I think it is time for an update on some previous posts about the quinta, and to add a few random thoughts. I do hope that what I post makes readers think about their own situation and land rather than people feel I am giving out instructions, or merely reporting on happenings on the property. It is wrong to attempt to dictate to people about the way they live their own lives, but relevant reading that leads to a stimulation of the mind is different. I have always read as much as possible about gardening and farming around the world and I continue to do so. It is impossible to know everything that might be suitable for the use of your land, but I try to keep learning through reading.

I planted up the extra olive trees as planned and we now have 483. Most of them are not yet bearing fruit, but those that are have just completed flowering. According to the Ag. Dept. flowering was very variable across this part of Portugal this year, with some flowering well, and others very sparsely. My own trees show similar variances, with some that I had expected to flower in abundance only showing a few. It seems the extremely dry winter was part of the problem, and I have seen a suggestion from a bloke in England that I know only by the name of Owd Fred, that a similarly dry winter is the cause of spasmodic flowering of apple trees this year too. The older olive trees that I retained have all flowered very well, and it suggests that they were able to extract sufficient moisture from their bigger root system, but they are all in favourable positions too and consistently bear well, and that is why they were retained.

Another problem was that Spring never did spring. It is a short season here anyway but this year we went straight from Winter to Summer. April was a full 5ºC cooler than last year and we had overnight temperatures just above freezing, with only 5º as late as 1^st May. Then it began to rain – very late, but most welcome, in fact essential to avert a disaster for many people. 110mm were recorded and we needed every one of them. Areas nearer the west coast continued to receive more, and I am sure they needed that too. As soon as the rain stopped the temperatures increased to around the 30ºC mark and remained there until St John’s Day (celebrated overnight on 23to 24 June in Porto and other places as well as other countries, especially I am told, Estonia)) when it moved into the high 30s. The overnight minimum on 26^th June was a new record high of 23º and the soil temperature at 9.30 a.m. next morning a similar record at 26º. I know that farmers across Britain were complaining at the same time about excessive rain. Perhaps that is going to be a feature of weather patterns for Britain. A few years back some climate forecasters were predicting more extremes of temperatures and rain in future.

It is much easier to cope with wet weather and even temporary waterlogging or flooding, than it is to farm or garden through a very long dry spell (such as we experience every year in the Iberian Peninsula, and elsewhere, of course) and real drought conditions as occur in Australia, parts of the USA, Africa and other places, often mean just waiting it out without hope of doing anything practical. I appreciate crops can be lost through wet weather close to harvest, and I had a total wipe out of over 200 acres of millet due to excess rain one year in Australia, but pastures grow in extreme wet, and not in extremely dry times.

I decided not to grow more loofahs this year. It was an interesting crop to grow, but the preparation of the matured fruit to bathroom loofah is quite labour intensive. We gave a few to friends and relatives – some of whom had previously thought they were a marine creature rather like a sponge. I did keep back some peanuts from last year’s harvest, and they are growing well in one of the garden beds. My “grown from seed” apple trees are carrying a good crop too, as are the commercial ones we already had growing. Previous severe crop losses of these, and pulses in the garden, through insect damage; inedible grapes through fungal diseases, resulting in no wine either; and a take over of weeds and fungal problems in agricultural crops has led me to abandon all thoughts of continuing to avoid the use of sprays. Portugal is definitely not an easy area to attempt to be organic. Hard winters and a good growing summer season make life much easier for organic production.

Apart from flat out irrigating, my main job at present is picking the hectare of White Lupins. This is another crop I will not be growing again on a field scale. They grew well despite the lack of winter rain, but I would say a combine harvester is essential for larger scale growing. It is harvested too late to be following on with a summer crop and they are quite difficult to remove from the plant - bunches of pods needing to be cut off with secateurs. As previously posted the pods have very sharp points, making the wearing of leather gloves essential. They are also difficult to shell, but I have a fairly labour intensive method of overcoming this that would work well with other podded vegetables, but only if you have hot dry weather, a polytunnel or greenhouse. I lay the pods on the tarmac entrance road to the house after picking and after a week or so they dry enough to burst open. Being big seeds they do not fly when the pod bursts, just drop to the ground. They then need to be picked up and sorted from the empty pods. In future I will stick to earlier maturing broad (fava) beans for a winter crop, and irrigated maize for the summer, both crops being easy to hand harvest. I am also trialling butter beans to see whether they might be a reasonable summer protein crop.

I decided to make Mk3 of the seed drill. Patrick made up precision sowing seed delivery plates (timber wheels with grooves for picking up the seed) and these are driven by bicycle cogs and a chain fixed to the spider wheels of the original version. It is very successful and the broad bean drill will be completed on the same lines. Lack of rain from mid-November last year meant I was unable to sow the planned crop for last winter so switched to the Mk3 maize drill project. I am trialling three varieties of F1 maize hybrids this year (not GM) and all are looking good at this stage. I have a knapsack type sprayer and used a pre-emergence spray against weeds, following up with a post-emergence where necessary. I am very pleased with the results. Last year’s crop was swamped with Purslane (Portulaca) and although I pulled as much of this as I could for goat feed it was a losing battle.

In the garden, we had a good crop of Asparagus, particularly from the varieties Connover’s Colossal and one of the Washingtons – I cannot remember if it is Mary or Martha, having committed the sin of not recording the variety when I sowed the seeds. Very bad management. I have tried a couple of all-male hybrids in the past, in fact destroyed a bed this year, and have not found them to be as productive as the old varieties. Kelvedon Wonder peas, sown late winter, and Aquadulce beans also cropped well before much insect trouble. The later peas and a second sowing of Aquadulce were badly infested with insect larvae. Overwintered onions Despina and Long Red Florence (aka Simiane) had a good survival rate and are being used now, although not yet mature. Both are very mild varieties, which we prefer. When they are matured my wife will chop them and bag up for the freezer – no storage losses that way and they are ready to use in whatever quantity is required. My special Kelsae and Globo onions are bigger than previous years at this stage, as are my leeks. I grow these exhibition type vegetables purely for the fun of it, and eating of course. Apricots fruited well too and my wife made jam and a thinner version that goes exceptionally well on tiramisu ice-cream. We do have a sweet course on rare occasions – and always a dry red with it.

