OUR OWN OLIVE OIL!!!

29th November

It's nearly the end of the month and we still have village internet, so I posted my blog (might as well get my 'money's worth'!).

It must be nearly Christmas I saw my first ever robin here this morning, it perched on the chair outside the door and I swear it was chirping at me!

Our walking tractor's faults just keep coming ......... first we had the cables (clutch and reverse gear) back to front, then the tines hitting the housing (had to remove the inner tines), the pins that holds the wheels/tines onto the axle were impossible to take out when the tines were on as the tines have been assembled wrongly (so Brett had to put spacers in ) and now the plough doesn't fit, we think they gave us the wrong one, it has a completely different sized fitting! however it's still making a fantastic job of the vegetable garden, which is expanding daily.

Nick came round, to borrow our little inverter! And while he was here he told us something I can't believe is true ................... it's illegal to drive a foreign plated car in the UK on a UK driving licence, why???? It's exactly what we were doing when we came back to the UK in the summer. And it's very worrying if it's true as it means we can never drive back again - we couldn't even hire a car to come back (as it would be foreign plated if we got it here). I've 'googled' it and got conflicting information (ha ha, this looks like a job for Will and Steph!!!!).

30th November

And still he's cultivating!!!! I'm starting to get seriously worried, it must be an acre by now;

it looks fine at the moment but how will I keep it weeded once it has vegetables in it ( I can hear Debbie & David saying "with your new hoe"!!!), it'll be a full time job.

Oh dear, on Thursday we went into Minipreço and decided to try the Portuguese speciality Bacalhau (salt cod), we've eaten it in restaurants and it's very tasty. I looked up recipes on the internet (there's absolutely masses); bottom line it would need soaking for 24-48 hours and 1.5lbs would feed 4-6 people (I had 700g); so we invited Mark and Chris & Di round for dinner tonight. This morning I took the cod out of the water to remove the skin and bones and it was then that I found out we had bought cod's head (actually mainly the jaw)!!!! There was hardly any meat, it was practically all skin and bones (goodness only knows what it's sold for, all I can think of is fish stock)! The recipe I had chosen Bacalhau com natas (Cod in cream) is basically Dauphinoise Potatoes with a layer of salt cod in the middle - I padded it out with slices of hardboiled eggs and grated cheese, it was rather good even though I say so myself - it all went.

1st December

Flippin' heck it's nearly Christmas.

We went for a walk this afternoon and found some more stepping stones across the river, they're really close to our quinta (about a field away), we've never noticed them before because usually there's lots of vegetation in the way, and no river!

Mark phoned this evening to say our oil was ready for collection, he doesn't know how much we've got. We're meeting them at the mill tomorrow on our way back from Fundao (vegetable plugs and fruit tree buying). And then tomorrow afternoon Nick is taking me and Looby to Corvilha to the vet (he thinks she won't be car sick in his car as he has an estate).

2nd December

Today was a busy day. We got up early to go to Fundao market. We bought masses of vegetable plugs (which I will have to plant tomorrow - I'm already feeling tired at the thought of it!); we got cabbage, onions, broccoli, strawberries and something the lady said I had to have as it was 'the best' (I think it could be turnip tops) plus a couple of lemon trees, an orange tree and three kiwi plants(two female and one male). We could have bought a lot more if we'd had time, but we had people to meet for coffee (Nicky and Rich) and then were meeting P&M at the olive mill to pick up our oil.

We got our oil back, our 603 kilos of olives made 86 litres of oil, 20% is kept by the mill as payment, so we got back about 79 litres (enough for us for a year!). We had it with fresh bread dipped in it for lunch, it's yellow (I thought it would be greener) and peppery - Brett says it has a grassy/apple taste to it, I don't get that but it is nice so we're very happy with it.

 This became ................

This !!!!

and this!!!

Nick took me and Looby to the vet; she has done a test for mites and a test for fungus (she'll phone me in a few days with the results), she put a spot-on on Looby for parasites and worms (internal and external) and we have a calming lotion to rub on her sore bits. But .............. she says it could still be a food allergy and we wouldn't see results for 4-6 weeks. Oh yes and Looby is also lactating!!!! Why? She's been sterilised; so now I have to bathe her belly with warm salty water. She was sick twice in Nick's car too - fortunately we had put down a tarpaulin and I had kitchen towel and plastic bags with me.

