Forest Lodge Orchard Blog

In 2021 we ran a data experiment to see how effective we were in estimating the total size of our harvest in January 2022.

We have just had a well earned break following a mammoth effort by so many of our team and supporters, and it's finally time to share our...

Earlier this year, we eliminated all fossil fuels from both our orchard and our family home. When we first moved in, our home was equipped with a...

We are thrilled to have been included in the BNZ 2021 Sustainability...

Euan, our orchard manager, and his wife Rachel have just bought a shareholding in Forest Lodge Orchard. They have been tirelessly working on our...

On Friday, the 15th of October 2021, we hosted around 30 young growers from Central Otago. The leader of the Young Growers group, Jordan Carroll...

Forest Lodge Orchard now runs on 100% electricity following the purchase of two electric Hyundai Kona's earlier this month. We believe this is one...

Forest Lodge is thrilled to announce that we have recently been approved for a second grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority...

Forest Lodge is thrilled to be a finalist in the <a target="_blank"...

On the night of the 9th of August 2021, New Zealand did not generate enough power to keep the lights on for all its citizens. Our National Grid...

Air New Zealand carries approximately 17 million passengers a year, so it's pretty we were delighted when BNZ supported us to get a feature in...

In May we undertook a crop assessment on our cherry trees - essentially an estimate of how many cherries we would produce this coming season. We...

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We were honoured to have the team from Crux.org.nz and Southern Lens showcase our work into...

In New Zealand, we have an idiom called "the number-8 wire mentality", which refers to innovating using the limited resources we have. The name...

A small but significant milestone last month; we managed to get our power bill into the negatives for the first time using our batteries and solar...

It's electrifying to have been selected as a case study by the government for their Climate Action Toolbox, released yesterday due to our work with...

It was a nice surprise to hear from Labor list MP Rachel Brooking, who had come to visit us a few months back was bringing The Honourable Damien...

We have the goal of being able to grow cherries without burning a single drop of fossil fuel however sometimes it's a bit tough to find the...

We are getting to the end of the growing season for this summer and that means we are starting to pull back on irrigation to ensure our trees...

It does not take long to realise just how rapid the pay back on a solar system when you are generating electricity to power a high intensity...

We have been hastily installing and commissioning two 30kwh electric frost fighting fans which are the first of their type, not only in New Zealand...

I touched on our awesome wee Ryobi electric...

It's always important to take time to wander amongst your trees because you can spot health issues rapidly and act accordingly.

The costs of establishing a UFO orchard can be particularly off-putting to many because it is multiples more than the costs associated with growing...