I can’t believe that spring is almost here but there are signs everywhere. Many of our fruit trees have buds that are about to burst and already there are wild flowers in the fields. It all looks so green, and yellow…
Our daffodils are refusing to look down and acknowledge the flowering weeds.
The lichen looks like an underwater coral scene, including a Gregorian fan of sorts. Just missing the clown fish…
Our willow is a most wonderful gold colour. I’ve made my first basket (although I did have some déjà vu about primary school…), here with today’s eggs; they’re laying four a day now. And we have bought some dogwood, red and yellow.
Finally, if yellow is the theme then we must also include the princess, here with her car face on.
We’ve been making the most of the sunny weather and at last the trees are getting pruned. However, squawking and squealing from one of the chickens was distracting us. One definitely was in a flap – she ran backwards and forwards along the fence and even managed to hurl herself up on top of it even though we’d clipped her wings yesterday. She finally quietened down and went inside the hen house. Did that mean…?
Back up the ladder and more lopping, only to almost fall off because of an almighty screech from the hen house. We walked over to see what was happening, the noisy chicken eventually appeared. She seemed calm and started pecking the ground as if nothing was the matter. Richard opened the back of the hen house and yes! there in the nest box was our very first egg, almost 17 weeks after getting the chicks. Not too small, pinky brown and, we can confirm, very tasty! So we’re hoping this is the first of very many – although we’re not so sure about the drama every day!
We wrote some time ago about the numerous birds that come down to the pond in the summer and promised photos. We haven’t managed that yet but here are a few spotted outside the living room window this afternoon. We hadn’t taken many of the olives off the nearest tree to the house and as a result many of the ripe fruits have fallen to the ground, much to the delight of the birds. There are often tens of birds and many different varieties. The ones I didn’t photograph today include blackcaps, long tailed tits, a sardinian warbler and black redstarts.
goldfinch and greenfinch:
chaffinch and blue tit:
serin and robin:
wagtail and siskin:
We’ve had a great Christmas here at Casa Azul. Christmas Day lunch was shared with old friends (Jo and Nigel up from Lisbon) and new ones (Helen and Peter down from Pera), and it was particularly great (well, for me!) that three of the four veg on our plates (namely the sprouts, carrots and swede) were from the veg patch. And I’m not sure if anything was bought ready made – the mince pies including the pastry (thanks Jo) and mincemeat, the stuffing (thanks H and P for the chestnuts), the cakes (thanks Jo again), the pudding (thanks sis), the custard, the decorations (thanks Peter) were all home made! Even the Buck’s Fizz Richard made came from our oranges! Perhaps next year he’ll be ringing the neck of our own goose… Feliz Natal!
One of the nice things about having a dog is that it makes you get out and do more walking. There are plenty of fields around our house but we’ve been encouraged to explore a little further away. It’s been great to find tracks and forest paths where there are no houses at all so that our new faithful hound can be let off the lead and run wild.
Alas, we have a Labrador who likes nothing better than galloping through the puddles, ears flapping, and then leaping all over us in her excitement.
Needless to say we come home just as filthy as her!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the chickens continue their naughtiness. Those who have read the previous post will know that we had to put up some corrugated iron to stop them escaping. This failed. We came home the other day and all them were spotted, clucking madly, making for the derelict house a field away. So more corrugated iron went up. As they continued to stand on their house and try for the olive tree above we even put in some ‘tree art’ for them to clamber over.