Ever one to experiment with wines, a few weeks ago I began adding a course of pâté between my main course and cheese. In the past I have eaten pâté either as a starter, or after cheese. We found a good rough chopped pork liver one and my wife has also developed one from minced pork loin, adding garlic but still experimenting with other herbs. Pork loins are extremely cheap here, about €4 per kg and some supermarkets will mince it for you (much preferable to your run of the mill mince at about the same price) so the home-made version is a long way cheaper than buying pâté. Making your own from liver is very messy. Nice, but messy.  I have had Moscatel with pâtés in recent years, but since this course is now followed by cheese, with Port, and then nuts, with Moscatel, I began trying different wines as I did not want to go from Moscatel to Port and back again. A Sauternes or other sweet white would be fine, but I have settled for White Port, preferring Ferreira’s (not the Lagrima, it is too sweet) to several others I have tested. 

I have received an email from Smashwords, the ebook publisher, regarding ways and means of promoting ebooks. If you have never tried one, this is a chance because some of the books published can be free of charge from time to time, and this is one of them. Smashwords is running a special promotion during the month of July. It will have a precise start of 00.01 a.m. on 1^st July and end at 11.59 p.m. on 31^st July, USA Pacific time – so ensure you purchase any books that are discounted by the authors during that time. Smashwords publishes in many languages on a great range of subjects and the site is worth looking at. You can link to this promotion through www.smashwords.com/?ref=OldMcDonald .  To take advantage of the discounts you will need to enter a Coupon Code towards the end of the purchase process. This will vary according to the book or books you choose, but will be, for example something like SSW50 – the Code for my book.

From seed to humus.

I have written at considerable length on this subject in my book, and as previously posted, will not be repeating the book here, but I am prompted to post a few of the basics because in the last three months or so I have read some misleading and confusing articles related to organic material (shortened to OM for the rest of the blog) soil organic matter (SOM) and humus. Like most gardeners and farmers I am not a soil scientist, but it is necessary for us to understand a little of the subject and some scientific terms if we are to make the best use of our land and keep it fed and healthy. Note that even some soil scientists use OM and SOM interchangeably.

I will begin at the end – with humus.  Unfortunately, as with numerous things in life, the word is frequently wrongly used in general terms, and in the case of humus to mean several different things relating to soil. This is where the misinformation and confusion begins. I am assuming that readers are aware of at least some of the benefits of humus in the soil. If not, please accept that it is vital in improving and maintaining soil fertility and structure.

Humus is a dark brown or black colloidal and amorphous substance that is the result of the breakdown of OM to the point where it will break down no further. Colloidal means that it is a mixture of particles of different components and is neither a solution nor a suspension. In the case of humus it is gelatinous and sponge like. Amorphous means that it is has no definite shape. Imagine a dark sticky blob that can absorb water. The fact that it is an extremely stable substance means it will remain in the soil for a very long time – some soil scientists suggesting up to several thousand years.

Now back to the beginning. Under natural circumstances, and often with our help, viable seeds will sooner or later develop into plants - if something does not previously consume the seeds. The plant grows, is harvested or dies, and leaves a residue either in or on the soil, or in the faeces of living organisms that consume the plant, anything from small creatures in the soil to elephants. For simplicity we will ignore the loss of material through burning or waste that is not returned to the soil, and there is a prodigious amount lost in these ways, including plant material that passes through humans and goes via drains to a sewage works.

As gardeners and farmers we are concerned with returning as much of the plant as possible back to the soil in order to create more humus. We have already left some residue in and on the soil, but we may also have waste, which, if we have any sense, we turn into compost at every available opportunity, and we may have used some to feed to, and provide bedding for, our animals, producing good old FYM. At this stage it is all OM – material that can be incorporated into our soils. The underground plant residues, together with all the underground living organisms and the remains of dead ones are SOM. They are all potential humus and once our OM becomes incorporated into the soil then it becomes part of the SOM too. Humus is also part of the SOM.

Now for a couple of misconceptions. I have seen it stated that inorganic fertilisers will never produce any humus. One million tons of artificials will not add one ounce of humus according to an old author Friend Sykes in Humus and the Farmer and many present-day people think and write the same.  But if you use inorganic fertilisers to grow a crop, that crop is OM and SOM. I should think it is impossible for at least some of that crop not to end up as humus.

I have also read articles by proponents of biochar (a type of charcoal produced at low temperatures) that biochar should be incorporated into the soil instead of organic matter on the basis that organic matter breaks down quickly. Biochar is organic and when it is incorporated into the soil it is SOM. It should be noted that the black soils of South American Indian origin (usually referred to by the Portuguese phrase Terra preta do Indio, which means the same thing) were only partially composed of charcoal, and finely ground charcoal at that, not lumps. It is now accepted that they were purposely formed by the incorporation, over a very long period of time, of a mixed compost of this charcoal, household refuse (including human waste) and broken pottery. The time for the improvement of the original soil through the use of this compost is quoted in a very wide range, from several thousand years ago to pre-Columbian times, or as little as from less than 2,000 years ago onwards. For our purposes the time frame is not desperately important.

Some of this compost is now in the form of humus, and is apparently extremely stable. I am not knocking biochar, I think it is worthy of much research, but do not expect to transform your land in a short space of time through the use of biochar. It is also extremely difficult to produce large quantities. It is much easier to produce the same amount of FYM or compost, and these will give you humus much quicker than biochar that takes a long time to be broken down – the reason it is being suggested as a means of sequestering carbon.

The fastest and best method I know to increase SOM and therefore humus is to use a grazed grass ley. The last paragraph of my earlier blog “2012 and beyond” gives the result of my experience on my present property with the use of such a ley and green manure crops.

