Lavender farm
From Sydney all the way south to the interior of the new state, large pastures of cattle and horses are common to people who live in Australia. Many of them have been commercialized, opening up for tourists and local Family to come for holidays, such as the Alpaca Magic ranch, which was previously popular online.
Bloggers in this visit to cactus country quite want to go to see, but the online evaluation said that in fact is not cost-effective, said it is $40 entry price, bad luck, maybe those alpacas and donkeys will only let you see far away can not be played. Minutes become disappointed and back, so give up decisively.
But who knows the loss of a horse, how lucky, on the way back to Woga (Wagga), let me meet a very quiet and interesting small lavender farm, located on the top of the mountain, sparsely populated, not only there are lavender fields here, There are also a variety of small animals, and the farmer will take you to play, explain to you, the most important is free ah!
The farm is called Rustique Lavender Farm, half an hour's drive from Wagga, the largest inland city in the state, and the name of this place is also very interesting. It's called Book! Google searches for the farm's name, but not especially when it comes to nearby Internet signals.
The entrance is on the side of the road, there will be a sign, turn in and drive all the way to the top of the mountain and park at will.
A fall rain and a cold, driving to the top of the path, the alpacas heard the sound of cars, they will run to the fence to watch you, suddenly there is a feeling of the emperor out of the picture!
To the top of the mountain, the first to welcome visitors is an ostrich! That's right! It's not an emu! But what is rare in Australia,
The largest bird in the world: African ostrich! (difference between popular science below)
More importantly, the Australian zoo ostrich is not very common, and farmers even scattered the ostrich in their front yard!
We Chinese usually raise a few chickens and ducks in the front yard, but people who are convex and concave even raise ostrich!
This is a female ostrich, its eyes are super large, super bright, and its small head and neck is a sharp contrast ah!
He was free to walk around the vast front yard, hungry and bowed to eat, tired to find a shady shed to lie down and rest. In fact, the ostrich was not young enough to have companions, except that another ostrich had died a few years earlier.
Now it especially likes to stand at the glass door in the front yard looking at the glass door. Listen to the master, because the glass door will reflect its shadow, so it likes to stand there looking at the shadow, it feels like someone else with themselves.
Fortunately, although the ostrich does not have the same kind of company, but there is a black cat in the front yard, often revolved around the ostrich. He was especially calm and serious, and the owner said he had caught a cold recently, so let's stay away from it (black cat sneezes in front of us, ) but he especially likes to stick to people and make people feel more comfortable with him.
The whole farm was centered on the master's house, with large grasslands on all sides, and the closest circle to the master's house was the cattle pen, where there were many small cowboys with black and white patterns on them. Most of the calves are also in a loose state, and you may find one or two lying on foot when you walk around.
Cowboys are especially shy, basically lying down, occasionally waving their ears, some hiding behind the fence and peeking at you, just like the unmarried lady of the ancient official family.
When people come near it they hide far away, and the owner says the cattle here are used for breeding and will be sold elsewhere when they grow up, which is one of the main incomes of the farm.
The most important part of the farm is the alpaca, the owner said. There are more than 30 alpacas, each with its own name, not only by sex, but also by fat and skinny personality.
If you eat too fat, you will be pushed to the barren areas of the land to help them diet and lose weight.
And if fight often makes trouble, he will also be locked up in barren areas. Basically, he will make mistakes with the palace people and close down to the Division of caution.
On the difference between Alpaca and llama
In fact, there are many species of alpaca in the world, and this farm is mainly ALPACA and llama two species, but also the most common two species of alpaca.
Alpaca
To put it more popularly, ALPACA is more of a loser, with a small ear. Like a lamb, wool is cute when it's normal, and when it's especially long, it becomes the famous "embarrassing" face, and there are all kinds of washing and shears blowing style..
llama
Llama is a little green tea compared to ALPACA. They are taller, thinner, have long legs and melon-seed faces, are more dignified, and they don't feel as stupid as alpaca. The easiest thing to judge is its ears. Professional terms describe llama's ears in the same shape as banana shape, bent, straight, and very symmetrical!
In agricultural use, ALPACA mainly produces wool, and llama is mainly used for transportation. Generally, ALPACA hair is as strong, light and soft as silk and has no effect on the skin. Llama is rougher. But with llama and ALPACA mixed together on this farm, it's really hard for laymen to tell who's who is.