3rd December

My back aches but I have planted all our vegetable plants, they're all looking a bit droopy but I've watered well so hopefully they will all survive and be standing up by the morning.

Brett carried on making the vegetable garden BIGGER. We planted the trees on the terrace below the house,

we'll erect a trellis for the kiwis to climb over and it should make a nice shady area to sit.

4th December

Brett thinks that Looby seems better 'in herself' today, she's still scratching but not as much; hopefully the vet will call us tomorrow with her results (I'm almost hoping it is mange - at least we would be able to treat her for it).

We took the plough attachment back and they swopped it for one from another machine as the plough we had fitted the other machine - our pin still won't fit through the new plough but we will be able to attach it with a bolt and it should work fine.

Our vegetable plants still look droopy, I hope they pick up soon.

I finished making and writing our Christmas cards today, we're not sending many this year (close family only, sorry) as they cost nearly a euro to post!!!!!

Tomorrow I'm going round to P&M's to help Pam make gingerbread men, and other shapes, for the Christmas market in Penamacor this weekend. Pam has said I can take our washing tomorrow - pure luxury, a washing machine; washing by hand is not fun in this weather and it's hard to wring it out well enough for it to dry as well.

I keep reading about fermented food which is supposed to be really good for you, and be quite tasty, so I decided to make some sauerkraut, one with red cabbage and one with white - it's literally shredded cabbage and salt. I did one full kilner jar of each.

Brett took a photo of a Portuguese Peasant Woman sewing outside her quinta!

5th December

We posted our first batch of Christmas cards this morning, I feel so organised! And Brett's chainsaw bits had arrived at the post office (thanks Steph), so that was Brett busy for the day; he chopped down some dead trees and sawed some logs - he was so happy with the new chain (said he hadn't realised how blunt his old one was).

Pam and I made over 100 gingerbread biscuits ......... people, hearts, teddy bears and frogs (!!!). We only managed to decorate about 50 of them as we didn't have proper equipment (and I was being a bit intricate), we had icing nozzles but not bags so we tried using plastic bags - it all got very messy.

The sauerkraut has started to work, it has shrunk to about half a kilner jar and has made its own brine.

6th December

I offered to go back and help Pam, there was too much work for one person to do. We finished decorating the gingerbread,

made 20L of mulled wine and decorated labels for the stall - it took all day!

Brett and I watched 'Brave' tonight (it was toastie warm in front of our stove!) brilliant animation, it looked 'real' .

7th December

The sauerkraut is looking like sauerkraut now, it's shrunk so much, I had to really press to get it all into the kilner jars, now the red one is about 2/3 full (shrunk by 33%) and the white one is only about a 1/3 full (shrunk by 66%).

Looby definitely seems to be on the mend, she's not scratching so much, she seems far more lively, her coat is looking better and she has no new raw areas. The vet phoned yesterday, the test for fungal growth was negative but she didn't see any mites either, though she said, as Looby is improving, it probably still is mites (she gave Looby a 'spot-on' for mites); we're taking her back for another 'spot-on' next week (we hate taking her in any vehicle as she's always sick, poor thing).

Pam didn't need my help at the Christmas market, as she had Mark and Astrid (another expat) helping her; we went along in the afternoon, to show support, and it was 'dead', there were hardly any customers, it was a real shame as there were lots of stalls that you could see had put in a lot of work (like me and Pam!) making their goods - Pam's hoping tomorrow will be livelier. I did buy some berry liqueur, aguadente flavoured with raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, that Pam was selling for Pedro (a Portuguese friend of hers), he makes the aguadente (a spirit made from what's left after you make wine, the skins etc) himself then flavours it - it was only 7.50€ (less than £6.50 'real' money!) for 75cl.