Portuguese Wines

Wine drinkers around the world are almost certain to have heard of Vinho do Porto, or Port to the English speaking world, but few will have tasted the many excellent Portuguese table wines or other fortified wines, liqueurs and spirits. This is a great pity. I drink wine with dinner every night, and have done since 1979 when we moved from Britain to Australia and I discovered how cheap wine was there. I have up to two glasses with lunch sometimes too. I have at least one table wine with dinner and most nights more than one. I trial table wines to see whether I would like to put some in my cellar and that is the reason for usually having more than one on the table. In the past I would occasionally have Port afterwards, but since moving to Portugal also have Port with cheese, and Moscatel, sometimes a Spanish one, with nuts, pâté or presunto (a Portuguese ham) every night after a main course. It is extremely rarely that I have a sweet.

I would stress that my drinking habits are not expensive. It will be generally known by regular readers of my writings and forum contributions that I live well, but only spend what I must. This way I do not need a high income and life is therefore much easier. I can enjoy cheap wines knowing that I am not going against my philosophy in order to drink them every night. If I drink a bottle a day it costs me less per week than it would to go to a pub in most countries and have a couple of pints of beer once a week.

I do not profess to be a wine expert, but like to compare wines against each other over two or three nights before deciding whether to commit myself to a few for storage. My reasoning behind this is that after a couple of nights it will be similar to it ageing in the bottle. A very unscientific method, but it seems to work. I would not call myself a “wine lover” either, just a wine drinker. Wine is exceptionally cheap in Portugal, and many very good wines are under €2 a bottle. Bargain ends of line are often under €1. Spain can be even cheaper, and I once bought a large quantity of one-litre bottles at 59c. My son and I occasionally do a “raid across the border” when he visits. Much safer than being a Border Reiver in days gone by in the area where I was raised.

I find some wine tasters’ descriptions rather nonsensical. No doubt they believe the aromas and tastes they describe, but I have extremely rarely reached the same conclusion, and I never read the back label until after I have tried the wine. I believe that if you can have a reasonable idea when you look at the front label of a bottle whether or not you will enjoy it, then that is as much of an expert as you need to be. Portuguese beer is also very good; Sagres and Super Bock being the best known, but there are others of high quality.

I will not go into great detail but Port is the result of grapes grown in the oldest wine demarcated region in the world, high in the Douro valley. The newly pressed grapes have their fermentation stopped at an early stage by transferring the must as it is called into barrels that have been part filled with Portuguese brandy. These barrels are later transported to Vila Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank of the Douro to the city of Porto close to the Atlantic Ocean, and matured in the Port Lodges to produce the various types of Port. Portuguese brandy on its own is probably an acquired taste and whilst I admit to not being much of a brandy drinker, I do not drink it often. “Aguardente” is sometimes the word on the bottle rather than “Brandy” and this is also the word used for home-distilled brandy. Distilling for your own use is legal in Portugal and stills of various sizes are readily available, but expensive. I have had some very nice homemade Aguardentes. One in particular was flavoured with the fruit of the Arbutus tree. This is also known as the Strawberry tree because the fruits look just like little strawberries. They grow profusely in the mountains near us and we have one growing in the ornamental garden area.

For everyday drinking I have Ruby Port, several brands being available at under €4. I think Tawny is better suited to nuts, and occasionally I will compare one against a Moscatel. Moscatel as made in Portugal, either in the Douro or Setúbal, is a different dessert wine to French muscats. Spain makes a similar style to Portugal and there is another made on the Greek island of Samos. On special occasions I will open a bottle of a Vintage Port (VP from hereon) from my cellar. This cellar is built underneath the house as cellars should be and has individual bottle spaces for over 600 bottles within its large space that includes the wine making area, complete with lagar or stone trough for foot crushing of the grapes. The spaces are about half filled, mainly with table wines from around the country, a few Spanish and any others I have found marked down in price, with only a few dozen VPs. They are not cheap even here. I am endeavouring to build up a stock for my son and his offspring when he has some. It takes many years for VPs to mature and it is much cheaper to buy them when young. I also cellar a few Ruby ports each year, and they are improving with cellaring. It is just an experiment, but mentioned by Allan Sichel in a book he wrote about 50 years ago as a possible means of raising the quality of some Rubies.

There is some very drinkable wine, both red and white put into what I call Chateau Cardboard, or plastic bags inside a cardboard box, most holding between three and five litres, although they are available with up to 20 litres in them. I think that size must be for serious drinkers. The boxes are much cheaper than the same quantity and quality in bottles. I use these boxes most nights, often using them as the standard against which bottles are compared, and take aged bottles out of the cellar for visitors, as well as treating myself now and again. I have had whites still drinking well at 15 years old and reds over 20. These wines were very cheap when I bought them, many for only 99c. I look for “bargain basement” offers when the supermarkets are having a general tidy up of their wine areas.

I am also building up a stock of Moscatel do Setúbal, and these are much cheaper to buy than VP. I am told they will keep as long as good Madeira, and that is at least 100 years. The oldest I have is 1981, so a long way to go. I had one of these last month (a bottle usually lasts me a week) and it was produced by the Palmela Co-op. I have also been using their Chateau Cardboard in recent weeks, and am very impressed with both the red and white.

Madeira is part of Portugal although off Africa, and out in the Atlantic, as are the Açores (Azores), which are further north and much further out. The different styles of Madeira are worth sampling if you can find them. The best place is Madeira itself. Even within the Portuguese mainland there is very little choice. The only wine I have seen from the Açores is Lajido from the island of Pico and it is an aperitif, which is again very long lived. I have only seen the 1994 vintage and managed to buy a few. All Portuguese wines will keep much longer than wines from most other parts of the world, many not being ready at the age when wines from other countries are past their best.

Mateus Rosé is the world’s biggest selling rosé table wine, and originated in Portugal, although I understand it is now also made elsewhere. It is lightly carbonated to give a “spritzig” effect. I have never cared for rosé wines, fizzy or otherwise, and prefer a naturally spritzig wine from the region north of the Douro, the Minho, where the wine is know as Vinho Verde, or green wine. In this case the word green meaning young and it is a style that suits many people. There are some really good examples made, perhaps the best being from the Alvarinho grape grown around Monção, where I am told it is served fresh from the barrel in copious quantities. I prefer whites to reds.

