CJ's Farm

CJ's Farm We are a small-scale artisan company. We will be offering Artisan Products, all Handmade with Care.

We are a small home based artisan business focusing on products made from the Honey and Bees Wax obtained from our hives. Our hives are stocked with Ligurian bees from Kangaroo Island, a distinctive bee having been bred from pure stock since 1885.

Well, summer finally poked its head through the open door. Harvesting lots of Marion Berries, Cape Gooseberries, Raspber...
15/01/2023

Well, summer finally poked its head through the open door. Harvesting lots of Marion Berries, Cape Gooseberries, Raspberries, and Alpine Strawberries. Jumbled together they make a great treat with ice cream (with a dash of Baileys). Due to the wet spring we don’t have many apples set and only had three apricots survive into ripening. The Blue Berries are just ripening along with the white and yellow flesh nectarines. Santa Rosa plums are just ripe and starting to fall. We are just waiting on the blood plums and peaches to complete the orchard harvests. Hope everyone is having a great New Year so far. 😃

Dear All, it has been a hectic few months and the year is almost over. The bees have been hovering close to starvation d...
23/12/2022

Dear All, it has been a hectic few months and the year is almost over. The bees have been hovering close to starvation due the crappy weather so I had to put the feeders back on. They have now recovered and doing well to the point where the supers (honey frames) could be put on. Their initial supers are always left for them to over winter and I never harvest from those frames. Our supply of vegetables have been beaten up by the drowning and pouring rains. Have had to supplement with more from the greenhouse. Tomatoes are doing good as are the cape gooseberry and Marion Berry. Apples, nectarines, and plums will be sparse. No apricots as the hail battered them off. Garlic was not good and hail/rain killed a lot of the pumpkin, squash, and marrows. We’ve been able to recover some from greenhouse stock so I think the lettuce will stay in our greenhouse for the future. We have quite a few Jonathon apple seedlings growing, as well as lemons, grapefruit, nectarine, etc so when they get more established they will be up for offer. On another note: due to the shutting down of the Farmhouse Direct website I’ve been looking and working on a replacement site. Hopefully setup early next year. Still have some jars of honey in stock and most soaps and lip balm available. The latter is usually made on demand from fresh ingredients. Hopefully we’ll be offering other lip balm scents from our own essential oils when I fire up the extraction (solar powered). Doing the calculations we are carbon negative at the moment and due to the crap solar feedin tariff we strive to use as much kWh as possible at our location. Solar batteries are not financially viable at the moment but we’ll see in the new year. Merry Xmas, Happy Saturnalia, and Merry Newtonmas to everyone 😃🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛. Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year too.

Cleaning up after the big downpour (78mm in the rain gauge from that rainy hour), everything seems to have survived thou...
26/10/2022

Cleaning up after the big downpour (78mm in the rain gauge from that rainy hour), everything seems to have survived though. The store room got partly flooded so I spent time mopping up water and shoveling mud. On a good note …… we planted a few Cape Gooseberry bushes last year. They are now very prolific, so if anyone wants a fruit that is high in vitamins and grows in a small place then that is the go. They have a sweet/tart flavour and are great in salads, as a chutney, etc. the plant is a member of the nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, egg plant).

24/10/2022

Sorry for not posting anything for awhile but little has been happening through the wet winter. The biggest change I suppose is that the Farmhouse direct site we were using to sell the Honey and products has now closed down. I'm organising another shop site so hopefully it will be up and running soon. In the mean time requests can be done through to our email address.
There was a lot of rain over winter and many of the areas turned to mud, or should that be sticky clay, and the place was starting to resemble the Somme. At least all the terracing we did has minimised the erosion. Was able to finish more of the retaining wall near the creek (road drain) as the damp clay is easier to dig through than dry hard clay. As Spring approached we were able to clean up some of the winter beds ready for more plantings. The green house has been great over the winter with lettuce and tomatoes surviving the cold. Some of the tomatoes are getting too big and will be planted out soon. Lots of seedlings have sprouted and many are close to being ready to plant out in the beds. I have made six Johnson+Su Bioreactors, aerated compost heaps to normal people. Each is a metre in diameter and is designed to promote a fungus based compost so it is great for hard organics such as gum leaves and twigs etc. The bees are doing well and have been able to build up their stores and increase their colony size without starving (almost lost two colonies this time last year due to the weather). Hopefully the rain won't be too heavy and cold to prevent them from foraging.
May be able to get a harvest from the 22/23 season!

For something different we decided to try and grow some Crocus sativus (Saffron crocus). I purchased 9 bulbs in January ...
23/05/2022

For something different we decided to try and grow some Crocus sativus (Saffron crocus). I purchased 9 bulbs in January and planted them in pots of very free draining potting mix. The bulbs easily rot and only need watering once a week. They grow in Autumn and flow close to winter. Nothing happed until early May when I could see some shoots breaking the soil. There are now 14 plants from the 9 bulbs. Several sites indicate that they may not flower in the first year and sometimes not for several years. But we have had two flowers and there are signs that several more may flower too. So far we have harvested 6 stigmas so I don't think we will be cornering the spice market just yet. The photos are of our first harvested flower.

After a lack lustre season the bees have finally been packed down for winter. I have fed them up so they may only need a...
23/05/2022

After a lack lustre season the bees have finally been packed down for winter. I have fed them up so they may only need a few top ups during the rainy cold weather. Finger crossed that next Spring and Summer are not so cold and rainy.