Tomorrow is Mark's (and Glenn) birthday, we're treating him to a pizza in Penamacor; a whole group of us are going as it Keren's birthday too. This evening I made Mark a birthday cake, Clementine and Olive Oil, from our own oil and clementines unfortunately the stove is not very controllable and the top got a bit burnt, so I cut it off and iced it!!!!

Around 6.30 we got a call from P&M they were going to the Christmas 'wood festival' (it's a local tradition where they gather up wood to burn, on Christmas eve, outside the parish churches) with Josh and Jamie, and did we want to come? We met at J&J's quinta then drove down a track for several kilometres to a church where there was a massive bonfire and FREE wine!!!! There were masses of tractors and trailers with huge tree trunks on them, JCBs were loading wood onto the bonfire, it was all very jolly (and slightly pagan) 

but nothing much seemed to be happening ........... there were barbeques waiting to be lit (we were much too early as usual) apparently this festa lasts all night and then in the morning all the, drunk, tractor drivers drive their tractors around the district distributing the wood. We left after a couple of hours as we hadn't eaten, next year we'll eat first and arrive later.

8th December

Happy Birthday Mark.

Another cold and frosty morning, 

but bright and sunny too.

When we took Looby for a walk it was like having a new dog, she was so spritely it was lovely - she must be feeling better.

We cut down an olive branch for a Christmas tree 

(we're being as smallholderish/green as possible) - it was one that needed pruning, so we didn't remove anything that wouldn't have been cut off anyway.

When we went into Penamacor this evening the road to the restaurant was blocked with tractors and trailers, piled high with wood, waiting to unload outside the church. When we came out of the restaurant we walked up to the church to have a look, the bonfire was HUGE 

Mark & I being used for 'scale'!

we're going to go on Christmas eve when it gets lit, it should be very impressive.

The meal was very jolly, there were eleven adults plus Gypsy (4 years old) we all had pizza, pudding, coffee and as much wine as we could drink, the bill came to 85€.

9th December

We had Mark's birthday cake for breakfast, it was actually really good; very light and not strange tasting - I was worried the olive oil might over power the flavour, but it didn't in the least.

Brett and I started on the second olive harvest (P&M are going to help over the next three days), we picked 74 kilos.

Tonight we tried bacalhau again, we made sure it was fish fillets! P&M and Astrid came to dinner - they admired our 'Christmas' tree and are going to do the same thing, we'll look for a branch when we're picking tomorrow.

10th December

Looby was shattered after today's olive harvesting as P&M brought Olive (dog) with them, they spent ages running round and around in circles, chasing one another, and then dug a deep hole together to lie in. We picked another 121 kilos of olives (195 total), so another two days, with four of us picking, we should easily get 400+ kilos.

We spent the evening in front of the stove watching 'Friends' and eating chocolate; I've got a horrid cold and just wanted to relax in the warm!

11th December

We had five pickers today - us, P&M and Astrid, we picked 186.5 kilos (381.5 total). We ate the sauerkraut at lunch time, it was really good so I'll be making that again, Brett says next time we could try cabbage, onion and carrots - like a fermented coleslaw.

Tonight we watched 'My Fake Fiancé'; it is one of the most awful films I've ever bothered to watch to the end (probably because I was feeling too ill to move!), the story was formulaic, the 'funny' bits weren't funny, the romance was nonexistent,  the characters had no charisma so I just didn't care what happened to them, it was rubbish!

12th December

Our final day of olive picking (we're getting bored with it now!), there were only four of us today (no Mark); we picked 96 kilos so have a grand total of 477.5 so, as we only need 400 for a private pressing, we are happy. The olives go to the mill tomorrow, when they'll be pressed depends on how busy the mill is now. I've worked out that, if we get the same ratio of oil to olives as last time, we should get back around 55L of oil this time; but Pam reckons that it could be more as wrinkled olives give up more oil (I think that's still the same amount of oil per olive it's just that they weigh less because of water loss, therefore bulk weight yields more).

13th December

We took Looby to the vet this morning; this time we tried with me travelling on the back seat with her - she was still sick ....... twice! but I managed to catch it, both times, in plastic bags. The vet gave her another dose of 'spot-on' for mange; we're convinced that's what it was, so we're now reintroducing normal food, whilst monitoring her closely.