Poppyseed Citrus Goatsmilk Soap

Finally starting to see the end of the soap stash, so I fired up the slow cooker for some hot process soap.

Contains sweet almond, coconut, olive and castor oils, with shea butter, silk, saffron, poppyseeds and orange rind, scented with sweet orange EO and a vanilla, buttery FO mix.  As a heads up for those using frozen milk with the lye to prevent curdling/scorching, turns out it can also impede the silk from dissolving properly.

The house smells delish.

Millo e Landras

One of the things we managed to do over the puente in May was visit an organic farm in Vilasantar called Millo e Landras.

I´d seen interviews and features about Victor and Marta on Galician TV, there are links on their website, so  I knew when they started they were relatively new to agriculture and I was looking forward to meeting them and asking some questions about making a ¨green¨ living.

They have more than 5 hectares and, in addition to vegetable and fodder crops and an orchard, a collection of chickens, pigs, rabbits, sheep, goats and horses.    They supply 2 CSAs and sell at an organic market in Santiago and via Granxa Familiar, a great website dedicated to direct marketing of products from Galician farmers.

Victor was out planting green onions when we arrived and couldn´t have been nicer in welcoming us.  Then we got a tour around the beautiful stone house and yard with Montse, one of their increasing group of collaborators, to see most of the animals.  Sadly, the sheep were already out in the far fields, so I have yet to get my hands on a Galician sheep fleece.

We finished up with a nice chat on the porch about the challenges of organic ag, certification, sales and area markets, raising heritage breed animals (they have seasonal wolf pressure) and profitability.

Overall I left reasonably encouraged, although they started off with the advantage of considerable resources and owning land.

Someday maybe I´ll be going to the market in Santiago, too.

Champion Chickens

Photographer Tamara Staples has a new book out.  And her subjects are pretty amazing.

From Slate:

. . .Staples began photographing the birds around the Midwest in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana over four years to get enough material for her first book, The Fairest Fowl: Portraits of Championship Chickens, published by Chronicle Books in 2001.

Staples’ second book, The Magnificent Chicken: Portraits of the Fairest Fowl, available Feb. 19 from Chronicle Books.

Repointing

Some questions for all who have renovated stone structures.

What did you use for mortar? Why did you choose it?

How was it applied? How long did it take?

What pigment was used? How do you like the results?

Book revew

Carol Klein has a useful book of propagation techniques called ¨Grow Your Own Garden¨.

Propagation is important for those of us who are gardening with limited financial means and would like to have an abundance of plants without spending a fortune at nurseries and garden centers. She covers everything from seed scattering to root cuttings and mentions specific plants she´s spent years propagating in her Devon property and nursery. Quite detailed photos and instructions clarify the intimidating and sometimes confusing processes of seed saving, taking cuttings, and root division and their subsequent transformation into new plants. Her enthusiasm is unmistakable and I found her prose to be both engaging and practical. I would recommend the book and am itching to get myself a potting bench set up.

 Source

From the section on seeds in the book:

Collecting your own is always better than buying seeds that may have been stored for some time, and in some cases entered a dormant state.  Throughout autumn, as the brown paper bags of precious booty accumulate, the sense of anticipation starts to build.  During the bleakness of winter, as seeds are cleaned and packeted, the names scribbled on the bags summon up pictures of the plants that will eventually emerge.  You can almost feel the satin of their petals, the soft or shiny texture of their leaves, nearly smell the perfume of their flowers and see their quivering stamens.

This is as close as gardening gets to the earth´s heartbeat.  No matter how many times you sow seeds, the process is just as magical.

Unfortunately, it seems she had a run in with new neighbors and has had to close the nursery and garden, which seems a shame after 30 years and several gardening awards.

But you can still see the wonderful garden, as her BBC series ¨Life in a Cottage Garden¨ is available in 6 installments on youtube.

Hedge?

What to plant along the property line?

started

The wall runs more or less northwest/southeast.  We´ve never met the neighbor and have no idea of his plans.

more complete

What won´t undermine the wall or shade our side too much, but will screen and also provide something useful?

Espaliered fruit
Blueberries or soft fruit
Hazel
Grapes
Roses
Lilac
something else?

Spring terrace

Did a stint of spring cleaning while V was away on business 10 days.  The terrace is looking pretty good, if  I do say so myself.  Hard not to be planting anything.

New trees blooming in the neighborhood.

And there´s a spectacular wisteria just off my usual walking route.  Stunning but, it does give one pause before planting one.