It's time to harvest the pears

It's time to harvest the pears, well at least one of our two pear trees. The tree is laden with fruit, the first time it has fruited in the 5 years we have had it. There aren't masses but we are pleased with what we have considering we don't spray with chemicals. The type is Manteca Hardy. Our other tree is a conference pear which did well last year but it doesn't have much fruit at all this year.

The birds had started to attack and eat the pears which is always a good sign that they are ready for harvesting. Gawber, never one to miss an opportunity to climb, joined in the pear harvest and made sure no birds pinched our crop.

We will eat the larger pears and plan to make a pear and tomato chutney with the smaller or damaged ones. Our gooseberry bush failed to fruit this year so we are pleased we have an alternative for chutney making.

Source: http://www.frutas-hortalizas.com/Fruits/Types-varieties-Pear.html
Mantecosa Hardy: It also comes from France, and it is sometimes called Hardy or Gellerts Butterbine. This fruit is short and asymmetric, of average size. The skin is of greenish yellow colour, with rough brown spots. The pulp has fine grains, it is tender, juicy, sweet and aromatic. It is consumed as dessert fruit from August until the beginning of October or even later. 

We harvested the potatoes and look what we got...

Way back in March we planted 100 Desiree red-skin potatoes. This is the first time we have planted this variety. The previous few years we have been trying various others which have been OK but yield, resistance to blight and taste have varied widely with mixed results.

We took the opportunity of an extended dry spell to harvest ours, 14 weeks after planting. So far so good, no blight. We have been applying diluted aspirin on the potato and tomato crop to prevent blight and up to now it appears to have helped but the weather hasn't been too damp and misty so...

The important thing is that this year we have had a bumper crop. Over 100 kgs of tasty, clean skinned, red potatoes.

We will dry them for a few days, clean off any residual soil and store them in a dark, cool area of the store. With the right conditions they should last us for the next 6 months. They are a valuable crop as we will use them for Spanish Tortilla, Moussaka, baked, new and soups plus a few we'll pass on to friends.

Winter food stores

As the evening mist settles in the lower fields and the sun sets behind the mountain, there is something quite comforting about checking the stores and seeing them well-stocked and knowing that you'll have food on the table and a fire to keep you warm.

Over past year we have made a few jams: fig and vanilla; fig; red berries; rhubarb; raspberry. We are yet to make orange jam.

We have produced: mustard seed and gooseberry pickle; green tomato chutney; ginger, chili and marrow chutney; piccalilli; pickled figs; pickled walnuts; pickled peppers; and pickled chillies. We are yet to make date and apple chutney. We have jars of tomato frito and pisto from Luis' sister but fewer than usual due to her crop being wiped out by a hail storm earlier in the year.

We tend to buy in bulk where possible so having somewhere dry and cool to store things is important for us. We have a dedicated area for food storage which houses a freezer and the dehydrator, a series of shelves and racks. We also use a cool floor area to store crates of apple and squash.

Luis has just returned from the Matanza and as usual loaded up with supplies of eggs, apples, pulses, potatoes, onions and oranges. The oranges (14kg) are particularly welcome as they are from a farm in the south of Spain which do not use dye or wax to improve the appearance of the fruit unlike many commercial oranges. We have ordered 10 kilos of Kiwis from a local organic kiwi farm which will last us through until spring if kept cool.

Our dried herbs and infusions are now ready for processing and will hopefully last us through until the fresh plants are available along with the other dehydrated produce such as figs and apples.

With plenty of fresh vegetables in the garden we are set for winter and look forward to making nourishing food fit for a king on a winter's day. We will cook, sometimes in bulk, more hearty soups, casseroles and stews and use dried herbs and spices, our home-made stock cubes and home produced balsamic vinegar to flavour and enhance.

It is times like these you really do see the fruits of your labours and welcome the storage space...oh and a warm cosy fire.

The geese/cranes fly south

The weather has turned cold here in Asturias with snow on the mountains, rain on the lowlands and winds making their presence known as they travel east from the Atlantic through the Bay of Biscay. It has been a bit too wet to do very much at all in the garden but today the sun is shining bright and out of the shadows, the warmth is welcome. One bonus of the cooler weather is that the Acers are in full glorious colour and look wonderful.

We have been collecting leaves and composting them to make valuable leaf mould for next year. The green oats we have sown for green manure are sprouting and the vegetable garden is still producing a healthy crop of leeks, flower sprouts, endive, beetroot, celeriac, chard, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot and fennel. The early sprouting broccoli suffered early on with rot at the tips but has recovered a little.

The cats Wentworth and Gawber are spending increasing amounts of time indoors and it does not take them long to suss out if the fires are lit or not. This little clip shows them play fighting in the garden, taking the opportunity to enjoy the brief spell of sunny weather.

There is still plenty of wildlife activity in the garden with visits from the pine marten, many birds and insects. You can following the visiting creatures on our other supplementary blog Smaller tales from Toriello. 

Luis is back from Ravenna and in full scale mosaic production. Needless to say he is full of new ideas and energy and is currently finishing fish and water-lily mosaics for the terrace and a sculptural mosaic he started a few months ago. He is currently writing an article about his Ravenna trip for an online mosaic site which I will publish the link to when it is up and visible.

We have seen several formations of geese/cranes flying overhead but as is always the case, I never have the camera or right lens to hand when we spot them.  I did manage to get one not too clear photo and hope to spot them again soon...

footnote: a friend from France says these could be Gru (cranes) I think she might be right. What do you think?

