A very short post this but I’ve got big news. In just under a year since they started laying, brownie and her mates – hennies, 2, 3 and 4 (we can still only recognise one of them as being a bit darker than the rest) have laid their 1000th egg. And after their little rest in October, they are back up to speed and laying significantly bigger ones. So good news all round.
We’ve also been busy. We went on a short soap making course last week. We’ll start churning out all sorts of soap from next year made with our own olive oil and assorted extras. So now you know what to expect for future Christmas presents!
And I went into the forest with a group of fungus foragers and came back with a basket full of wild mushrooms. It’s been a couple of days and I’m still alive so I guess they were safe to eat – more to follow but here’s a selection (the big one is a scaly tooth!):
Our latest bunch of roasties have now had the chop. We bought them on 1st October, a bit younger than we had originally planned as they were only a couple of weeks old. However, they stuffed themselves silly and when I dispatched them this week (when they were 10 weeks old) they had mushroomed in size to between 3 and 4 kgs (the largest was almost 9lbs in old money, the same size as a turkey!).
No photos of the actual dispatching but here I am plucking one in the ‘death zone’.
a pleasant plucking
In order to make them even more tender and delicious, they need to be hung in a cool place for a few days.
hung
We had the first one roasted last night – with garden fresh swedes, turnips, spuds and French beans. I say we had one, actually we only managed the best part of one breast. I guess it’s chicken sandwiches, cold chicken, chicken curry, chicken soup, chicken stir fry…. for the next week. Of the other four, they’ll be frozen and will no doubt keep us in meat for quite some time.
One group is happy to see the back of the roasties – the layers. We’ve moved them into the roastie quarters so they have some fresh grass to eat. No complaints there.
Well the first thing obviously is the rain. It has been bucketing down on and off for the last week and this has meant the return of the grass. Not an even, lush carpet but it’s back. Strangely enough on our learning English site (podcastsinenglish.com) this week, Jackie interviewed our good friend Peter who was describing a scary few days at the edge of a huge forest fire which threatened to engulf his house. This happened only a few weeks ago. With the wood burning stove already on the go for the cold nights, the hot, dry summer already seems a distant memory.
Last year the area just in front of the house was builders’ rubble. We planted some grass seed and thankfully it is already starting to come back pretty well.
Also the conifers we planted shortly after we arrived have done pretty well over the summer and are starting to shoot skywards. No doubt this will continue with the Autumn rains.
Not forgetting the strange episode of the autumn flowering apple tree. And the apples are coming along nicely.
So the season has changed, the wellies go on and with the rain we are seeing (and picking) our first mushrooms and also oranges. Although Jackie did make some quince jam, we are hoping that it’s not too late to grab a few more but we may have missed our chance.
The wet weather means that the ground is much softer now and so we are going to be planting a whole load of bulbs. Summer is not great here for flowers as we can’t spare much water but we are hoping for a good show in spring when it’s damp but sunny.
The hens are finding the damp ground much easier to scratch as well. I feared that they would scratch up any new grass that tried to poke through and my fears were well founded. So I split the chicken run in two, hoping that the chickenless half would resprout so they can be let loose on this when there’s a bit of grass. As you can see from the photo below this has worked a treat. They certainly aren’t bothered by the rain and actually seem to enjoy it.
Meanwhile the new roasties are gaining weight hand over fist and will be ready for the chop in a few weeks!
And the veggie patch is still going strong. The carrots and parsnips sown back in September are, at long last, starting to germinate; they obviously appreciate the cold, wet weather more. The experiment to grow more things through the winter continues: both the peas and broad beans are flowering and of course not an aphid in sight. All the brassicas are up, there are no green caterpillars now, although they look rather straggly at the mo.
cauliflowers, peas and turnips
The turnips and swede are going mad, and the onions are doing well too. Must remember to put some garlic in this month. Finally, the chard, kale, lettuce and beetroot are also doing well – no fatalities yet! We should be eating the leeks into the new year, and the sprouts too. And the tomatoes are amazingly still going – just a few left now but we’ve got plenty stored in various guises for the winter.
Also, as can be seen below, the artichokes and asparagus are doing well and will be ready to eat next year.