However, closing the door of the hen house the other night I was sure the goodnight clucks were coming from above my head rather than from inside the house. Sure enough three of the rascals had eventually managed to get into the tree and were there roosting for the night, a hint of smugness in their clucks methinks. It’s great that they can do what comes naturally but getting down means they can choose which side of the fence to land on, and you’ve guessed it… so it’s Chickens 3 Us 2 for the mo, we’re looking forward to them hatching eggs rather than hatching plans…
It’s thundering down with rain, the wood burning stove is blasting away in the corner and the dog is at my feet – a perfect time to update the blog. Which, in fact, we haven’t done for some time. I suppose because we haven’t done any major projects recently around the place, and it’s a little quiet in the veg patch too. Smaller tasks have been taking up our time: firstly, the chickens are getting bigger and bolder. They are extraordinarily inquisitive and somewhat adventurous. The gap in the fence that surrounds them was for a time filled with a wooden pallet propped closed by a leaning pole. This they loved to climb (and then slide down) and squawked loudly when it was replaced with a proper gate (made by Richard) and latch. One was on the roof of the hen house the other day attempting, in vain, to get at the overhanging branches of an olive tree. There was some alarm last week when I realised they had all disappeared, Richard reassuring me with the fact that there were no bodies anywhere. Faint clucking led me to look over the stone wall and there they all were in the neighbour’s field. It then began to become a regular escapade – a flutter of wings, a scramble over the brambles and freedom! When their wanderlust took them into the far distance we knew something had to be done. So that part of the wall is now covered with corrugated iron. Watching them approach it the first time was amusing. As soon as they drew near their necks came up, their eyes popped open and they began to complain very loudly! I try and tell them that they already have a large grassy field all to themselves, how lucky they are not to be cooped up all day but they are still a little sulky…
Secondly, we have planted quite a few more trees, mainly fruit, near the pergola. We now have another quince, apple and peach. Plus we have a persimmon and a Christmas tree. This rain will be great for them.
Last year we had the first frost mid December. This year it’s been crunchy underfoot already a few times these past few weeks. The marigold and nasturtiums, which were still bravely going, succumbed immediately. All the peas and beans, left in the soil so as not to have bare earth, turned black as did the leaves of a sweet potato I’d planted a few months ago. However, everything else seems impervious to the freeze, even the lettuce is happy to have frozen frills.
And although it’s a quieter time in the garden there’s still a lot growing. The seeds for the winter growing turnips are just coming through (I do hope they survive) and the onions and garlic sets planted last month all have shoots. These join the onions I bought in plugs, and the ones I’ve grown from seed, so all go on the allium front. Villagers who have the field next to us (that the chickens love) chatted over the stone wall to talk veg. They wanted to know what the very large green things I was growing were. They were referring to the artichokes and purple-sprouting broccoli. I knew the Portuguese for these vegetables but failed to get them to understand what they were, as for explaining how to eat an artichoke…
We’re eating the spinach, leeks, sprouts, swede, turnips, celery and carrots. Plus the calabrese which I’m really chuffed with:
Not forgetting the herbs and now the oranges in the courtyard, which reminds me – it’s also a perfect day to make some marmalade.
I’ve been meaning to update what’s been happening in a minha horta for a while now. It’s mostly going well but there have been casualties. First up the experiment to grow beans and peas throughout the summer failed. I sowed these early July. Everything grew wonderfully at first and then it just became too hot. The dwarf broad beans (which have failed at every attempt now) just went brown and died, the peas flowered and then dried up, the dwarf french beans had loads of flowers and beans but these were hollow and dry. The only slight success came from the runner beans but now they too have no flowers. So, in short, useless.
The courgette sown early August has given us a few courgettes, enough for some fritters and a cake. It’s rather pathetic really but the flowers are lovely in the morning still. On a more positive note we are now eating the leeks, carrots and lots of sprouts.
More good news comes from the cabbage, cauliflower and calabrese (aka broccoli) sown mid August. They have done really well. The calabrese heads are now bigger than tennis balls so am really looking forward to having those soon.
Another problem has come from the strong winds and rain we’ve had. The purple sprouting broccoli is almost as tall as me, and the sprouts are not far behind. But gale force winds and soggy soil saw them lean precariously, and one broccoli stem fell over completely. I tied it up, and could see it was broken at the base, but amazingly it seems to be ok. Many of the leaves looked sorry for themselves but it seems to be still alive. Fingers crossed.
The asparagus, rhubarb and raspberries have all been ‘put to bed’ for the winter. Garlic and more onions are in but otherwise there are big empty patches covered in manure and protective cardboard waiting for the spring. So of course now I’m working out what to grow next year. I’m also digging more beds as I’d like to grow additional varieties of plants, especially tomatoes. We’re eating those roasted from the summer but I’d like to have a lot more. Looking back I need to remind myself that this was the first year that I have done this, and overall it’s been great. Occasional feelings of chuffness well deserved methinks! I’ve learnt masses of course but am so looking forward to next year, and all those seed packets, already.
Next week we’ll be up the olive trees getting in the olive harvest but meanwhile we’re enjoying our new four-legged companion who has been with us for a week now and feels like she’s always been part of the family.
It seems appropriate that the autumn colours come mainly from the vines; the fields around us are alight with their gold, orange and scarlet.