Bairrada to the south of the Douro has its own unique red grape, the Baga, which can take decades to reach its peak. It is now my favourite individual varietal wine, but I also like old Douro reds, say ten year old or more, that are a blend of the varieties used to make Port. Younger Douros are slightly too fruity for me but will suit many other people. Wines from the Dão area, to the east of Bairrada, were recommended to me more than 40 years ago as being suitable for a mixed company of people who were not regular wine drinkers, and I think the same still holds good. I like them, but prefer the Baga. Bairrada whites suit my palate too, particularly made from Bical. For those who are not short of cash, or just wishing to treat themselves to something extra special, I suggest a visit to the Buçaco Palace Hotel on the very edge of the Bairrada region and try some of their older vintages. The internationally famous wine writer Hugh Johnson suggested the whites are at their best at about 20 years old and the reds at about 30.

Moving south to the Lisbon area there are small parcels of vineyards and demarcated areas, and some very good reds and whites, plus of course Setúbal across the Tejo from the city. On the other side of the country is the Alentejo wine area, lying below the Tejo and next to the Spanish border. One of the important red grapes in the Alentejo is known as Aragonês, which is the same grape as the Tempranillo of Spain and the Tinta Roriz of the Douro. The region is relatively recently demarcated and a wide range of grapes are grown, both red and white. There are several large co-ops producing wines of high quality. I live in the area known as Beira Interior and this is a little known demarcated area from which I think the wines have improved in the few years I have been here. As with elsewhere in Portugal I shall continue trialling them on a regular basis. I do make wine myself from our own vines, but, in common with most amateur attempts at winemaking (using a mixture of unknown varieties) it is not as good as any of the commercial production and I only make it in years when I think the grapes are good enough..

I have only touched on a few places; there are many more areas, and thousands more wines that I have not mentioned. I admit to having had the occasional bottle of which I was not fond, but I can say the same about other countries. There were wines in Australia I did not care for; I am yet to have a German red that I like, or an Italian wine, either red or white. I am not saying they are not good, just I have not yet found one that I enjoyed. I do keep trying whenever the opportunity arises. I have also had wines from every other country I have tried that did not suit me, with one exception - I am yet to have a Spanish wine that I did not like, but I expect there are some.

2012 and beyond

Everyone should be thinking about food production for 2012 and all the way through to at least early 2013. Depending upon the severity of a normal winter, some crops should probably be already in the ground. Those with animals will have made plans for their feed for the remainder of the winter and obviously grass leys, or permanent grazing, will be there for those with the need for grazing next summer, although places with mild summers and some rainfall can successfully sow leys in the spring. Autumn sowing is essential in this part of Portugal and mine went in during September and October. Perennial kitchen crops such as asparagus and some herbs will be available, but a few annual vegetable crops should also be under way, and perhaps annual crops for livestock too. Asparagus will be the first crop ready for harvest – sometime in February depending upon overnight frosts. Some spears began appearing before Christmas, but overnight temperatures were too low and they perished. I could cover some plants and force them, at the same time protecting them from damage, but I prefer to let plants grow naturally.

For yourself and any family members you supply, do you know what you used in 2011? Not exactly the number of cabbages or carrots, etc., just a rough approximation. Do you have a record of the varieties you sowed/planted of each vegetable and the quantity? Also a note of whether you had sufficient to harvest or too many? If not, make an effort to record the information in 2012. Weather records are most useful things to have too. If you do not already have them treat yourself to a late Christmas present of a max/min thermometer, rain gauge and soil thermometer – and keep the information they give you. I make a daily check and record it in a diary then transfer the figures to a spreadsheet every few days. To the side of the current year’s figures I keep a summary of each month’s figures for previous years. It is not a big task for anyone with even restricted computer ability – like me. Remember that to be consistent you should read the temperatures at the same time each day. Official weather stations usually do a 9 a.m. check local time, but I find half an hour later suits me best, and I believe consistency is more important than sticking to 9 a.m. Soil temperature is particularly useful for knowing whether seeds will germinate if sown into the open ground. A rising temperature for three or four consecutive days, all over the minimum needed of course, is essential for good germination.

I will be growing more winter pulses than last year if the present reasonably dry weather continues and permits me to prepare the ground and sow. I am fairly well forward with making a couple of olive groves ready for sowing. These pulses will be complemented by a slightly increased area of maize next summer. I can reduce the amount of purchased concentrates for livestock this way. I am also planning to plant an additional 40 or so olive trees. I have not marked out the planting sites yet just done a rough calculation, and will place a provisional order of 20 each of Cobrançosa and Cordovil do Castelo Branco for supply in April. The trees will be an extension of the area I planted last year, so the rows are already there to be extended and I will fill up the space to the boundary fence. This will still leave us a few short of 500 trees. The area to be planted has been used for forage or cutting crops for the goats, and I removed the temporary separating fence and ran the scarifier through. The extra grazing that I will have available in future reduces the forage crop needs.

Part of the new leys will provide a hay crop and I will have a carry over from last year’s oats, the summer maize/black eye pea mix and Sudan grass. I like to have a good supply of hay left over each year. I have not had grass hay since 2005 due to needing to graze the limited amount of leys I have had, but annual winter and summer crops have kept me supplied. I prefer leys to annual hay crops, not just for the work reduction, but because I am sure that all land should have a rotation of leys and cropping to remain productive. The build up of organic matter in the soil during a grazed ley phase is better than any other method I have come across. For example the two areas that I have made into olive groves since I purchased this property had two completely different treatments. The first grove planted had eight successive summer and winter purpose grown green manure crops whilst the later planted one was in a grazed grass/clover ley for the same period. The green manure crops increased the soil organic matter content from 2.7 to 3.0% and the ley raised its soil from 1.3 to 4.5%.  This ley was cultivated out prior to planting the new trees because stock would simply eat the trees. It will be a few years before it is back to grass.

