söndag 20 juli 2014

Guests at the farm

We are now in the middle of July and the weather is weird for the season. We woudn´t know this of course since we only have been here for three months. But others, Portuguese, keep saying this. It is not so hot which we kind of like since we are working but our guests would like better, warmer weather.

Since April we have had 22 people/guests at the farm. It might not seem so much but for us it is quite overwhelming. Everything is new to us, we don´t speak the language, we cannot find our way around the area, son´t know anything about farming, vines, wine making, pruning, tractors and different types of fuel that goes into all our machines.

Our guests have all been lovely, supportive, positive, helpful and spreading happy happy energy around. We need it, thrive on it, feed on it because sometimes we are a bit sad, feeling melancholy, longing for our children, to read a Swedish newspaper, to understand the news on the telly.

Today lovely guests to off for Lisbon and a couple of days ago another pair took off for Barcelona. We feel a little left behind. We miss all our guests already.

Then we look out the window or look a the view from our veranda and sigh. This is where we want to be, to work together, spend time together.




On Tuesday new guests arrive. Then we go again.

https://www.facebook.com/farmholidayssilvercoast

Ase

fredag 18 juli 2014

Safety first, we from the land of "security"

Hej, idag är det den "gamle" som skriver, datorn är kidnappad. Ni har säkert tänkt hur skall det gå för den gamle i ett nytt land och nya arbetsuppgifter. Som ni vet tar jag inte speciellt mycket foto så ni kommer att få en målande beskrivning på dagens lösta uppgift som går in under temat säkerhet.

Först av allt finns det många olika öppna brunnar i Portugal, vad menar han???? Öppna brunnar, det är ju alltid lock på brunnar så att man inte kan ramla i eller... I Portugal gäller samma regler som överallt, dvs att brunnar skall vara säkra för barn, djur mm. I veckan upptäckte vi en "öppen brunn" med ett säkert lock eller inte.., brunnen var täckt med plywood som var lika porös som silkespapper, bärighet ca 0,5 kg. Brunnen var bara ca 5 meter djup så den var inte speciellt farlig eller... såvida man inte är större än en mindre kanin

Dessutom höll brunnen på att rasa, så uppgiften blev att säkra det hela, sagt och gjort idag är brunnen fogad och ett nytt lock på plats. Det känns riktigt bra att få dessa detaljer på plats så att vi kan undvika tragiska olyckor som inte kan repareras.

Så idag tar jag mig ett eller kanske om sanningen skall fram några glas av gårdens vin med gott samvete.

Sköt om er alla, be good out there

"Den gamle"

onsdag 16 juli 2014

Big lunch

Yesterday I took our guests down to a car rental company. Thepriny had rented a car for three days which is a very good idea when you´re here. You get to see so much more of the area then. And a beautiful area it is.

I had printed a map from the web and written numbers on it. On the back of the page I had explained what to see and do in the closest surroundings. I found out later that they had gone to Nazaré.
Nazaré sen from Sitio
Lars was painting the doors around the pool area because they are very worn down and painted in all kinds of colours. Hopefully they will all look better when they get a new lick of paint on them.
I did some paper work by the computer and some gardening.

We decided to do some long needed shopping, paint and new sun matresses for the sun beds and off we went. But since it was lunch time we decided to go for lunch at a place we had never been before. They ofered lunch bufféts and their reputation was good.

For 10 euros you got to eat as much as you wanted and they had two different soups, salads, cold cuts, cheeses, many many hot dishes and a table with oh so many different desserts. Also in the price were something to drink and coffee.

We ordered a glass of wine with our meal and then another one. We ate. We ate salads, meat, cheese, pies, rice, and too many samplings of the sweets. Then we had to go home and lie down. No shopping was done.
We were so full and tired after the red wine.

After the much needed rest we went and got the shopping done. More gardening was done and since I had had a siesta after lunch I had a problem sleeping at night and read too for too long.