About alpaca's habit of spitting
All the alpacas on this farm are not afraid of people, on the contrary, they feel a little drag and pull. If you tempt them with food, you really run over your ass. It's fun to eat, you're happy, but some alpacas are picky, so not all alpacas apply.
And because alpaca secrete saliva when hungry, spit indicates that it is hungry, in order to cultivate them to abandon the bad habit of spitting, especially stop feeding them, over time, alpacas see people come and have nothing to eat. Wouldn't it be fun to stop spitting on humans for something to eat?
What's more interesting is to slap the alpaca on the face. It's a natural meme.
"it's a Friday that makes people laugh, but doesn't say anything."
"in the face of the temptation of the enemy, firmly do not yield ~"
"sometimes to be hungry, sometimes to be full and happy."
About lavender, a lot of people will fly to the tower state to watch, bloggers have also been there before. But new states also have many smaller lavender farms worth visiting. Unfortunately, just as fish and bear palms cannot have both, in the season of cauliflower and cherry blossoms, lavender is still in full bloom, just waiting for the arrival of midsummer, although it has not yet been seen that they bloom, but when you approach the flower field, The fragrance of tranquillity will also come with nostrils.
Lavender has sex?
December to January of each year is the flower season of lavender, Rustique Lavender Farm, although there are only a few acres, but there are many kinds of flowers, the host will tell you in detail the difference between French lavender and British lavender, I also learned from this.
It turns out that lavender has sex, too, and farmers say most plants actually have sex, while female's lavender is much larger than male's.
French lavende
British lavende
In front of the big plant is the female lavender, behind the small plant is the male lavender.
In fact, Australia's summer climate or quite suitable for lavender growth, because lavender like dry heat, do not like wet, so the drier the more vigorous, the wetter the more easily withered.
And it's easy to grow lavender, by pulling a branch from the growing lavender, showing green cross-sections at the end of the branch and inserting it directly into the soil.
The farmer also sent me a few trees home to plant, if the green part of the home also turned gray, re-cut and inserted with a knife.
On the aspect of watering, if one watering more twice a week, if each watering less, once a week, do not too much water.
Finally, to remind you that although you know this method of planting lavender, do not pick flowers without the owner's permission, after all, these are the owner's private property.
There is also a small rose field next to the lavender field (I didn't bloom when I went). There are many roses in it, many of which can be used to make tea. The farm also has many large pink cherry trees and white apple trees, full of flowers blooming, romantic.
During the flower season, the owner and his family personally harvest lavender with a sickle and sell it in a small souvenir store on the farm. As the boss spent a lot of time introducing us and not charging tickets, he felt a little embarrassed and walked around the souvenir store.
There are a number of products, most of them related to lavender, some of them are roses and alpaca products, there are snacks, honey, and essential oils for skin care. The blogger bought a bottle of lavender indoor air freshener. Feeling after spraying the home has a light lavender flavor, especially good smell, strongly recommended.
And the rose tea, also very good, the price is not expensive, it is worth starting. In addition, this farm is not very commercial, so there is no card-swiping machine in the small shop. If you want to spend money, bring more cash on your body before you go, oh, if a large team of more than four people go over there, remember to make an appointment by phone first.
Rustique Lavender Farm
Address: 985 Tumbarumba Rd, Book NSW 2650
Opening hours: 10: 00 to 17: 30 per day
Tel: (02) 6928 1117
Iris farm
If you don't think this lavender farm is fun, I'd like to recommend a very private small farm for you, a place that specializes in raising iris, or Chinese irises, with a Google score of 4.8. Everyone tulip lavender cherry blossoms see a lot, irises farm has not seen it.
The site is closer to Wagga than Rustique Lavender Farm and was built in 2013 with more than 1500 species of irises and hemerocallis.
It is divided into two places, one is a small garden with a lot of irises planted, on the other side there is a large field, there are also a lot of flowers planted inside, I didn't go in, because I didn't have an appointment, so we should remember. If you want to visit, you need to make a telephone reservation.
According to the official website, the most recent open hours are October 13 to November 4.
The rest of the time, you need to communicate with your host.
And the official website of this farm also has flowers to sell and transport, as many as 200 kinds, if you like, can also order flowers online!
Riverina Iris Farm
Address: 13 Sycamore Rd, Lake Albert NSW 2650
Tel: 0432 7777 142
Web site: http://www.riverinairisfarm.com
Mailbox: annette.tenbroeke@bigpond.com
Author: YNP Sydney, eat, drink and play
