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Think Australian Manufacturers, Australian Produce and support our local farmers at the same time.  All of our fruits and vegetables at Yarra Valley Gourmet Foods don’t

Our small team is like family in so many ways.   We have a father/daughter duo, there is a strong sense of care amongst all of the crew, and the support that is given for one another’s welfare

We had a wonderful working bee on the last weekend in July to clear the property, commence landscaping, and prepare for reopening on the weekends. I can’t thank enough the 30 plus people who showed up over the two days for their back-breaking work and support of what I am trying to achieve – I

I decided to pick lemons and prune quince trees today, but the overgrown orchard also benefitted from my motivation in secateuring the thick weed between trees by hand – 3 rows down, 5 to go. I’m sure there are tools to do this (no, I cannot mow over the irrigation line), but right now I’m

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon.  Edward Lear

I’m lucky enough to have seasonal access to around 70 local quince trees, planted well over 40 years ago. Until

Still waiting on Yarra Valley Water and CFA requirements to install pipework to water meter, a fire hydrant and hose reels – another $30k unbudgeted expense! This is before we can enclose the trenches and begin beautifying the property.

We are, however, underway on the shop… After some clever advice, we spray painted the roof

Well our move is still proving challenging! We are still without gas to cook our jams, chutney/relishes and jellies so have quite a few out of stocks. After waiting two weeks, we have discovered we have another two to go, so have now bought in the camp burners to go back to pot cooking –

Still not at lock-up just yet! Windows have arrived after a long hold up in the design and standards departments, but hopefully we can now motor ahead….

We finally cleared the old concrete slab from down the side which took a few days, filling an old dam that wasn’t in use. We’ve compacted it down

As you can see, we’ve been hard at work coating the back warehouse floor (that’s Mum and Colleen!) and filling, sanding and painting the large back wall of the top warehouse (that’s Stefan on the scissor lift).

We still have a lot of painting to go…

We are not yet at lock-up, just awaiting the

Here’s an aerial shot (high up on a scissor lift!)….impressive, hey? So much of the structure is in place, giving us a true sense of how much space we will have. We hope to have the roof on in the next few weeks and the colorbond shed also finished in that time frame. Our deadline

The lower level internal structure has been erected so we can actually walk through rooms and visual the size – it makes it so much more real!

The back two sections of colorbond shed needed a crane, and people power, to fix the roof in place.

Over the next few weeks we’ll see the upstairs

Surprisingly, the builders have been busy over December/January and commenced the internal frames. It’s wonderful to see the structure begin to take shape….

Here’s a design drawing of what our future home will look like – front retail/produce store and back manufacturing plant, with a greenhouse off to the side. I look forward to the day when I can post the actual image of this!

Right now – we have a concrete slab!

Well the weather has not been kind! Our builders did not really see the funny side of their ruined trenches.. Give them credit though – they did show up! It’s a slow journey…. hopefully more to see soon.

The ground has been broken! Well, for excavation anyway… The removal of the old concrete slab to make way for the new has been rather a large effort. Look at all that concrete – and it is, sadly, unusable. We have an old dam at the top of the property which is quite derelict (it

So the greenhouse is up! It’s not powered yet but the structure is finished – giving us a lovely, warm environment to store our farm equipment for the time being… Once complete, this climate controlled hydroponic house will provide the majority of our food production needs – red and green tomatoes, cauliflower, zucchini, capsicum, horseradish

The trees are down and the greenhouse build has commenced!

Our planning permit to manufacture will be conditional on us growing produce, so we have planted an orchard of 200 trees (50 each of lemons, limes, crabapples and quinces) which will take a while to bear the required levels of fruit that we need.

The

A change of plan! We had originally thought we would renovate the existing shed, but with the need for more space, it has been decided to demolish that structure and create a whole new building with an upstairs mezzanine – all whilst trying to maintain the old external look. We’ve endured a week’s exclusion zone

Our property has over 90 Cypress pine trees (hence the name Pine Ridge!), planted over 70 years ago to act as a wind break, but now, sadly, they are past their useful life. Bordering the future structure of our new development, we have to remove at least half of them to protect against damage. Since

So here’s how it’s starting….. Of course you need to look beyond this structure to envisage a retail store and manufacturing facility.

First step, a planning permit – so with the services of our planning consultant, the fabulous Marc Bartsch, and hopefully a reasonable Yarra Ranges Council, this should be a breeze…shouldn’t it?