Sometimes I think you need days like this as well.


https://www.facebook.com/farmholidayssilvercoast

Ase

måndag 14 juli 2014

Bad duck

Yesterday we ate the duck we had bought from the very kind neighbour. It was delivered to our house ready to cook on Saturday and was alive that very morning. It can´t get more fresh than that.
We had gusets from Sweden arriving so what could be better than to invite them for dinner and serving this absolutely farm fresh duck?

I looked up a nice recipe, French classic Duck a Lórange or duck in orange. We got organic oranges and now had this organic duck so what could suit better.

I cooked it in the oven and made a sauce according to this recipe with peels of oranges and the liver and heart to make a stock first. It smelled lovely and promising.

The steak thermometer was broken we noticed after a while and we had to guess how long the duck should stay in the oven. The recipes I had  read stated 90 minutes but this one was ready long before that and came out tough like rubber. What a shame! We also felt a bit stupid in front of our guests. Here we offer them dinner, bragging about this lovely duck and it ended up like sole of a shoe.

Next time we will make ourselves first so we learn how to cook it first.

If you want to rent one of apartments, maybe cook a duck or two yourself contact us at
https://www.facebook.com/farmholidayssilvercoast

Ase

lördag 12 juli 2014

Wrong chickens and a duck

We decided a month ago that we wanted to have some chickens in our much run down and dirty coop. We wanted fresh eggs. The bio ones you buy in the stores here are sooo expensive.

So of course I aked my son Adam and his friend Jesper, when they were visiting if they could help us cleaning out the coop and get the chickens for us.

When I got home from school 6 very scared and small pintos=chickens were in the coop.
We have now fed them, given them frsh food and water every day and they have grown alot. Now they dare to come out and sand bathe.


Not far from where we live there is a man and his wife growing a lot of vegetables. They don´t live there just keeps a plot for chickens and ducks raising them well. One day the man, who is German asked if we wanted to buy a duck, not a live one but raised for food. Since they treat the animals well in a eco friendly way we agreed. The price was 5 euros/kilo and it would come ready to eat.

Today the man and his wife brought the duck and at the same time we asked to come and look at our chickens to see if we were doing ok keeping them.

They took one look at them and said that we had bought the wrong ones. The ones we had was a kind that you just brought up to eat. Who could have imagined that there even was a difference. The ones we had in our coop were frangos (meat chickens) and not galinhas (egg chickens). These ones apparantly only lay eggs in one cycle and then die!!!!!One egg can get stuck in their bum and they will not survive this.

So we have to kill them before this happens or they will suffer. The man kindly offered his help to do this if Lars would attend as well "since he has to learn how to kill them anyway" ???????
The man will il the first one and show Lars how to prepare them for eating and then Lars will have to do the rest. I am not going to be anywhere near when this happens, more likely indoors crying.

Well the duck looks lovely in the fridge and tomorrow we will eat it.

Have a nice evening

torsdag 10 juli 2014

The vineyard

The vineyard we have bought is situated on the Silver Coast of Portugal. It is located on a hill about 10 km from the coast, over looking a valley.

It is peaceful, quiet and you can hear the bees humming and the birds sing.Yet is close to Caldas da Rainha, a bustling town with all amenities and the motor way to Lisbon.

We have about 2200 vines producing about 4000 litres of wine per year. There are also about 120 fruit trees, olives, pears, apples, figs, grape fruit, plums, medronho, peaches, oranges, lemons and quince.

lemons for your G&T

pick fresh from the trees


Other trees on the farm are eucalyptus, cork trees and many different palm trees. Will add an entry about the palm trees tomorrow.

There is a beautiful garden with many many flowers. There you can read or just meditate.
roses



 We also built a new pool and are now in the process of painting the pool area and making it pretty.

new pool night

new pool day

If you are interested in renting please contact

ase.rexius@live.se

Have a nice day