So there are very few beds which are empty and we’re pleased about that. These have been covered in manure which will break down even more over the winter months and be ready for the new potatoes and other early crops. Let’s just see what the winter holds in store…
I can’t believe this is our third olive harvest and they keep coming earlier. Usually it is in November but this year it was mid October. Global warming? Whatever it was, this summer has been very dry and very strange. August was cool and cloudy while September and so far in October it has been scorching. It took its toll on the olives as they ripened very early but also many were dry and shrivelled. We also had a lot fewer and could only muster 6 bins and that was after scouring all our trees and even taking some from the abandoned field next door.
up a tree
So I was a bit embarrassed to take our paltry crop to the lagar (factory) for pressing. However, I was very pleasantly surprised that our 140kgs produced 22 litres – more than last year which came from nearly 8 bins (240kgs). And in fact it was about the same weight as our first harvest which only produced 15 litres. All rather strange.
When I got the oil back to the house we were keen to compare it with last year’s which we are still using. The major difference is that this year’s crop is green and last year’s a lovely golden colour. Apparently this is normal as oil fresh from the press has the most intense olive flavours (and other taste characteristics such as pepperiness and bitterness) and a correspondingly deeper green colour. As the oil ages it will slowly turn more golden as last year’s has done, and like wine it gets better with age (up to a point) – Luis our neighbour is still using oil from a bumper crop he had four years ago. We also need to keep the bottles open for a week or so to let the oil “breathe” before storage.
this year's oil on the left and middle, last year's to the right
In other news the hens have stopped their strike. The unseasonably hot weather in October combined with the shortening of the days seems to have blocked up the hens and one of them was even a bit poorly for a day – unheard of over the last year but not surprising given her state of being bunged up! After a week of hardly any eggs and very hot weather, the temperature has come down and yesterday we were back to three eggs so hopefully it was a temporary blip.
Meanwhile we are waiting for our first autumn rain – it is due to arrive on Saturday. As the ground is bone dry and like concrete it will be interesting to say the least. It should also start filling the well. We are right down to the last few drops and a few scary looking objects at the bottom are appearing through the shallow water…
We occasionally go for walks with a group of friends known appropriately as ‘Portugal friends’. Obviously the hairy one is a popular participant in these events, the most recent of which took place not that long ago. As we hadn’t been for a while there were lots of enthusiastic greetings for the hairy one, accompanied with cries of ‘oh gordo, gordo’. I think it was a compliment but it actually means ‘fat’. As Labradors (as well as some of us humans) are prone to fatness, I determined to increase our regime of local walks, and so me and Gordon (the hairy one’s new moniker) have been tramping the local countryside two or three times a week. We usually go the same route which takes about an hour and is truly beautiful. Anyway, on our latest meander, I took some snaps.
It’s a very varied track – plenty of olive groves and fields of grapevines (hardly vineyards – all the land around here is divided into small family run plots)
grape vines after the harvest
But there are tracts of woodland, mainly oak, as well.
Although it is still very hot and dry for October (it’s been in the high 20s, low 30s every day so far), the colours of Autumn are becoming apparent (or maybe everything is just dying in the heat!)
We very rarely see anyone – perhaps just an old woman with a herd of goats but this time there were two hunters with their dogs. They could have been out for wild boar, stags, mountain lions… or perhaps rabbits.
I just happened to see an old photo of me enjoying lunch in the ‘old’ courtyard not long after we arrived on 20 September 2009. I think I was having a rest having cleaned the whole place up as it was in a right state then. Funnily enough I have another photo taken exactly two years later from about the same spot.
The new project I mentioned in the last post is almost complete. I’m not sure what it is called but it creates a cool shaded area in the courtyard which was looking too barren. And I managed to use up the old tiles and some of the wood from the barn roof.
Today is the second anniversary of our arrival in Portugal to start a new life. It is also just over a year since we moved in to our new house and we are already doing repairs. Fortunately not to the house but only the polytunnel at the bottom of the garden. The sun has taken its toll on the cheap plastic covering which was falling apart so I recovered it with UV resistant plastic. Looks good now, I wonder how long that will last.
