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SilverCoast Holidays - Portugal |
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August 2011 |
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Week Thirty One
Someone has stolen our sun!! This week was mainly over cast with one day of heavy rain, this may be quite nice for us and others that work the land but you got to feel for the poor holiday makers.
We had 4 sets of visitors to the farm this week, what we have done is to set up a display area for our produce in the kitchen area in the back of the garage. This has proved to be a very good move and we have got extra sales because of it.
We continue to pick the produce and make products for our casa45 site. After last years results we have decided to increase the amount of product we keep and hopefully this year we do not run out of some lines as we did before.
Crates have been dropped in the orchard so the first apple pick will not be far away, with this in mind we made a visit to the Co-op to purchase items in readiness as we plan to make our own cider this year.
Ended the week at a friends birthday BBQ, It rained hard all day, better luck next year eh Pete!!?
Week Thirty Two
Good week weather wise which was just what we wanted as we have guests in the rental and my 2 children are here on a weeks visit.
Popped to some friends who have a large bucket of pears waiting for us and from these we will make pear chutney, we were to just pop in have some tea then go….. 3 hours, that’s what happens!
Antonio our neighbour called us over as he had a present for us ….. A 40+ kilo pumpkin! We had to take the car over to bring it back - any suggestions to what we do with this monster? Please don’t say soup!!
Kids here so we have a break too, a few trips to the local beach and an interesting trip to the Berlenga Islands 10k off Peniche, glad we went but can’t see us having a return trip!
Week Thirty Three
The weather continues to be warm and we do get a little drizzle now and then but it never stays for long.
We have taken a different approach to gardening in the hot weather, we call it “spurt gardening”. Set yourself a small task, get it done as quickly as possible then get back into the coolness of the house.
Planted out new cucumber, courgette and tomato plants also sowed dwarf beans and leeks.
There was a big hill fire to the rear of our property, it was not close but the winds were blowing towards us and they were very hot just like opening up the oven door. With the winds came the smoke and that hung around all night through to the next day. The bombeiros were busy that night with this fire and a few others.
Week Thirty Four
Still hot, good for holiday makers.
First pick for the apples this week, there is plenty of fruit on our trees and others too. With the fallers and rejected apples we started our first attempt at making cider - 5 crates, 45ltrs of scrumpy.
We tried a Saturday delivery of fresh produce for local ex-pats to see if there was any interest - reasonable response so will try again when we have enough fresh goods to make it worth while.
Went to Alcobaca where there was sprint racing at the market carpark, it was small time but plenty were there to watch and we now know where all the LHD mini’s are!!! Impressive driving by some.
Still making chilli products, Habanero sauce and spiced plum chutney this week.
August Sowings, Plantings and Harvesting. Sowings/Plantings - Courgettes & Dwarf Beans.
Harvestings - Dwarf Beans, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Basil, Chives, Tarragon, Butternut Squash, Okra, Figs, Apples, Water Melons, Red & White Onions, Carrots, Peas, Chillies & Peppers.
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