Well I have finally got enough spare time to write something for the page. It has been a lack lustre spring, and so far,...
10/02/2022

Well I have finally got enough spare time to write something for the page. It has been a lack lustre spring, and so far, summer. The cold wet spring caused a lot of problems with the bees as they almost ended up starving. Very close to losing one hive as it built up so fast that it out stripped their stored food reserves. Had to clean out a full bucket of dead bees as they had blocked the entrance so no-one could get out and forage. Luckily the queen survived and the colony has recovered, but the colony numbers are still low even after a month. Three other hives had almost run out of stores too. Put the feeders back on the affected hives as there was no honey flow in the area. Placed a couple of jars of their own honey in the hives to give them a boost. On top of that we have had a lot of animal foraging too. The brush tail possums were trying to rip open the hives so I had to put wire mesh over the tops to deter them. Brush tail possums have eaten the leaves on the pear tree to the point where there is only a handful of branches that have leaves. As new leaves grow they get eaten off leaving the tree looking like it is winter. The brushes have also decided to eat the rinds of the lemons too. As the lemon trees were full of fruit there was quite a few to spare.The Ringtail possums have found that hey can eat the young Macadamia nuts before they get to hard, so our harvest of those this year will be down. It is not all doom and gloom though. We have had a great harvest of blueberries, raspberries, marionberries, nectarines, and plums. As the apple trees are full of fruit we will have to keep the rats away as they devastated the crop last year. We got to harvest some zucchini before the brushies had eaten them all. At least none of the local wildlife seem to like the dwarf beans, spinach, onions or garlic. Which is a plus for us, at least we get to eat something.

I haven’t posted anything for CJ’s Farm since just before Winter mainly because there is little to mention during winter...
26/08/2021

I haven’t posted anything for CJ’s Farm since just before Winter mainly because there is little to mention during winter. Trees need to be pruned back and shaped, everything slows down with the cold weather. The big storm of early June didn’t create too much damage at our place but neighbours lost a couple of trees and people in the Dandenongs had a really bad time of it. Some lost homes and many lost power, internet , etc for months as the infrastructure was destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Lots of big trees had come down requiring a massive cleanup effort.
The increase in rain during winter means storm water run-off needs to be managed, the clay turns to a sticky mess, and lots and lots of weeding. Mind you, the compost heaps have benefitted greatly.
Due to changes in the local council regulations we decided to dismantle the spa and associated decking as it was most likely a DIY structure and would not pass any inspection. All timbers and fencing were set for reuse in other locations and structures. The spa has never been used by us or the previous owners of the property. It was like a local stagnant pool when we moved in, so it was drained and cleaned and sealed up for later consideration. The decking was rotten and the hardwood was crumbling under the effect of the spas chemical use. No matter. That area can now be utilized as a BBQ location as it has a good concrete slab base and I can rebuild the surrounding retaining wall support. The treated pine timbers and posts have been used in creating a proper floor for the greenhouse which is now full of planted seed trays for Spring and Summer veg. As Spring approaches the fruit trees are starting to blossom. Lots of flowers on the plums, nectarines, peaches, and apricot. Everything is coming back to life. The bees did well over winter as I had to feed them due to low stores for the poor summer and autumn seasons. The cheesewood trees are starting to flower and the air is filled with the sickly scent of cheap aftershave. The bees love it.
More weeding, and more weeding, and more weeding is the current mantra. On a yummier note, the Macadamia tree has produced a lot of fruit this year. 47 nuts collected so far and there are another couple still waiting to fall. We had PowerPal installed and it gives a good insight into what power usage and which items cause surges (and how much kWh) when they’re turned on. Also give a good indication of the background power consumption for household items overnight. Well worth the free install.

We have been busy replanting trees, moving vegetable gardens, and pruning fruit trees. After a summer that was wetter an...
16/05/2021

We have been busy replanting trees, moving vegetable gardens, and pruning fruit trees. After a summer that was wetter and cooler than normal we have packed the bee hives down for winter. Only one harvest this time (Sept 2020) and cool wet summer means that the bees will have to be fed as most hives have minimal stores left to survive. Hopefully next spring/summer will be warmer.

Lots of things happening at the moment. We have set up CJ's Farm on Google so we appear in related search results and pe...
28/02/2021

Lots of things happening at the moment. We have set up CJ's Farm on Google so we appear in related search results and people can leave reviews etc. Have also set up a stall on Victorian Country Market site, but just waiting on their verification before the stall goes public. AusPost has notified as of 1st March they will be increasing the postage costs for their bags and boxes so the Framhouse direct site will stay at the current rate but I'll have to recalculate a free shipping point once I get the cost breakdown. Recently we had a local visit our new veggie patches, a Swamp Wallaby, but he sampled a few items and loved the clover and Lucerne Tree 😃

Just to let everyone know, this year will be a very frugal honey harvest due to the cooler/wetter spring leading into su...
09/02/2021

Just to let everyone know, this year will be a very frugal honey harvest due to the cooler/wetter spring leading into summer. Soaps are the way to go this year as we all stay nice and clean, and don’t forget to ‘Pucker up’ with our Beeswax based lip balms.

29/01/2021

Hi Everyone. I have added a shop button to the page and setup a shop that points to CJ's Farm Stall on the farmhousedirect.com.au site. The Facebook Shop will show three products: Soap, Lip Balm, and Honey. I you wish to order any products then the links can take you to our stall. If you are not far away then see what you want and then email us and we can
invoice you then do a contactless delivery, or you can drop by and collect. Cheers.

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Upwey
Melbourne, VIC
3158

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