Winter garden and winter workshop

Most of the over-wintering crops are already sown and growing well in the garden – peas, spring cabbage, onions, garlic, shallots and parsley. We grow perennial herbs such as rosemary, oregano and chives too, as well as asparagus. I will be sowing a few leek seeds later this month, and some exhibition type onions. Not that I show, I just enjoy growing some “special” leeks and onions. These will be sown in modules and started off indoors overnight and outside during the day if the weather is suitable. I aim to produce as much food as reasonably possible, both for us and the goats, and winter growing crops are better than summer ones due to almost total lack of rainfall in the summer, which means irrigation is needed for crops that are spring sown.

In the last week I have harvested 28 loofahs (some places spell the word differently) that I considered appeared mature with others that have been left just to see what happens to them. I only had five plants. Average length is about 40cms although I have a couple of short ones, and two at 55cms. I also tried one peanut plant and there are pods well formed, but most are immature. They were very late sown, being a few seeds in a small packet of nuts and raisins that my mother in law had with her when she visited in May and 12 germinated. We cannot buy raw peanuts in this part of Portugal. I do not know why. The immature ones look like baby potatoes, whilst the mature ones are dimpled, looking just the same as you would see them in the shops. I know this will be old hat to some people, but not to others. I will leave the rest as long as possible but the lower temperatures (4 nights below 2ºC and exactly zero a week ago) means that the plants are dying and unlikely to be able to put much more into the filling of the pods. Nevertheless I will wait. At least I will be able to sample home grown peanuts, and if I have enough to sow for next year I will be happy.

Both loofahs and peanuts are new crops to me. I cleared the tomatoes a few days ago and have sown more peas and a few broad beans in the two narrow beds, although the bulk of the broad bean crop is grown elsewhere on the quinta. The two beds had already grown early potatoes this year, so have had two crops through them and a third almost ready to sow. I have 21 of these beds in the kitchen garden area, which is close to the house. They are slightly variable in length but average about 10 metres. Of course I make use of the irrigated olive groves for our own food crops too, and we have a variety of fruit and nut trees in other areas so I do not need a bigger garden.

The used farm equipment market in this part of the world is almost non-existent and importing from other countries is an extreme hassle as well as prohibitively expensive. The price of new equipment is also such that it cannot usually be justified on a small property, although I did buy a new tractor (and haymaking equipment in shares with Patrick). As a consequence I have made several pieces of equipment myself since moving here. I am currently making something based on the principles of a corn sheller. Corn shellers will be well known to readers in USA, but for others who are not familiar with the gadget, it is simply a piece of equipment that removes the kernels from corn cobs, corn to the north American people being called maize in most of the rest of the English speaking world.

I spend only a little time on most (but not all) days on this type of project if I have one active, and so it can take a while to make something that is slightly complicated. I have reached the trial stage (a few clamps or temporary nuts and bolts still attached whilst I do some test runs) and it is working satisfactorily – some shielding needed to stop stray kernels flying about but the actual kernel removal is working. I do not work from plans but have a rough idea of what I want to achieve before I start and always need to modify something as I progress. So far as possible I use scrap materials. This is in keeping with my philosophy of being able to enjoy life without spending money if it can be avoided. The sheller is no exception. I had a plywood and angle iron box that was originally intended as a seed box for a seed drill (itself made up from scrap pieces) and I used this to support the sheller plates – one static, one moving (two old discs from a car’s brakes) and covered the gap between them with parts of a hoop from an old wine barrel. The drive shaft (an old water pipe) fits through the discs and is turned by means of a handle devised from some scrap bar, a piece of irrigation tubing and a broken tap fitting. I had to use some new angle iron and nuts and bolts, but all in all, it cost me very little.

I need a sheller because whilst a small number of ears are easily shelled by hand, I want to feed several kilos a day leading up to the goats kidding from early February onwards, so hand shelling is not really an option. I have been using a grape crusher for shelling, but it was never going to be the answer because it is very slow, needing to be constantly turned (manually) in reverse to loosen some kernels and then forward to pull the kernels and smaller cobs, or pieces of cob through and into a container. I pull out some of the shelled cobs during the process and then winnow the shelled kernels to remove the pieces of cob, although the goats will consume some, so perfect winnowing is not necessary. I think the cobs may not be too palatable because the goats sometimes leave a few in their feed troughs. The grape crusher is not satisfactory for shelling pulses either, because it breaks a proportion of the seeds - the quantity depending on seed size.

This is acceptable for some stock, but the goats prefer whole seeds rather than kibbled seeds mixed with coarse meal, which is the effect of the crusher on larger pulses. Cattle would consume this mixture better, and whole ears of maize can be hammermilled to avoid the need to shell the grain from the cob. The overall energy level is slightly reduced when this is done, but the amount of fibre is increased compared with straight grain.

I am making the sheller as dual purpose so that I can shell seed stocks for the next crop of pulses. In other words a small scale thresher, but limited to certain crops and not suitable for small grains such as wheat or barley. I can readily feed pulses in the shell apart from White Lupins, another new crop for me in 2011. Lupins come in many different varieties, and the white seeded white flowered lupins I used are about the size of a small broad bean, and eaten as a snack in Portugal after being boiled and sometimes pickled. I grew them as a livestock protein source.  It was a most successful crop, up to 300 seeds per plant with sowing both in the autumn of 2010 and late winter of 2010/11, but the mature pods have a very sharp spike on the flower end – the part you can take in your fingers on many peas and beans and pull to open up the pod for shelling. This point penetrates flesh very easily and makes hand shelling both difficult and dangerous. It also means I am not prepared to feed the pods whole as I can the other pulses. 

Shellers as made commercially in USA are designed to leave the cob intact and this is usually ejected separately to the kernels. I will not have this refinement because I need the sheller to be capable of breaking open the pods of the pulses, so it will also break the maize cobs into pieces. This is no great hardship for me and I have various ideas for dealing with the produce of the sheller, one of which is to extend the usually short seasonal use of my olive-grading table by adapting it to winnow the maize and pulses after shelling. The cobs have three uses. Goat feed in limited amounts, added to the goats’ bedding, or burned on the household stove. Through the goats or under their feet are probably the best uses for me. I have enough grubbed out olive stumps to last me a few years in firewood.

