Number 1 Map 1A Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail Maps
In 1898, Bill Scrivener's father and two mates came to Mt Irvine and had the foresight to divide its glorious land into three parcels.
Bill was born in 1925, the youngest of 8 children. He married Ruth in 1950. How wonderful for me to be in the company of a couple married for 60 years this year!
Sitting in the home they built together in 1956, its walls and floors a beautiful golden colour from the coach wood they used, we talk of their life here.
Originally the property comprised an apple orchard and dairy farm, with chestnuts and walnuts planted to feed the cattle. Bill was brought up on the farm and went to university where he graduated in veterinary science. He practised as a vet in north east Victoria, where chestnuts were grown. When he returned to Mt Irvine he replaced apples with chestnuts and cattle with sheep.
He combined working with large animals as a vet in Lithgow with cultivating and grafting nuts. Originally the nuts were sent to market but in 1992 the Scriveners commenced a pick your own venture, inspired partly by the many Italians who would visit the property to pick chestnuts. In what is becoming a common tale for me with pick your own, it is extremely popular with European and Asian Australians, with third generation Italians coming to the farm just as their grandparents did.
Bill and Ruth have 16 hectares of nut orchards here and Bill runs around 600 superfine merino wethers, which are sheared annually in December in the corrugated iron shed his father built many years ago.
The chestnuts generally fall in the first week of March and the walnuts in the first week of April with the season usually finished by Anzac Day. On Easter Monday it is not uncommon to see 700 or 800 people visit the farm, with the 200 colourful buckets all being used for collecting.
Though the season may be short , there is always work to be done. In May, September and December the sheep require drenching. At the beginning of December the green walnuts are picked by members of the Cypriot community so that they can glaze them. Whilst the Scriveners do not spray their trees, there always limbs to be trimmed and re grafting to be done in October. The trees that are not producing good nuts need to be reworked and Bill is also trying to create a cultivar of walnuts that could be picked earlier, together with the chestnuts. On top of all this there is the general day to day maintenance of this beautiful property.
Bill and Ruth have two daughters, one an invalid. His daughter Robin and her partner are moving to the property to help Bill and Ruth manage it - with the intention that they will take over its running. Bill and Ruth are moving 300 yards north!
The Scriveners radiate warmth. To be with them is a delight. I wander around the property with Bill and leave him to get ready for a bus of Korean visitors. Ruth is in the garden raking leaves as I wave goodbye, the sun lighting up drifts of anemones under an old oak tree.
Kookootonga Chestnut and Walnut Farm
247 Mt Irvine Road
Mt Irvine
ph. 0247562136
Please visit the Hawkesbury Harvest website...
Comments