Aubergine / Eggplant

We seem to be able to grow really good aubergines here without too much difficulty. This year we are growing two varieties. The flowers of the aubergine are lovely with a soft shade of lilac and undulating petals, they really do bring a touch of early summer colour to the vegetable plot.

We rarely get problems with aubergines apart from delays in germination with cooler weather in spring. We normally grow about 10 plants which is more than enough. What we cannot use we will distribute to friends and neighbours although many of our neighbours are unfamiliar with this plant and really do not know what to do with it.

We use aubergine in many different ways including:

Thinly sliced and roasted with some oil, spread with basil pesto and rolled up (you can add an anchovy if you eat fish).

or...

Aubergine paté with garlic and oregano - diced, sautéed with salt pepper, garlic, oregano and garlic. Add a few table spoons of water to reduce the amount of oil, add stock cube and let it cook until soft, mash with fork and cool. Delicious on fresh bread.

or...

Vegetarian Moussaka with layers of lentils, potato, tomato and cheese sauce.

How do you eat yours?

Top of the crops - Peas

If our vegetable garden is like many others, there are probably a couple of crops that seem to do much better than anything else. I suspect it is due to several local factors such the soil, fertility, weather, position, pests and diseases as well as other factors such as seed viability, variety, compatibility with local growing conditions and general care, and of course the perfect twiggy pea stick.

One crop that never disappoints at La Pasera is the humble pea in it's many forms. Each year we grow 3 or 4 types of pea crop including: Mange Tout; Sugar Snap Peas; Pod Peas x 2. This year, in addition, we are trialling a purple podded pea (Mr Bethal) sent to us by a friend.

Currently we are harvesting about half a kilo of Mange Tout a day and they are delicious. We eat them raw in the main with salads and as a snack but they are equally wonderful in stir-fry, soups and curry. What we can't use we will give away, freeze, feed to some local pygmy goats or compost.

peeeeaaass...peeeeaaass...

We eagerly await the new purple podded peas to see how they shape up for taste and cropping, early signs suggest they will fare well.

What crops well for you?

The perfect twiggy pea stick

With a welcome break in the weather and the promise of bright and warm sunshine Luis suggested that we went in search for some perfect twiggy pea-sticks, well 30 or so to be precise.  Knowing that the caminos (paths) of the Camino de Santiago would be muddy in parts and that we probably be making our way back through the waterlogged fields, we opted for Wellington Boots. A wise decision.

Twiggy pea sticks are usually thin twigs of hazel (for us) that are used to support pea plants, perfect twiggy pea-sticks only exist in Luis' mind but I thought it might be fun to go along and made wiser about these things. There are many village and cliff tracks that veer off the Camino de Santiago that are heavily populated with coppiced hazel and sure enough, Wellington boots were required.

Walking along the caminos is wonderful at any time of year but early Spring with its gigantic puddles, flowing field streams, fresh and crisp new growth and neatly tended orchards is truly magical.

We found what Luis considered to be the perfect hedge in which to harvest our perfect twiggy pea sticks and we began to cut perfect specimens...

The way home across the fields was interesting with one or two instances where water was nearly compromising the tops of our boots. I had a rather enlightening experience when my head made contact with an electric fence charged up to keep randy bulls at bay. I do feel strangely brighter today.

With La Pasera in the distance, we head past the horses, through a field of bulls, cows and calves then across our neighbours newly ploughed field to be greeted by Gawber and Wentworth in their local hunting ground.

The peas are now staked and will benefit from the support as they produce a good crop of sugar snaps, mange tout and small sweet garden peas.

We managed to get our pea sticks and remembered a much cherished quote from a dear friend of ours, "the important thing about reaching your destination is to savour and enjoy the journey, it is usually much more precious". Today's journey for the perfect twiggy pea stick turned out to be precious or as Luis speculated .. perfect.

Crop rotation and companion planting in the vegetable beds

Since we first started growing vegetables at La Pasera we have always made notes on what was grown where and when. As the beds have developed, we have kept small diagrams of them with brief notes indicating crops. Salad crops and spare seedlings are often put in empty spaces in-between the main crops.

I suspect that as we don't grow mono-crops, crop rotation makes very little difference but we do it anyway. Unfortunately we don't produce enough home-made compost to replenish the beds on a yearly basis nor do we have a great supply of manure but the compost, manure, leaf mould, ash, and green manure that we do have access to seem to keep the beds in good condition and healthy.

We try and remain organic in our approach to food production and will only use natural pest controls and organic products on the garden. Where possible we make our own including nettles or comfrey as a natural fertiliser, garlic and soap spray, rhubarb leaf and horsetail concoctions for insecticides and fungicides.

It's all a question of balance at the end of the day. Our methods try and encourage natural cycles, attempt to promote the natural food chain and do as little harm as possible in doing so. A healthy garden is one that works with nature not against it. We encourage the birds and we have created a range of habitats for insects, amphibians and small mammals. The pond, fedge, wild areas, woodpiles and bog garden all contribute to the control of pests to maintain and nurture a natural balance.

We are lucky with the climate here in Asturias as it is mild enough on the coast to grow throughout the year. The recent addition of sandy topsoil and making raised beds has been a real help in producing all-year-round crops as we are no longer struggling with clumpy clay which inhibited winter crops.

2012 

This year we are expanding our companion planting as last year's efforts seemed to pay off. We will plant nasturtiums amongst the beans to attract the black fly, carrots amongst the leeks and onions and marigolds for general help. We might try some borage but I doubt if we'll manage to source it here.

Do you have any tips on companion planting? What grows well with what? Get in touch or send us a link, we welcome tips and experience.