Gone Troppo!: October 2015

We have two grumichama trees here at Ohana. One tree had a bunch of ripe fruit and the other is loaded with baby green fruit starting to come through.

I had the brilliant idea to pick the seemingly bountiful supply of ripe grummies to make a jam. Five minutes later, it became apparent that there was never going to be enough for jam....but definitely enough for a delicious grumichama sauce!

I boiled up the fruit with a little water, mashed it with a potato masher, strained it through a sieve and back into the saucepan with a handful of sugar. 15 minutes later it had bubbled down into a delicious, fruit, cherry/berry flavoured syrup.

We enjoyed it served over frozen, store-bought vanilla cheesecake - and it was still amaze-balls!

I've said it a few times now, but Josh and I are just so lucky.

We always seem to land on our feet, or meet the right people, or pull a rabbit out of our hat at just the right moment.

Like that time we'd only been operating for a few months and Queensland Weekender called, asking to film out at our winery. We've had SO many people visit and mention they'd seen us on TV, I'm surprised how many people not only watch the show, but actually go out of their way to visit the featured places too.

Or like that time one of Josh's drinking buddies is also a volunteer firefighter with the local fire brigade, and bought the truck down to help us burn off piles of uprooted trees.

Or like yesterday - when we'd just finished off our new indoor, under cover, out of the rain seating/cafe area...before a group of 30 came for lunch, and it was BUCKETING down!

It has always been in the back of our minds that we needed somewhere for people to sit that's out of the weather - especially when summer arrives and unpredictable storms can roll in out of nowhere.

After toying with a few options, we decided that our best (ie. cheapest and quickest) option would be to move all of the junk out of our "toad shed" (actually an insulated cool room) and into the "snake shed", then move all of the winemaking equipment out of the brick cellar and into the cool room, then use the cellar as the new under covered area. This new area has a toilet, easy access to the kitchen and is surprisingly large - so it's kind of perfect (despite an average view). It still needs a bit of prettying up, but it works.

After a manic few days, we'd managed to clean it up and get it all set up, just in time. While the weather radar said it would only be a 10% chance of any showers, we decided that we'd might as well use the new area anyway...wise move! About half an hour before they were due to arrive, the skies turned dark and the rain started.

Usually Josh takes half the group to do a wine tasting with, and I'd take the other half for a guided walk around our orchard and then we would switch, then we all come back for lunch. Yesterday though, Josh and I scrambled around to pick as much fruit as we could as soon as it started sprinkling and I did an indoor fruit tasting session while he did the wine tasting in his new cellar. Not quite as fun, but definitely better than getting rained on.

One small hiccup in our plan though - despite Josh's absolute best efforts, there is still a bit of a leak in the cool room. We've spent a small fortune, and he's spent many hours waterproofing the roof and all the seals, however it was no match for yesterdays torrential downpour. There isn't water pouring in, but there is still enough sneaking in somewhere and forming a little (well, kind of big) pool along one wall. I guess I know what this weekend's fun job will be...