Quince Jelly

Ingredients:

2 lbs of quinces
1 lemon (just the juice, sieved)
white granulated sugar
water to cover

Method:

Wash and roughly chop the quinces



(no need to peel, decore or depip) and place in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Barely cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently with a lid on until soft. If the quinces are very firm this could take several hours. Check it every now and then and add more water if necessary.
Pour the cooked fruit through sterilised muslin into a large clean bucket or bowl, I hang my jelly bags up in the kitchen above a bowl, some people like to get all fancy with chairs or stalls, I'm limited by space.



Leave the jelly bag to drip overnight (or about 12 hours).

Measure the juice the next day, Pour the juice into a deep heavy bottomed saucepan and add 1lb/454g of white granulated sugar for each 1pt/570ml of juice. Add the lemon juice. Heat everything, gently stirring from time to time,boil for about 10 minutes before testing for a set. Test every 3 to 5 minutes until setting point is reached.
When jelly has reached setting point pour into warm sterilised jars using a funnel and ladle.
Cover immediately with plastic lined screw top lids or waxed disks and cellophane tops secured with a rubber band. If you don’t think that the jelly has set properly, you can reboil it the next day. The boiling reduces the water in the jelly. I have done this in the past. Ideally you should try for the right set the first time.



Label when cold and store in a cool, dark place. Away from damp. Eat with toast!!!

Fig, honey and mascarpone tart

This year is a fantastic year for figs, we thought it would be terrible, but no. We have two varieties on our land green and black, I'm sure they have proper names, i think the green one is called a drop of honey (pingo do mel), locally anyway.

Just eating them fresh off the tree is pure decadance and really the only way to eat them. I have made some fig and lemon jam/marmalade stuff which is very nice. We found the recipe for this tart in a Nigel Slater book. Decided to make it with some very expensive ingredients. When I asked Rick what he thought of it, his reply was "I'm not sure".



That is not the right reply

Apples and quinces to come and how to make a curtain out of an old mattress!!!

much ado about milho

When we came to Portugal to attempt to be self sufficient, we knew that ultimately you want to be able to grow your own animal feeds as well as food for your family.
The food for the family bit was easy, I've done that for years and kind of know what I'm doing. Although a bit more water would be handy!!!
There will always be failures when growing food , it's part of the whole thing, but hopefully where you fail you succeed in other areas.

As we are growing our own meat now and wanting to rear it in the best possible way we have decided to try and grow our own animal feeds. It seems to be impossible to buy complete animal feeds here without Genetically Modified maize and soya in them, because of this we have been buying three cereals separately for the pigs; wheat, barley and maize (the white stuff which they tell me is not GM), we feed these grains along with endless peelings from the ladies of the village and various scraps. We have the grains ground up by a friend in the village, who has an old stone mill.

Quite determined to grow more for the animals, to cut down on expense and to be able to control what they eat we decided to grow some maize (milho). I sourced a hybrid F1 which is fine(ish), at least it's not GM, we planted what we thought was a lot. We got told off about how we'd planted it (this is normal procedure). We watered the living hell out if, I weeded it; back-breaking. We ran out of water, we left it, we de-leafed it and then picked it. We pretty much copied the locals.

Picking the mal-formed and patheic cobs was heart wrenching. I bit my bottom lip alot and awaited the humilation at the de-hulling machine. It didn't come, thank god. They, I keep reassuring myself have been growing this stuff for centuries, for me it was a first, I am not spraying anything, they are. We estimate we got about 40kg. We need about 800kg!!!!! that's not to mention the wheat and barley...........

The soya, on the other hand has been spectacular (thanks Andy). I was given about 20 black soya bean seeds which I planted. They have been brilliant and I have harvested 700 grams, which is a hell of a lot of seed. I will plant all these seeds next year and hopefully have such a massive soya harvest it won't matter if I don't have 800kg of maize.

That is the point I was trying to make, the stuff you think is going to be a doddle ends up being a complete failure and then some funky heirloom plant produces so much without any attention at all....genius. II think that you can apply this rule to almost everything in life.

Spicy aubergine chutney

This is hot!!!!

