October

Magosto - Chestnut fiesta. My daughter and I were invited by neigbours to attend the fiesta. There was typical Gallego fayre - hams, cheese, empanada, roast meat, bread, etc Music, dancing and wine. The following week my daughter's nursery also had a Magosto and chestnuts were roasted in the grounds with children helping. I read that a village in the UK had put up a screen to show a movie of a bonfire after it had been unable to pay the insurance for a real one. Is this bureacracy and threat to sue killing off British culture? Just a thought. A child did get too close and did put his hand where he shouldn't but he learnt from that as did other children.

The trees were a beautiful colour and the weather incredibly mild, thankfully, as we have no heating but the wood burning stove is about to be installed.

This months's produce

Quinces, Figs, Walnuts, Pumpkins and chestnuts. Picking the chestnuts it was safer to put the bike helmet on as they kept on dropping. They are now in the caravan drying. We've roasted a few and they were yummy. We are off to a chestnut roasting fiesta tomorrow called Magosta. I spent a few hours with my neighbours who were visiting from Valladolid and they showed me how to make Quince paste after my own attempt came out like stone. They filled several large pans with quinces cored and quartered. For every kilo of quince 3/4 of sugar was added. It was left over night and then put on the wood burning stove the next day for three hours.

After this it was liquified and put into plastic containers to solidify. They say it is very good with queso fresco - fresh cheese. I also made a cognac and some marmalade from them.

The walnut tree has been great and I will definitely be planting more. I've also stuck some walnuts straight into the ground and will see if anything sprouts from them - if the mice don't find them.

Another produce has been the figs - I've preserved a lot of them in sugar syrup although some people don't add sugar at all as they are quite sweet already and I have made fig jam. I have a feeling it would do well in a tart like treacle tart. When I have more time to experiment I'll give it a go.

It has been frosty the last couple of mornings and the temperature has fallen. We are hoping to have a wood burning stove in before Christmas,

which will be our only source of heat - I can't wait as we have to decamp to a bedroom, which we are heating with an oil radiator in the evenings. I missed the delivery of gas cylinders this month.