Forest Lodge Orchard Blog

Discover updates from the team about everything farm life.

Euan and Rachel join the dream of zero-emission food.

November 16, 2021
Euan, our orchard manager, and his wife Rachel have just bought a shareholding in Forest Lodge Orchard. They have been tirelessly working on our...

Young Growers Central Otago event at Forest Lodge

October 25, 2021
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...

Moving our business to electric vehicles

October 21, 2021
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...

New Zealand's first driverless electric tractor.

August 31, 2021
Forest Lodge is thrilled to announce that we have recently been approved for a second grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority...

Finalist in the Sustainable Business Awards for 2021

August 14, 2021
Forest Lodge is thrilled to be a finalist in the <a target="_blank"...

NZ's electricity crisis. Doing our bit and the need for Distributed Energy Resources (DER)

August 11, 2021
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...

Forest Lodge in Kia Ora Magazine

August 3, 2021
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...

Data sampling and crop assessment in a UFO Orchard.

July 26, 2021
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...

In order to electrify we must innovate

June 17, 2021
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...

Southern Lens production about our Electric Orchard

June 17, 2021
We were honoured to have the team from Crux.org.nz and Southern Lens showcase our work into...

A Power Bill in the Negatives

May 21, 2021
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...

Forest Lodge is now a Case Study for Climate Change Action

April 1, 2021
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...

Agriculture Minister Damien 'Conner comes for a visit

March 15, 2021
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...

Creating an Electric Weed Sprayer

February 19, 2021
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...

The Progression of a UFO Tree

February 1, 2021
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...

Solar Power and Irrigation - the near perfect use case

December 28, 2020
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...

Electric Frost Fighting Fans - Forest Lodge demonstration day

November 27, 2020
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...

Electric Ride on Mowers - we just upgraded

November 23, 2020
I touched on our awesome wee Ryobi electric...

Treating Black Cherry Aphids

November 7, 2020
It's always important to take time to wander amongst your trees because you can spot health issues rapidly and act accordingly.

Capital Costs of UFO growing strategy

October 26, 2020
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...

Why we use Electric Orchard Equipment

October 18, 2020
There is an advantage to starting an orchard with a blank canvas in 2019, and that is that we can take full advantage of an age of new electric...

UFO Water Requirements - We got our consent approved!

October 13, 2020
The most important ingredients for horticulture are sun and water, and because Central Otago has plenty of sun, we also need plenty of water....

Planting Day - October 2019

October 9, 2020
Its October 2019 which is far too late to be planting cherry trees in central Otago but nothing ever goes to plan in horticulture.