2 lb (1 kg) aubergines
3 tablespoons salt
6 oz (175 g) soft dark brown sugar
12 fl oz (350 ml) white wine vinegar
3 oz (75 g) seedless raisins or sultanas
1 tablespoon tomato puree
5 cloves of garlic
1 lb (500 g) onions
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 red chillies

Slice the aubergines, put into a colander and sprinkle with the salt. Leave for at least three hours, then rinse and dry.
Meanwhile, put the sugar, vinegar, raisins and tomato puree into a bowl, mix and leave to stand.
Finely chop the onions and red chillies and place with all of the other ingredients into a pan.
Heat gently, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, then simmer until thickened.
Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal
Makes about 3 lb (1.5 kg) of chutney.

changing of the seasons

The end of the summer (even though it's still scorchio) was marked with Rick's birthday and the Grande Arroz Doce, the Guiness Book of World Records was entered and 450 kilos of rice pudding made..Unfortunately it was burnt. Terrible shame for the village and all the visitors who sat at the esplanada all day, salivating, not a shame for my pigs who love it!!!!









We danced alot at the local Festa's and other people danced alot too. We processed alot, at night and in the day















I also had the great honour of meeting a 1956 Olympian athlete who has inspired me to go running every day, I figured that if an 80 year old can do it what the hell am I wingeing about. I now run 25km a week, not bad.

The outdoor cafe has packed up, the Lisboans have gone home. We can now park our truck again!!!



The bunting will remain all winter no doubt, constantly reminding us of the good times we had, it will blow away and block up the drains and get caught up in the trees and in the river, eventually being washed away by the heavy downpours that will govern our lives for the winter months.

jams and chutneys

I've been meaning to post this for ages and just never got round to it. It's quite a busy period now. Everything in the garden is ready at once. In between making endless rounds of tomato sauces, cooking up peelings from various festa's for the pigs, I've been making loads of jams and chutneys. I wanted to share the recipes with you, so here they are. Let me know how you get on, aubergine chutney to come.

Spicy Peach chutney



1.75kg (4 lb) sliced peeled peaches
175g (6 oz) sultanas
2 cloves garlic, minced
75g (3 oz) chopped onion
150g (5oz) chopped preserved ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon curry powder
900g (2 lb) dark brown soft sugar
1L (1 3/4 pints) cider vinegar
4 tablespoons pickling spice

In a large heavy pot, stir together the peaches, sultanas, garlic, onion, preserved ginger, chili powder, mustard seed, curry powder, brown sugar and cider vinegar. Wrap the pickling spice in a spice bag or muslin and place in the pot.
Bring to the boil, and cook over medium heat uncovered until the mixture reaches your desired consistency. It will take about 1 1/2 hours to get a good thick sauce. Stir frequently to prevent scorching on the bottom.
Remove the spice bag, and ladle into hot sterilised jars. Wipe the rims with a clean moist cloth. Seal with lids and rings, and process in a barely simmering water bath for 10 minutes. The water should cover the jars completely.

Peach Jam



2.5kg/5lb just-ripe peaches
The juice and zest of 3 lemons
1/2tsp salt
11/2kg/3lb caster sugar
3 vanilla beans

Wash and cut the peaches, then crack the stones of two and take out the kernels in the middle. Lightly crush the kernels to release their nutty flavour and set aside.
Place the chopped peach and the lemon juice into a saucepan. Add the salt – this will bring out the flavour of the fruit – and simmer very gently for 20 minutes. Add the sugar, stirring to combine.
Once the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. Once you think it might be ready, do the "wrinkle test". Place a spoonful of jam on a saucer in the fridge for a few minutes to cool. Run a finger through the jam: if the surface wrinkles, it's ready. If not, return to the stove and boil swiftly.
Add the cracked kernels and allow the jam to rest for 20 minutes for even fruit and juice distribution. Spoon into warm, sterilised jars.

Fig Marmalade, or Marmellata di Fichi:



2 1/4 pounds (1 k) figs
1 1/8 pounds (500 g, or 2 1/8 cups) sugar
The grated zest of an organically grown lemon
3 tablespoons whisky or brandy (optional)

Wash the figs, break them open (be on the lookout for bugs), and combine them with the sugar in a bowl. Cover them and let them rest overnight. The next morning transfer them to a pot and heat them over a moderate flame, stirring lest they scorch, until they come to a boil. Add the lemon zest, reduce the heat, and simmer, skimming away the foam occasionally, until a drop on an inclined plate doesn't run. Transfer the marmalade to sterile jars, seal them, sterilize them, and when they have cooled transfer them to your pantry.
Note: As a variation, stir 3 tablespoons of whiskey or brandy in with the lemon zest.

Chilli Jam



For about 6 jars:
500g very ripe tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 large chillies (seeds left in if you want your jam hot)
6-7cm of ginger root, sliced
300g caster sugar
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
100ml red wine vinegar

Blitz half the tomatoes with all the garlic, chillies and ginger in a food processor. Pour into a heavy bottomed pan, add the sugar, fish sauce and vinegar and bring to the boil, stir slowly and reduce to a simmer. Dice the remaining tomatoes finely and add them to the pan. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring from time to time. The mixture will turn slightly darker and stick. Store in warm sterilised jars and seal while mixture is still warm. The longer you keep the jam the hotter it gets.

