Monday, September 28, 2015

V´s new toy


V´s working his way through the remains of the downed apple tree with a new maul.  Poor tree was rotten from practically top to bottom.  The lichens have dye properties I´m thinking about trying.

We were reminded about the firewood by a week of wet chilly weather, but now Indian Summer is upon us once again, so I´m out in the garden. 

Happy Autumn Equinox!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Vendimia 2015



The vendimia is the grape harvest, currently going on all over Galicia.  Much to my surprise, the grape vines we tossed over a crumbling wall, did indeed produce grapes.  Some are still a little sour, but with the recent rain, the skins were splitting.  Probably going to make jam.  Maybe chutney, though we don´t eat chutney.
 Any other thoughts?

And the hugel is finished.  I fear I have created the world´s greatest critter condominim.  Needs some more dirt/compost on the top.


Friday, September 11, 2015

Aproveche



¨Que aproveche¨ is what you say in Spain, instead of ¨Bon Apetit¨.

The local tomatos are finally appearing in the farmer´s market, so I did up a batch of roasted tomatoes with garlic. I am surprised at the number of tomatoes it takes to make sauce.  Mental note - plant many, many sauce tomatoes.  Hampered by not owning a food mill, the skins plucked right off and the rest was mashable. I was planning to water bath these, but there wasn´t really enough, so I froze half and ate the rest.  It was delicious.


The rest of the harvest so far includes:  fallen pears, crab apples, pickled onions and blackberries.  The pears rotted almost immediately, since they´d blown down from the very top of the pear tree.  Still undecided what to do with the crabapples as they seem small to be peeling and coring.  The blackberries are tasty, but smallish and seedy.  I was going to make jam, but finally put them in the freezer to decide later.

In latest news, the birds have gotten most of the elderberries.  And the elder with the most left to ripen got taken out by one of our dead apple trees when it fell over in a windstorm.  Instead of making elderberry syrup, we´re now faced with splitting and stacking a lot of applewood.  I´ll have to investgate smoking something - bacon anyone?


And, inspired by the tomatoes,  I planted some cilantro and sweet basil seeds in pots.  They´re coming up very, very slowly and may not make it before frost.  Fingers crossed for future salsa and pesto.


Friday, September 4, 2015

Vacation 2


Gravel large and small, called zahorra, got spread in front of the barn entrance.  This is where the car will be parked, and the next load of firewood will get stacked along the wall.



There is a small shed space where we discovered a stone floor.  Plans now are to use it as a tool shed and then root cellar, if and when we have veggies and beer to store.



Then we decided to wade in on the woodpile of scrap from the house and barn that´s been sitting in the pasture for going on 5 years now.  A lot of it is turning to dust - perfect for hugelkultur beds.  This will be put in the terraces.  My only doubts are the nails they may have.



Some of the timbers seem reasonably sound and we´ll use them for raised beds, gates and plant support structures. I fancy a pergola.


Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Would you harbor me?



Grim toll: A 100-metre long list containing the names of 17,306 migrants who have died attempting to reach Europe since 1993 was unfurled at the entrance of the European Parliament in April
Source


"Would You Harbor Me?" -Dr. Ysaye Barnwell; Sweet Honey in the Rock. 

Would you harbor me? 
Would I harbor you? 
Would you harbor me? 
Would I harbor you? 

Would you harbor a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew 
a heretic, convict or spy? 
Would you harbor a run away woman, or child, 
a poet, a prophet, a king? 
Would you harbor an exile, or a refugee, a person living with AIDS? 
Would you harbor a Tubman, a Garrett, A Truth 
a fugitive or a slave? 
Would you harbor a Haitian, Korean or Czech, 
a lesbian or a gay? 

Would you harbor me? 
Would I harbor you? 
Would you harbor me? 
Would I harbor you? 

from Safe House: Still Looking by Y.M. Barnwell www.ymbarnwell.com www.sweethoney.com


Body washed up on the beach in Libya. - The Mediterranean’s grim tide