Yellow lupin varieties have a much softer pod and they are suitable as a hay crop as well as turning in as green manure. I am not growing any yellow ones this year, but I gave Patrick a hand with preparing ground for some that he has sown in the last week. I want to grow white ones again for stockfeed. The seed of the yellow ones is too small to consider hand harvesting, especially since the white ones can be grown at the same time and on similar ground. In places with harsh winters they can both be grown as spring sown.

Lupins are a very high protein crop, with high quality dietary fibre and some oil, but not enough that it needs to be removed, so lupins are more akin to a low oil soy in composition than they are to beans and peas, and that is important. They could be used instead of soy in those places where soy cannot be grown and do not need any processing as soy does. Along with maize, lupins make a good base for concentrate feed for all livestock, although they are low in methionine, an amino acid that can be a limiting factor in milk production of lactating animals. Lupins are a safer crop than cereal grains in relation to the risks of acidosis, also known as grain poisoning.

I grow the maize between the rows of olive trees, and it is sown with a tractor mounted seed drill I made last winter. Several parts of this drill were removed from a previous drill I had also made from scrap – photo in the book for those of you who have it. The new improved “Mark 2” (see endnote) is a twin double row seeder, i.e. twin rows 10cms apart and a 50cms gap between each pair of twins. I fit 8 rows of maize in between each row of olives whilst the trees are small, and expect to reduce this to six as the trees grow. The spacing is such that with some re-arrangement of the tines (a few minutes work) I can run my scarifier through as a post-emergence weeder. Hand harvesting is not difficult, and I only grew a bit more than an acre this year in one grove so it was not a big job. I had Black Eyed Peas, sown with the same drill, on about a hectare in another grove and harvesting these was a much bigger job. Probably too much in fact as I was desperately short of time in the late summer, and I will cut back next year if I can harvest a reasonable crop of broad beans and lupins. The main advantage of the Black Eyes is that they require a lot less irrigation than other summer legume crops.

It is essential that the place maize is grown is entirely pig proof otherwise the wild population just moves in and destroys the crop as it forms the ears. They do not bother other crops very much. It seems they do not care for pumpkins and squashes, and they ignore the pulses too. I do not know why, because I should have thought all of them were equally good feeding, and just as easy for the pigs to “harvest” as the immature maize cobs.

I am also part way through construction of a four row broad bean drill that would double for white lupins (although I am also considering an exchangeable lupin seed metering tube for the maize drill) but temporarily shelved this as I decided to sow the 2 hectares destined for early sown beans to a fescue/white clover ley, using Segria a Spanish fescue and Haifa white clover. The organic matter content of this piece of land is not increasing as well as I would like, still only 2.7% on analysis although an improvement on the 1.8% in 2004. Four years in grass will make a big difference. The beans will now go into the olive groves, and I am restricted in being able to work this land due to the usual heavy autumn rains, so decided the sheller had priority. I take our household requirements from the field sown crops, but the garden bed I sowed will be ready earlier than the field sown ones.

I will move back to the bean drill when the sheller is finished and delay sowing probably until February depending upon weather conditions. I will be able to pick fresh beans for ourselves in May and they will be dry enough for long term storage by early June. They will be followed by maize. Patrick is assisting me with the design of the sowing tines (CAD or Computer Aided Design no-less) complete with fixed seed delivery tubes for the bean drill. We had intended to use the rear tines from a scarifier, but may have purpose made tines manufactured for us. This will considerably increase the cost of the drill, but could be worthwhile in the long run since the drill is likely to have a great deal of use in season, and it is probable that at times Patrick and I will have a narrow sowing window of opportunity so will work as a team, one getting the land ready and the other sowing immediately behind.

Endnote.   I have a lot of what might normally be considered useless information floating around in my head, and I was reminded when typing Mark 2, that it is the name that was used by the author Mark Twain. His real name was not Mark Twain, but Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He qualified as a Mississippi river boat pilot and it is said took his pen-name from the call of the person taking a depth measurement of the river on the boats, which, when it was two fathoms deep was “Mark twain”.

Storks and other local wildlife

Contrary to what you may read, storks do not all overwinter in Africa or India and return to Europe in the spring. Storks may be in northern Europe from spring until autumn, but they disappear from here during the summer and return in the early winter. I have seen a Black Stork (Ciconia negra) but it is the White Stork (C. ciconia) that is the common stork of Portugal. I have added Latin names so that those people not familiar with the names may identify the birds and animals I write about.  It is always difficult to be certain when a species of bird goes away unless you make a point of checking daily, but easy to know when it returns. Guy Fawkes Day is about when we expect them, although it has been into December some years. This year they arrived back bang on time, although I understand some reside in the Algarve all year round, having done so for a number of years. 

Guy Fawkes Day is 5^th November and celebrated in England, and the rest of Britain, with bonfires and fireworks because it is the date of an attempt to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in 1605. Guy Fawkes was caught guarding the explosives that had been set. I am never sure whether the populace was/is pleased that the attempt failed and so celebrate the burning of Fawkes’ effigy on top of the bonfire, or whether they were/are disappointed and have bonfires to show what might have been.

We had a visit from a Great White Egret (Egretta alba) at the beginning of the month. According to my European Birds guide book they should all be on the Eastern side of the Mediterranean. It seems they are occasionally sighted in Portugal, and increasingly so in recent years. Apparently they have also been sighted in the UK a few times, with a flock of 8 in Norfolk in 2009. Think pure white heron (Ardea spp.) with a yellow bill and dark legs, and you will know if you ever see one. Cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis), of which we see large numbers, are a much smaller bird.

Various theories are put forward why birds generally are increasing their habitat range. Some say it is because farmers are using fewer chemicals, others that it is global warming, and others that it is because of increasing numbers of many species. I am not prepared to guess why it is happening, but I am pleased when I see something new that I can I identify, and find it most interesting when I see a bird at close quarters. We are situated very close to a river and look down upon it from the house. It is always fascinating to see the otters hunting fish. I am looking forward to see whether we have a Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) visiting towards the end of the year. We have had a lone bird here over the Christmas and New Year period the last two years.