Beetroot Relish



1kg Beetroot
500g onions
750g cooking apples (peeled and cored)
500g raisins
3 tablespoons ground ginger
1kg granulated sugar
1 litre malt vinegar (actually I used all sorts of old vinegars as I had no malt and a friend also told me that if you use malt vinegar things take longer to "be ready")

Peel beetroot and grate, dice onions and cooking apples. Combine all the ingredients in saucepan, stir the mixture and heat gently until sugar is dissolved then raise temperature until boiling. Continue gently boiling with occasional stirring until mixture is thick. (approx. 2 hours) To test when ready create a trench in the surface of boiling mixture with the back of a spoon. When the trench does not immediately fill with liquid, the chutney is ready. pot into sterilsed, hot jars and seal.


go forth followers and make

saints preserve us

Some time ago I had a wonderfully misunderstood moment that I wanted to write about, but I wanted a photo to go with it and then the moment went and the potential blog post was lost forever, Today, however it presented itself again, so it seemed rude not to act upon it as am always inclined to think that everything happens for a reason so maybe I am meant to tell my silly little story.

On my way home a few months ago our neighbours stopped me and asked me if I had one of these.



Always on the look out for quaint antiques, I said no, I don't have one of those, ahh they said then you should have this, your neighbour Isabelle will bring it round at eight o'clock. Imagine my delight when she arrived at eight and I opened the box to find saints inside, lovely.



I'm not religious at all but do like a bit of religious icononery (there's a pun in there somewhere, of the french persuasion, me thinks). Oh, where shall I put it, Oh we'll just put it here on the shelves above the TV for now. I sat and looked at my new box of saints and thought, this isn't right at all, I have completely misunderstood something. I asked my young friend what it was all about and she explained that I keep the box for 24 hours, make a donation in the money slot and then pass on to my neighbour. There was me thinking that a) I'd finally got the hang of the language and b)my neighbours had my best interests at heart and were that desperate for me to join them in their catholisicm that they gave me a box of saints......

oh well.....it tickled me silly and now the box has come back again and I have to make yet another contribution, I thought about putting some condoms inside, but not sure if the slot is the right shape.......ha ha

piggie update #5 and goodbye again

The last piglet (that we planned to sell) went today. He's gone to live on our friend's farm with loads of other creatures including alpaca's!! I only got a little bit upset as I know he will have a good life and I have just received a text from the new owners telling me they have put Lily the goat with the piglet for the night for company and protection (he's still a little small). I haven't told them that he may take all the goats milk, I'll let them find that out tomorrow!!!



We now have just the sow and boar and the young sow. I think the adult sow is pregnant again and potentially about to drop.....doh. Our livestock management leaves alot to be desired, I hope she has a small litter again.

Church going

Having enjoyed myself so thoroughly this year at the festa's, and seeing how much work goes in to organising them, I decided to offer my help for the last festa in our village.

I've never cleaned a church before so was delighted to be asked to clean this one, here's a pic of me (rare for me to post pics of myself) and my friend's daughter

The shortbread of millionaires (and peasants)

I've mentioned before that getting hold of ingredients here is tricky, having cravings for things can be well, frankly pointless. But sometimes, just sometimes you can crave and create with little effort.

I searched around on the internet for the easiest recipe and trust me there are some long-winded, almost scientific recipes out there for millionaires shortbread.

This is the easiest one by far:

The following are the ingredients for the shortbread base
8 oz plain flour
4 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar

Ingredients for the caramel filling
4 oz margarine or butter
4 oz soft brown sugar
2 level tablespoons golden syrup
5 fl oz condensed milk

Ingredients for the topping
4 oz plain chocolate
½ oz butter
Preheat the oven to 180oC, gas mark 4.Grease an 8” square tin.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and stir until the mixture begins to bind together. Knead until smooth. Press evenly into the tin and prick well. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and firm. Allow to cool in the tin.

Place the filling ingredients in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Slowly bring the mixture to the boil and then boil, gently, stirring, for 5-7 minutes, until thick. Allow to cool slightly before pouring over the base.

Melt the chocolate and butter together and stir well. Spread over the caramel filling. Allow to set before cutting into squares.

piggie update #4 and goodbye's

Whilst keeping these pigs has been challenging and rewarding, nothing had really prepared me for the feelings I had today when we had to rustle two of the piglets into a cage and transport them to their new home. We had decided to give one piglet to the lady that had been giving us whey and she accepted (unwillingly) and then asked if she could also buy one for her daughter. So that is where they went today. I had been dreading it and was right to, I hated every minute. Catching them, driving them and then delivering them.