'new' polytunnel
However, we continue to build new things. Since the renovation of the barn, our attention has been on the courtyard and to this end I recently made a new flower bed. I had to dig up the new paving, and a layer of concrete and then the original cobbles underneath but the main reason was to practice my bricklaying as I intend to embark on a bigger project in the courtyard very soon.
starting the new bedcompletedNew project started. What will it be?
Meanwhile, as we move into September, things are ripening. Walnuts are appearing on the ground around our three trees and so soon enough we’ll be sitting in front of the telly of an evening shelling them in readiness for a succession of walnut cakes. Also the figs are coming to fruition. Not just in our garden but there are a few trees in the lanes and tracks hereabouts. So along with the blackberries and apples, they are providing sustenance for our country walks.
figs and walnuts
One tree that doesn’t know what time of year it is, is our new apple tree as it has rather strangely come into blossom. I’m sure nothing will come of that.
apple blossom in September
Despite Jackie’s bemoaning of the lack of sun and heat to dry her tomatoes, we have had little rain – as measured by my new rain gauge. In fact in August we only had one decent night of rain which measured a relatively pathetic 25mm. However, this was enough for the grass to be reborn and now patches of the garden are starting to green in a sea of brown. And that is the signal that I’ve got a few months of strimming to look forward to …
Aside from all the veggies we’ve planted and the animals we’ve introduced (bees and chickens), there are plenty of things growing around here that we inherited, some that have sprung up like weeds and some that are growing wild in the lanes around here.
I suppose the dreaded brambles are the main things that spring to mind. I spent months and months trying to eradicate them from the main part of the garden but they have still thrived around the edges. Last year the blackberries were dry and shrivelled but the cool summer we have ‘enjoyed’ this year has been a boon for them and plenty have ended up in various deserts. The common accompanyment to blackberries is of course apples. We do have an old apple tree in the garden which has been here for years. It produces plenty of apples (there are plenty on the ground that’s for sure) but they are all tiny and mostly inedible. Fortunately there are plenty growing wild in the lanes around here, as well as pears, and often on my daily walk with the hairy one I manage to snaffle a few for my knapsack.
oranges and apples
Two of the trees that were also here before us are the orange trees in the courtyard. Fortunately they seem to be doing very well and have plenty of fruit which should be ready at the turn of the year. We also have our fingers crossed for our small lemon tree which has two lemons and our new lime tree which has quite a few microscopic fruits clinging on for dear life.
I suppose quite naturally for these parts we have grapevines sprouting all over the place. Most have had a poor summer with few grapes but we have an enormous bush in the lane by the house. Although the grapes are only small at the moment and not of high quality I am hopeful for at least a few glasses of grape juice for next month.
grapes and blackberries
Aside from the flora, the fauna still continues to thrive. I took another frame off the bees which they seem to be fine with. This gave another two and a half jars which is just as well as we seem to be giving plenty of the stuff away. I won’t be taking any more so let’s hope that we’ve got enough for ourselves over the winter (I’m sure the bees will be thinking the same). Other fauna is also doing well. The collared doves must like it here as they’ve had a second brood and the fledgelings have just left the nest but are staying close to home for now. I wonder how long parents and kids will stay for?
As Jackie mentioned in the last post, we were rather chuffed to recently harvest our first batch of honey.
It was quite straightforward to remove the frames, I just had to be careful to brush the bees off the frames and quickly put them in a sealed box to take away. There are nine frames in the top box which contains the honey (the lower box contains the brood – eggs and larvae). For the first harvest I took four full frames and left the rest which were not quite full. We may take two more a bit later but there is no rush. We must remember to leave some honey for the bees to eat over winter.
Here’s a photo of a frame packed with capped honey – about 1.5kgs worth.
It’s accepted that most of the honey should be capped before extraction. The frame below is only about three quarters capped but should be fine. Basically the bees mature the honey and reduce the water content to below 17% before capping it.
Generally beekeepers use a dedicated mechanical extractor to get their honey but for just four frames it wasn’t worth our while so we did it manually. After a bit of messing about and some very sticky fingers it all went surprisingly smoothly. I cut the honeycomb out of the frame and then put it in a sieve to drain out. As it was a particularly hot day the honey was very runny which made it easier. The honey that came through was amazingly clear and wax free which was good and of course, it tasted delicious!