The kitchen windows are not fully reflective, but sufficient that we frequently have birds land on the windowsills and we can look at them from very close up – just the thickness of the glass separating us. In the spring we had a Hoopoe (Upupa epops) as a regular visitor for about three weeks. There are lots of them about and whilst not tame, they are not particularly shy either. Crag martins (Ptyonoprogne rupestris) - what an awful Latin name for such a charming bird, are the most frequent to rest on the sills, but occasionally Blue Tits (Parus caeruleus) and of course Sparrows, the common House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). The windows are also a great vantage point for watching fly-pasts of our favourite summer visitors, the Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) as well as the occasional Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). It is nice too to watch the otters (Lutra lutra) when they choose to fish in the pool immediately below us.

There are too all the “little brown birds” that never stay still long enough to make identification, and I find it much easier with the bigger ones such as Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) which is seen infrequently, or Magpies (Pica pica) of which there are too many. The other bigger birds include Ravens (Corvus corax), Grey Herons (Ardea cinerea), Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo), Buzzards (Buteo buteo) and Black Kites (Milvus migrans). We also have a small covey of Red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) that include the quinta in their territory. There are various eagles and vultures not too far away from us although not in our immediate vicinity.

Of course I do recognise many of the smaller birds and the most common include the Stonechat (Saxicola torquata), Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), Siskin (Carduelis spinus), Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), Linnet (Carduelis cannabina), and Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba).

Animal wise, in addition to the otters we have foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and wild pigs, and I have once seen a Beech marten (Mates foina). I had to seek help in identifying that. It is similar to a Pine marten (Martes martes) and, although I have never seen one, probably the American marten (Martes americana) if you are familiar with either of those. Apparently the American marten is also sometimes referred to as a Pine marten in parts of the USA. Very rarely I see a rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) or a hare (Lepus europaeus). I am yet to see an Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), although I am told there are some, and Egyptian Mongooses (Herpestes ichneumon) in the area. In addition there are what translates into English as Civet, but some claim is a misidentification for a species of Genet.  

Press Release

As I said in my opening blog "Introducing Myself" I will not be repeating things that are in the book, and I will not be using the blog to "push" sales either, but I am issuing a press release on 1 December to selected print and online magazines, newspapers and journalists in many countries. This release includes a 50% reduction in the book price for December, and since a considerable number of people (more than I had expected) are checking in on the blog I felt it was only fair that these people should have advance notice. I would not like a follower of my blog to buy the book in the next few weeks and then discover they could have bought it at half price if they had known about the offer.

I would also like to advise that the blog will be much improved in appearance very soon. Patrick will do the new design for me. Anyway, press release...........

“HOW NOT TO MAKE MILLIONS – but still enjoy a rich rural life” took 60 years to write.

Author Alan McDonald began gardening at the age of seven and 60 years later is still gardening and farming.

Juncal do Campo, Portugal, 1^st December 2011 – Alan McDonald currently resident on his rural property near Juncal do Campo in the Castelo Branco area of Portugal has published “HOW NOT TO MAKE MILLIONS – but still enjoy a rich rural life” a book of over 250 pages that describes how he reached his goal of being a farmer despite frequently having been told it was not possible because he did not have the money needed to do so. The book goes on to give the reader the decades of experience and wealth of knowledge acquired by the author in England, Australia, Scotland and Portugal.

For a limited time, expiring on 31^st December, an electronic book version that is normally priced at US$9 will be available at a very generous 50% discount at www.smashwords.com/books/view/84252. To take advantage of this offer, use the Coupon Code PX47D.

Numerous books have been written that tell of would be farmers moving to a rural life but this is not one of them. The author was reared on his father’s smallholding so he was a country boy from the beginning and not an urbanite who fell into the many traps awaiting newcomers. Whilst it is very unlikely that anyone else can have such a wide experience of food production and the way of life in so many diverse places on their own land, the story of his farming and gardening in different countries is only a part of this remarkable book. The experience gained, what works and what does not, plus warnings of what might befall the unwary, is all passed on to the reader as suggestions to be considered and not instructions that must be followed. We are led from first beginning to look for a piece of land all the way through to devouring its produce. This makes it a book of great interest too for town and city dwellers concerned about their future ability to purchase wholesome food. Being an ebook it is also an instantaneous reference source for easy future use.

Born in Ashington and raised close to Morpeth, Northumberland, UK, Alan McDonald began work for the local council on leaving school, but was always determined that he would be a farmer. He married a local girl in 1971 and they bought their first few acres. After moving to bigger farms in Northumberland and Australia, they moved back to Scotland and then on to Portugal where they enjoy life with their garden, field crops, olive trees and goats together with the simple pleasures of good food, good wine and occasional good company.

A Glossary followed by a blog on Olives

Before posting about the quinta – the Portuguese word that means a farm, I thought I should give a glossary to explain about some things and words that I will be using on a regular basis, otherwise some of what I write would not mean much to people in some countries. It is not always possible to give a precise meaning that is globally translatable. For instance a quinta, which is also the word used for Thursday (although strictly Quinta-feira) is usually a small farm rather than a big one, and whilst this might be called a smallholding in some countries, smallholding translates to hobby farm in other countries. A hobby farm is in turn usually the sort of place where the owner is not reliant upon it to provide a living, perhaps using it only for pleasure, whereas a quinta is more often than not the sole means of support for the owner and perhaps a family too. See the problem? A quinta is not a hobby, it is a means of survival. I find it easiest to refer to all landholdings, whatever their size, by the simple word farm. I hope some of the following will be useful to readers in the future, and if anything is not clear, please feel free to ask for an explanation through a comment. I will endeavour to answer such queries promptly.

Animals. A fairly substantial dictionary could be produced trying to explain all the different words associated with animals. I will try my best to explain things as they occur.

FYM. Farmyard manure. The mixture of bedding, faeces and urine of farm livestock. It may be fresh or old, in a shed or out, stacked, matured into the best fertiliser there is, and possibly mixed with other things too.

Grass. This is the generic term used by farmers when referring to a field that contains either natural or sown species of grasses, with or without legumes or herbs.

Grove. The area of ground in which olive trees are grown. It is never a “field” of olive trees, always a “grove”.

