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.

A living museum of bees - what a great idea!

Here is the laboratory when honey can be analysed. The next picture shows the extraction room where the honey is extracted from the combs. On the next floor down were the settling tanks. The honey flowed into these using natural gravity.

The bottling room.

A demonstration of how bees, when left alone, will build up their own comb.

The workshop - Frames with comb.

An old chestnut hive.

A cross section of a hive.

A replica of an apiary in the mountains built within a stone wall to keep the bears out. Note the use of chestnut stumps for hives

Outside apiaries.

Did the donkey get stung?

The patron saints of beekeepers.

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Bee Keepers Excursion - Cooperativa de Erica mel

We set off on our trip which was part of the organic beekeepers course organised by the local agricultural school. First stop was the honey cooperative which was an interesting insight into how honey from many different sources is managed and produced under the Miel de Galicia label.

The honey is poured into a large tank where it is heated to a specified temperature - This particular batch was mixed flower honey but both Chestnut and Eucalyptus honey were produced.

It then passess through several filters to ensure purity.

It was then passed through via pumps to be bottled and labelled.

Making Cider

Can't seem to do enough with all these apples! My Uncle's simple cider recipe came in very handy - I hope it tastes as good as his. We don't have a cider press so this recipe is ideal and neighbours have been asking for it.

Step 1 - cut the apples into quarters

Step 2 - pop them into the mixer if you have one to chop them finely if not it's a longer job by hand

Step 3 - put the apple into a large bucket and add the water, sugar, lemon juice and rind and grated root ginger if wanted

Step 4 - Stir twice daily for 3 weeks

The proportions of the recipe given to me were as follows:-

Steve's Cider Recipe

3 lbs apples

3 lemons

2 lb sugar
fresh grated ginger (optional)

Chop complete apples and put through blender

Place in bucket/ container add 6 pints water,lemon zest& juice and sugar

Stir twice daily for 3 weeks

Sieve and bottle (not too early as very lively...)

I actually multiplied it all to do 30 pounds of apples.

Will let you know how it turns out!

The grape harvest - Vendimia

I was fortunate enough to be offered some temporary work harvesting the grapes on the banks of the river Sil. Having no other income at the moment it was welcome. This is the famous Amandi region with some very steep precipices which had me wondering why I had cancelled my life assurance. The views were amazing. We were taken to different vineyards in different parts of the Amandi. I had never picked grapes before and it was hard work! We started at 8.15am and on one day finished at 8pm. We were fed four course meals with as much wine, beer and liqueurs or water as we wanted. After two and half days (I did it at the same time as the beekeeping course) I was covered in bruises and sliced my finger but the company was good and the scenery amazing. There were four different nationalities in the grape picking force which also made a nice mixture. How wine is sold so cheaply though I do not know as we scrambled over the rocky terraces and boxes of grapes were carried up and down the steep descents.

Organic Beekeeping Course Practical

Bee hives were being introduced to the local agricultural college with the objective being that they are good environmental scensors. I am a little concerned for them having been told by the tutor that the college still uses the chemical that has been banned from France due to colony collapse mentioned in my previous beekeeping post. The tutors at the college are trying to get the powers that be to change to organic methods but they are encountering some resistance. It is through supporting courses such as this organic beekeeping course that may persuade them to change. Let's hope so.
The session started with a novel way of fitting the wax sheets into the frames using a 2 Euro section of wire attached to the car battery. This was then attached to the metal threads running through the wax which expanded as it was heated fitting it snuggly in place. Biodynamic beekeepers prefer to let the bees make their own wax rather than buy in foundation, which seems to make sense to me and what I would like to give them a chance to do
in the future as it seems a natural part of their process.



Here a practical solution for the lone beekeeper is being demonstrated as the Supers can get heavy. To be honest it seemed to be a bit too much hastle for my liking.

Here you can see frames being transfered from the nucleus (a small colony of bees divided this year) to a full sized hive.

This frame is loaded with honey stores - just the thing to get the bees through winter.

Here you can see a frame with brood on being held up to the sunlight. We were not fortunate enought to spot the queen despite several experienced beekeepers being with us. I had failed to spot my own a couple of days before so didn't feel such a novice.

One colony of bees happily marched up into their new hive which was probably an indication that they could sense that the queen was already in their. The other colonly had to be persuaded to get going with a little bit of smoke.

The course has been really useful to link up with other organic beekeepers some with many years of experience who have already invited me to go and visit their apiaries and use their extractors when I need to. I have learnt beekeeping vocabulary in Gallego and Spanish and more importantly I have learnt how crucial it is to go organic and give bees a chance to build up a natural resistance rather than bombard them with antibiotics and chemicals at the first sign of trouble.

Young Beekeeper, masonry stoves and Transition Totnes

Can you spot the young beekeeper? Having looked on the Internet to find that beekeeper suits for youngsters cost £40 + we improvised. Not practical but for observing the bees coming and going it was perfect. While we sat watching the bees do their stuff we saw one of them throwing out a coddling moth grub - at least I think it was. No sooner had it been thrown out than a wasp desended upon it and seemed to make a meal of it.

My copy of the Permaculture magazine arrived today and it makes great reading. We have been looking at masonry stoves as an ecological option to heat our home but the costs have placed them out of our reach so to see a home build example in the magazine was perfect timing. If your're interested then look at http://www.envisioneer.net/ is the website of the reader who sent it in.

It was also great to read about the progress of Totnes as a Transition Town and all the positive things that are happening there particularly the beginnings of their own local currency. Wouldn't it be great if each town had its own currency! More local buying - more local enterprise - more people looking at living sustainably? To know more take a look at

www.transitionculture.org