money one day...!!
It was such an incredible opportunity and an absolute privilege to have Dean, Sarah and Aaron here to share some stories, fruit and booze with.
We called in a few favours and pulled an impressive 'rent-a-crowd' to be in the background of the shots, and did our best to showcase our winery. We also did an epic clean up and re-organise of our wine cellar. It looks incredible in there now, and we're about to launch our 'tour package' to take guests through the cellar to learn about the winemaking process, then through the orchard to look at the trees and then back to the cellar for some tastings. By having a 'trade ready' product, it means we're ready to start selling ourselves to tour companies and can have some larger groups come through.
Todays adventure started with Aaron the cameraman taking some shots around the place, and then a few takes of "ok, bring the coffee out and put it down on the table...ok, great. Now take it away and do it again, but at this angle instead. Awesome. Now, same again, but use your other hand....perrrrfect".
We then moved out the back into the cellar to give Dean, the host, a sample of our tawny port straight from the barrel. We had some casual banter, and he gave us a great sell - raving about how great our port was!
We were then filmed picking some carambola, and using our crusher to show the start of the winemaking process. Next, we showed the gang around the fruit trees, and with some creative camera angles made it look like we still had heaps of jaboticaba fruit.
All up, the guys were here for nearly three hours, and they seemed pretty impressed with our set up.
It's pretty incredible to think that we've only been here for a few months and have already received so much free publicity! We've been in the regional newspaper a few times, and now national tv - it's pretty ridiculous! Sarah, the producer, thinks the show will go to air in September sometime in Queensland, and then national a week later. I'm so excited - I'll definitely let you all know when to tune in!
We've also just found out that a new boat charter from Bundaberg to Lady Musgrave Island (on the Southern Great Barrier Reef) will be stocking our wine and liqueurs as part of their 'premium tour' service! I'm not too sure what we've done to deserve all this good luck and great news, but I'm incredibly grateful. It gives me a bit of hope that we've actually made a good decision moving here and we might actually make a bit of money one day...!!
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| Josh is thrilled with his cool new purple shirt |
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| Josh heading back to the shed with Sarah and Dean |
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| A close up of Dean sampling a jaboticaba fruit. "Wait. How do I say this again?" |
Monday, 20 July 2015
Life at Ohana
Josh is down town at the moment, so I've decided to take a few minutes to fill you all in on life at Ohana.
We've attended yet another market - this time was a one-off farmers market in Bundaberg. We were fully expecting it to be quiet (who wants to drink Port at 7am!?)....but we were blown away! (It is Bundaberg, after all!). By 8am I had nearly ran out of port and called up Josh to make an emergency dash in with more supplies. It was a great day and an awesome opportunity to meet with some like-minded producers and a captive audience.
Josh and I are about to become television celebrities! The TV show 'Queensland Weekender' is going to film a small piece on the wineries in Childers, and we are going to be profiled! They will be out here this week to film, so check back for some more updates on how that goes!
While Mum was here, we started our own miniature jam factory. We made 120 jars of Spiced Jaboticaba and Port jam, 15 jars of Dragonfruit Jam, 20 jars of Apple and Lemon Myrtle jam, 20 jars of Jaboticaba Jelly and I have some Mandarin and Kumquat Marmalade on the stove right now. We are gearing up for...
The Childers Festival! Once a year, the Bruce Highway (which runs from Brisbane to Cairns!) gets closed off in Childers and there is a big street party. Anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 people (the number varies, depending on who you talk to!) descend on Childers for a big party. There will be market stalls (of which we will have one), food vans, music stages and all kinds of events over the weekend. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes...and hopefully we can sell some booze!
In other surprising news...I'm gainfully employed once again! There was a position advertised at CQUniversity in Bundaberg, for a part-time (one day per week) Administration Officer. I decided to apply and I got it! I start next week and I'm looking forward to the new challenge. It might be hard to juggle Ohana with the University, but it's only one day a week and a contract til the end of the year - so it's worth giving it a try. I'm looking forward to being back in a university community again...although I seriously doubt it'll be a great as my ECU/WAAPA family back home!
We had a pretty busy day yesterday. We had 9 booked in for lunch, and then a few other regulars showed up as well. We ended up serving 17 for lunch (surprise!) and sold some wines and liqueurs too. It's always nice to have busy days to counteract those quiet ones - but on the whole business has been really steady and we've had customers every single day for a long while now. This is supposed to be the 'busy' time of year, while the southerners are escaping the cold and heading North through Queensland - so I hope we can still maintain some of this stability through the quiet periods too.
Aaaaaaand, I think that's all!
We've attended yet another market - this time was a one-off farmers market in Bundaberg. We were fully expecting it to be quiet (who wants to drink Port at 7am!?)....but we were blown away! (It is Bundaberg, after all!). By 8am I had nearly ran out of port and called up Josh to make an emergency dash in with more supplies. It was a great day and an awesome opportunity to meet with some like-minded producers and a captive audience.
Josh and I are about to become television celebrities! The TV show 'Queensland Weekender' is going to film a small piece on the wineries in Childers, and we are going to be profiled! They will be out here this week to film, so check back for some more updates on how that goes!
While Mum was here, we started our own miniature jam factory. We made 120 jars of Spiced Jaboticaba and Port jam, 15 jars of Dragonfruit Jam, 20 jars of Apple and Lemon Myrtle jam, 20 jars of Jaboticaba Jelly and I have some Mandarin and Kumquat Marmalade on the stove right now. We are gearing up for...
The Childers Festival! Once a year, the Bruce Highway (which runs from Brisbane to Cairns!) gets closed off in Childers and there is a big street party. Anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 people (the number varies, depending on who you talk to!) descend on Childers for a big party. There will be market stalls (of which we will have one), food vans, music stages and all kinds of events over the weekend. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes...and hopefully we can sell some booze!
In other surprising news...I'm gainfully employed once again! There was a position advertised at CQUniversity in Bundaberg, for a part-time (one day per week) Administration Officer. I decided to apply and I got it! I start next week and I'm looking forward to the new challenge. It might be hard to juggle Ohana with the University, but it's only one day a week and a contract til the end of the year - so it's worth giving it a try. I'm looking forward to being back in a university community again...although I seriously doubt it'll be a great as my ECU/WAAPA family back home!
We had a pretty busy day yesterday. We had 9 booked in for lunch, and then a few other regulars showed up as well. We ended up serving 17 for lunch (surprise!) and sold some wines and liqueurs too. It's always nice to have busy days to counteract those quiet ones - but on the whole business has been really steady and we've had customers every single day for a long while now. This is supposed to be the 'busy' time of year, while the southerners are escaping the cold and heading North through Queensland - so I hope we can still maintain some of this stability through the quiet periods too.
Aaaaaaand, I think that's all!
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