My wife. This is the way I normally refer to her when addressing other people. She has a name of course, but is quite happy to be known to other people as Old McDonald’s Wife. There is no disrespect in this, and we have worked as a team for a very long time, having been married for over 40 years. She feeds me well and is a great asset, having trained as a Home Economics teacher. Sometimes when writing I will write “I” and sometimes “we”. This is primarily because I do most of the horticultural and agricultural work, whilst she looks after the house, flowers and some of the fruit.

Narrow beds. An area of ground in a garden that is bounded by footpaths. The bed is usually narrow enough to be straddled or the middle reached from either side.

Olive mill. A place where olives are taken and “milled” in a similar manner that grain is milled and made into flour. That would, of course, be a Flour Mill. There is an extraction process after milling the olives so that oil is produced.

Patrick. Another immigrant or “estrangeiro” as the Portuguese call us, and who has a similar sized quinta to ours about 5 miles distant. I share haymaking and some other equipment with him. I have never shared equipment with anyone before this, but it just seemed the sensible thing to do and he is such a decent sort of a bloke. He also just happens to be an extremely gifted graphic designer who made the front cover for my book and did all the technical work of making my Word document ready for publishing as well as preparing the ads I have placed in magazines. It is extremely fortunate to have a neighbour such as this. Having had the occasional not-so-good neighbour at times I sympathise with those who have only that sort.  His details appear at the foot of the Copyright page of the book if anyone has need of his talents. 

PTO. The Power Take Off (PTO) is a splined shaft that sticks centrally out from the rear of a tractor, sometimes the front too, and is driven by the engine in a rotating motion. This shaft powers many farm implements.

TPL. Three Point Linkage. The three points at the rear, sometimes the front too, where an implement is attached to the tractor. There is one top link and two bottom links. This mechanism, powered by hydraulics, allows implements to be raised for transport or turning in the field, and lowered for use. A link box is simply a box that is carried on the tpl and a most useful piece of equipment.

Vegetables. I will use standard English names, but where I am aware of another name being used in some English speaking countries e.g. maize and corn, I will use both.

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November is the time of year when the olive harvest is in full swing in our area of Portugal – and other places too, of course. Many people are able to commence in October, and depending upon a range of variables the harvest often continues into December and sometimes even later, but November is the peak month. As appears common with harvests around the world, the weather conspires to keep us out of the groves. After the usual extremely dry summer (falls of a few millimetres several weeks apart occur most years) the autumnal rains this year were late in arriving, but 156mm in 10 days from 24^th October meant summer was well and truly over. Several more heavy falls adding more than another 100mm in the following two weeks made the ground very wet indeed.

At first it appeared that the olive harvest might be a good one and early, due to a general fall of 30 to 40mm of rain at the beginning of September, unseasonably early and most welcome just as the fruit was increasing in size and moving towards maturity, but as the dry weather continued through October, accompanied by higher than usual temperatures, the developing fruit was adversely affected in non-irrigated groves, which means almost all of them. Rain was needed again at the end of September or early October in order to flesh out the fruit. Instead the olives began to mature and then the excessive rain caused a lot of cracking of the fruit. The poor quality regional crop meant that it was not economic for the only local cash buyer of table quality fruit to open for business this year. This buyer has been the outlet for the bulk of our own crop in past years.

This year saw the first harvest from 440 new trees we have planted and a bit less than half of them bore fruit - anything from a single olive, to the majority with about a handful and a very small number with up to a kilo or so.  Consequently I had a very small crop – helped by five “stray” trees around the quinta. It is not economic to go further afield with a small quantity, so after retaining a few for eating I took the rest for making into oil. I bulked up our small harvest, estimated at about 55 kilos, with Patrick’s bigger one. The yield was a litre of oil to eight and a half kilos of olives. The mill makes a quick test, then does the calculation of the oil that should be produced, retains a percentage in payment for making oil from your olives, and gives you the quantity to which you are entitled.

We only use about five litres a year in the kitchen, and although we make our own soap this takes very little too. We have at least a year’s supply of soap on hand, so we obtained slightly more than enough oil to see us through the year. Pure olive oil soap has been renowned for a very long time as being the best soap there is, and is sometimes known as Castille, although strictly this term should only be used for soap made in Castille, Spain and it should not contain any other oil either. 

Patrick and I are planning to make a trial batch of biodiesel with some of this year’s oil. Our long term aim is to become partially, if not fully, self-sufficient in biodiesel for tractors and irrigation pumps. In future, after selling the table quality fruit we intend to take the next grade below Extra Virgin and Virgin Olive Oil (a non-food grade known as Lampante) in exchange for our remaining olives and make bigger quantities of biodiesel from it. This is the grade of oil we use for soap too.

Introducing myself

I use the name Old McDonald on various forums around the world, and so it seemed appropriate to use it for my blog. My surname is McDonald and I am old.

When I was about 7 years old my father let me have a few square yards of land and I began to grow vegetables on it. I sold the produce. This was the whole idea of him allowing me to use it. He knew as well as I did that I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up and this was the starting point. He had wanted to be one too, but his father was a blacksmith not a farmer, and so he worked down the coalmines. At the end of WWII he bought a very small smallholding, a smallholding being known as a hobby farm in some parts of the world. So he was able to let me have a tiny piece of his land for my own use. He knew I would have a great uphill struggle to become a farmer (he had to continue working in the pits) but he encouraged me when the rest of the world said it was impossible.

From the very beginning I kept records of what I did with my little piece of land. From then to the present day is a long story - a 60 years long story. The details of where I have been in the meantime and my experiences of farming and gardening in various countries are contained in my records and that long story. I eventually made them into an ebook format at www.smashwords.com/books/view/84252 and if you click on the link and access the free sample you will be able to read much more about me and the places where I have farmed and gardened. The contents page lists the countries and the Preface will give you a good idea of how I think.

I will not be repeating things from the ebook in this blog, but instead writing about my present farming and gardening on my current property, which is a little over six and a half hectares or 16 acres in the middle of Portugal. I will post on a regular basis provided there is something of interest to write about, and I already have a couple of things from the past few weeks partially drafted. The next post should follow very soon after this one.