In fact this week wine has been very much on our minds for two reasons. The first is that I have started to make some wine for the very first time. My dad had this very old book on wine making, there’s no date but as the price is both in shillings and new pence I’m guessing it’s 1971. He gave it to us when he came recently and it’s full of the most wonderful recipes for country wines, and my eyes fell on quince wine for October – perfect. It’s certainly been a steep learning curve, and with lots of different stages at different temperatures it reminded me of being back in the darkroom.
First up was the making the yeast starter, and here I used the grapes growing in the garden. That went well and soon started bubbling nicely.
Grating 20 quinces (and how big is a quince?) was a bit of a chore…
The next steps had a few hurdles. I did remember to convert gallons into litres but forgot that the bottles I would be using instead of British demi-johns were bigger. I didn’t stir the mulch enough so after the first fermentation in the bucket there was a thick layer of sugary goo at the bottom. And straining the mulch into the glass bottle took ages, in fact it completely stopped when there was less than a third done. Ho hum. Anyone who has made quince jelly will know what a lovely pink colour quince makes once boiled and I was cheered up by the thought of making a beautiful blush wine!
Anyway, hurdles overcome, the wine is now sitting in the living room and gurgling away happily. I had thought it may be ready for Christmas – ha! It’s going to take months and months apparently so it’s a glass of rosé in the spring methinks.
So the other reason that wine is on our minds this week (more than usual) is that we went on a wine tasting course with Portugal friends. 10.30 on Wednesday morning found us at Quinta do Cavalinho where the owner, Paula Costa, showed us around her vineyards and factory and of course encouraged us to have a few slurps. So from a 5 litre bottle to vats of 50,000 litres it’s on a much bigger scale, but it’s still a small family run company.
There are 30 hectares of grapes growing of which 80% are for making red wine. The area until recently was called Ribetejo but the marketing forces that be decided that, in order to compete against big brother Alentejo, the area should now just be called Tejo.
The factory itself has taken advantage of the fact that Tomar, 3 kms away, was the home of the first Knights Templar (and a visit to Tomar castle is a must). Their wine is called Herdade de Templários and features the famous Templar cross. We bought 6 bottles of their branco reserva and then headed off for a boozy lunch with everyone at Calça Perra. Richard slept all the way home…
We’ve been having the most amazing autumn days: cloudless, sunny days followed by evenings in front of the wood burning stove. This October we have had one day of normal rain and one downpour – otherwise not a drop in sight, we are even having to do some watering! Not that we’ve had much time to relax and enjoy it. Richard had a week back home on the Isle of Man (which saw me mainly weeding) and then the following weekend yet more guests, this time old friends from London. They left a week ago and since then we have been non-stop both in the house and in the garden, results of our labour to be illustrated soon.
The chickens meanwhile are growing very well both in size and confidence, they have found a way to get into the veg patch and want to try and get in there a lot despite a huge amount of land on their side of the fence. I think they have their eyes on the newly planted onions… full update to follow shortly. The beautiful dawns are one of the good points about getting up early to let the chicks out. Here’s a vid of them at eight weeks old:
for a chicken. Well, several steps as the chickens have their first taste of the outside world. And how they love it! Chirping and chomping together they scuttle among the fresh grass and weeds. Getting them back in again was the problem, even the rain didn’t put them off pecking and scratching. Only plump beetle larvae tempted them home, I can see I need to get back into the compost and dig a few more of those out!
Our only neighbours, Luis and Laurinda, are shouting distance away. I usually meet Laurinda in the morning when she feeds their ever growing mountain dog who, when standing up, is much taller, and certainly much heavier, than her. She wears a beanie hat and is never seen without her pinny on. She calls across Bom dia, Dona Jacqueline and then quite often she disappears into the house only to return minutes later with her basket. It’s always laden, really laden with excess produce which she insists we have. I wish I had started a photographic record. There have been beans, tomatoes, red peppers and lettuces. There have been strawberries, plums, cherries, grapes and then the other day a basket of quinces. And as always twice, no thrice, the size of anything we have growing. Some of you may remember from a much earlier post our ailing quince tree, this year (despite being pruned and lovingly rescued from the vines and brambles that had been sprawling all over it) there has been just a handful of quinces. Whereas, of course, Laurinda’s quinces are the biggest I have ever seen. This can only mean one thing – I’m back in the kitchen making more quince jelly and quince cheese. Delicioso!