I cried all the way there, and all the way back. I sobbed my heart out for those little pigs. I think their new home is crap, I mean really crap. It's a concrete pen in a building with little natural light, no straw for bedding no nothing. It really really broke my heart. I knew it would. But I know the new owners, who have been farmers all their lives see it differently. Maybe it wont be the only home those pigs have, maybe they'll get to run around again, who knows? They thought the pigs were beautiful and fat, which they were. And I'm sure they will look after them because they are important. Everything else on their farm is pretty well kept, and they are wholly self sufficient and running at a profit. But the reason I cried wasn't really about how they were going to be kept, it was about loss.

For us they aren't just food, they have, albeit slowly, cleaned and turned over some of the land, and hopefully they will turn over more, they have deposited muck on the land, and perhaps the strangest most untangeable part, they have given the farm life. In a very real sense they are the life of the farm. It will be a very desolate place when they are all gone.

Given different circumstances I would interview potential buyers for any livestock we rear, I would want to visit the farms of said buyers, but we don't live in that kind of world (no-one does), all I can do is rear them the best I can, give them a really good start in life, freedom, happiness, health and fresh air,



I know that what happens to them after is out of my hands. Yes I could just not do it, and to be honest it was never our intention to have so many pigs all at once, but, that's life. Sometimes circumstances change you.

I guess what I am saying is, that as awful as it feels to be so emotional about your livestock, if I wasn't, I'd be worried, because that would mean I had stopped feeling and that's not right either. We both love all the livestock, and try our best to keep them as well as we can, given our lack of knowledge and financial constraints. But, it hasn't been that difficult so far, we've been fortunate I'm sure, for nothing that bad has happened and they have done everything we could have hoped for them to do.

They're not pets though, they are livestock, they will die at our hands at the time we need them to, and provide us with food, as long as we can keep them alive and well long enough, and that's our part of the bargain. Theirs is to be the farm animals they are and do the things they are supposed to.

I'd like to think that if you love them and care for them you will get more back, not just in the health and well being of your livestock, but a return inside yourself. When you give something of yourself you'll be surprised what you get back.

Life is shit

I was wondering why, when I read everyone else's blogs they are always so positive and upbeat, I'd had some ideas about this before and often felt like I myself was being a bit smug every time i posted some wonderfully positive event on my blog.

I haven't written much lately for lots of reasons but mostly because nothing in "my" world has been good. So I got to thinking that maybe I should break with tradition and write about something negative and crap. Life is not always just about all the good things that happen, it can't be, anyone who tells you (through their blog or otherwise) is a liar or deluded or very very lucky/fortunate.

I am living in an area of outstanding beauty, I've chosen to live a different way of life, I don't have to get up every day and work for someone else, I can eat when I want, go to work when I want and go to bed when I want.
All that sounds pretty good eh? yup and nope.

I am not always enjoying myself, in fact lately it's been the opposite, I feel guilty because I feel like I "should" be enjoying myself or at least grateful. I feel like I can't talk to anyone about feeling crap about my amazing life, because it's somehow seen as ungrateful or negative.

It can be very isolating and lonely not to mention confusing. The events of the past months have been quite overwhelming and although we have recovered (not financially) we are up and running again, it has knocked me and my confidence for six.

I am often not sure what the hell I am supposed to be doing here, other than being a housewife and occasional vegetable grower and livestock rearer. That doesn't cut it for me and I don't know how to make it cut it for me. This is the first time in my life that I haven't had a job, either working for someone else or myself, it's the first time in my life that I haven't had to get up at the crack of dawn everyday. It's the first time in my life that I haven't had to be somewhere on Monday morning. One day blends in to another, weeks whizz by and then months and I seem to have achieved nothing. I can't help with the house build as it's really too physical at this stage, I can't grow any vegetables because it's too flipping hot. I can't go outside because it makes my head hurt. I never thought I would say this but I actually hate the sun and wonder what in god's name I was thinking when I suggested moving to Portugal.

love tryst

Bloggers block

We've had a really crap month, so am not writing anything but I have taken some photos of some nice things:



One good thing came out of being truckless, we got to use the bike

Piggie update #3

The piglets move around so fast I can't get any decent pics of them or they're sleeping in their house. They're all fine and fat and have about one month to go before they go on to their new homes. We will be moving their enclosure soon, so they can have one last chow down before they can on to pastures new.

Dirty piggy



Perfect piggy