February 2019
The Juranovich orchard was planted in 2008, and was planned by Stephen Brailsford. The layout is a big arch, around a central driveway. Of the original 1600 trees, they have lost around 80.
On our walkabout of the orchard Joe explained that in the centre of the block there is little shelter for the hazels from the strong cold easterly wind, so those trees are a bit stunted. Their property is in a low-lying spot on the Selwyn floodplain and they’ve also lost a number of the specimen trees (particularly the laurels) due to wet soils. They’ve invested approx. $20k on drains to address the water problems. They have also recently built a second shed in order to separate vehicles and nuts (avoid exhaust fumes contaminating the nuts). Their own water supply comes from a well.
Both Sally and Joe work off-orchard, so they have WWOOFERS help them around the property. They have a 30hp tractor and 2 Beck harvesters, and at harvest time they rake nuts into the centre of the row. Blowing scatters the nuts too far. It takes around 4-5 hours to harvest each block of 400 trees. Last year their harvest was 1.5 tonnes.
Joe has modified one Beck harvester for easy emptying.
The Juranovich’s sorting table
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