I do apologise for the last post not really being a blog, but I
felt I had to post something after almost three months since the previous post,
and I had those snippets ready in a document intended to be used in an
advertising campaign.
Weatherwise, 2013 began as 2012 had ended –
very mild. 2012 had a mean temperature of 15.33ºC for the year, the third
warmest since we came here in 2003, with 2011 at 15.90ºC and 2010 at 15.75ºC
being the two warmest. Overall, the 2012/13 winter was very pleasant, with extremely
few frosts, and only a couple of recorded negative temperatures, with the
lowest minimum only –1ºC. The first few years we were here we regularly
recorded minus fives and sixes each winter, with one minus seven. Temperatures
elsewhere were even lower that night and there were widespread losses of olive
trees and eucalypts across the whole country. Virtually everyone thinks of
Portugal as a prime holiday spot in summer and few realise that skiing is
possible in the winter. The Serra da Estrela (about 40 miles from us) has a ski
lift.
As I said at the beginning of the previous blog
we had a prolonged spell of wet weather. In the 8 weeks from 18th
February we had 352mm of rain, and just as things were looking hopeful for a
very late start to spring work, we had a downpour of 15mm in a few minutes on
the 27th April. It then turned cold and we had overnight minimums
down to 6ºC into the last week of May, with little progress upwards until well
into June.
Conditions in March, April and early May were
so wet that at the lower end of underground land drainage pipes the water was
being forced to the surface because it could not flow sufficiently quickly
through them. Being at the bottom of the river valley means there is a
considerable amount of underground water moving through the property from
higher up the hill. Then, of course, it stopped raining as it always does for
the summer.
Growing cold weather crops is somewhat easier
than warm weather ones where the soil temperature needs to reach a certain
level before the warm season seeds will germinate. The long cold and wet spring
also meant that the broad beans (Vicia faba) continued flowering and
growing on when they should have been maturing. It meant a heavy crop, but also
primed the late spring weeds – mainly a very large crop of corn marigolds and
several species of the daisy family. I always find it interesting on the farms
I have owned to see the way the weed spectrum changes with the improving
fertility of the soil. I do not recognise the different species of these daisy
type flowers (several of them are possibly types of Chamomile from the scent)
but they come in all sizes up to about 1 metre tall and have masses of flowers
each containing an enormous number of seeds.
The prolificacy of the weeds, insects and
fungal diseases of crops, plus the relatively mild winters so that they all
thrive, has left me deciding to forget any ideas about being organic (even in
the kitchen garden) and I now spray as necessary. The winter beans in particular
benefited from a fungal treatment early in the year. Some were left untreated
due to not being able to walk on the ground because of the excessive rain, and
they succumbed without producing anything. I have lost previous crops to the
same problem. I have three knapsack sprayers, and it is heavy work and very
slow with constant refilling of the sprayers, so I am purchasing a tractor
mounted one.
Unfortunately producing the crop is only part
of the process, and due to an old and ongoing knee problem that has been
exacerbated by the hand picking of the beans I have been unable to complete the
harvest. The unharvested portion of the crop has been cultivated into the
ground and will produce a green manure crop when the beans germinate with the
autumn rains. I have a horrible feeling I shall have to accept that old age is
catching up with me and that I can no longer do everything to which I have been
accustomed. I usually walk several miles in a day working the quinta, but the
knee problem has meant that I have been using the tractor just for travelling
around the place. I have decided that I will not grow any more “close to the
ground” field scale crops for hand harvesting, with the exception of
pumpkins/squashes where a heavy weight is soon collected. Maize and olives are
both at a much more acceptable height to save my legs.
The olives had a very large amount of blossom
and on the whole have set a good quantity of fruit. I usually spray against
olive fly and a fungal disease known locally as gafa and caused by an organism
that research people seem to disagree about the spelling, but one of them is Colleotetrichum. A failure to spray against both often
results in a total crop loss, and at best a very large decrease in the crop
harvested as well as oil quantity and quality in those fruit which are picked.
The number of fruit bearing trees is increasing each year and I could not
possibly manage with just the knapsacks.
I sowed two hectares of Piper Sudan grass and
it is growing well with irrigation, but because it was late sown I will take
only one cut (probably the first or second week in August) for hay instead of
the usual two. The quality will be more than adequate for the goats. I was
unable to get a maize crop in due to the late and incomplete bean harvest. I
did manage to sow pumpkins and winter squashes along some of the olive tree
lines so, with the usual winter grazing I should be able to meet the winter
feed needs of the goats, but I will buy some concentrates if needed.
In the kitchen garden we had the best garlic
crop I have ever grown and good results with all peas – Kelvedon Wonder, my
favourite for flavour, Douce Provence and Rondo. Overwintered onions were very
poor, failing to bulk up, and we will need to buy some later. I saw some fresh
in the supermarket in May that looked good, and they were an excellent sweet
flavour too. The variety was Reca. They are still being sold now. I think it is
Spanish, and I will look for seed for overwintering this coming season. The
late summer sown cabbage Spring Hero also cropped well. Asparagus was nice
whilst it lasted, but a lesser crop than previous years.
I bought new seed potatoes this year, and Mona
Lisa was quite early for a maincrop, beginning lifting after 12 weeks, and
these will be followed by Picasso, a potato with one parent being Cara that I
grew in Scotland and they look alike, white with pink eyes. Both varieties will
store through the winter, but insect damage in storage is a major problem here
and I will have to be vigilant.
I could not find any fresh peanuts to sow, so
will have to do without our own, but several other crops are looking good –
melons, Jerusalem artichokes, gherkins, cucumbers, and tomatoes (Ailsa Craig,
F1Shirley and a determinate San Marzano). The curcubits and tomatoes are
cropping well so far, the gherkins in particular have an enormous number of
fruits – and despite a quantity having been pickled there are far more than we
can use off only four plants so I have begun feeding some to the goats. They
are not all fond of them at this stage, but that is not unusual with a new
food. Like everyone else in the locality we have very few apples set, no
peaches, plums, apricots or almonds. I know someone who grows tree fruits on a
small commercial scale, and apart from cherries (apparently a low volume crop
this year) he will have no other fruit.
The only new crop I am trying is Sweet Pepper.
We have always eaten a very small quantity if offered to us, but both of us
have usually found that they have been too hot. As previously mentioned we do
not consume any spices. I found a variety, Marconi Red, that is supposedly
extremely mild. So far, only a couple of “tasters” in a stir fry, and still
green, it is indeed very mild. We will see how they fare as they ripen.
