Spring it definitely here! It’s the last day of the month so I though I better post a blog for April.

I am not feeling very well today but best foot forward. I think the dreaded virus , the one that begins with the letter “C” is having a second go. I didn’t manage to quite shake it off after the first bout and it was still lurking within.

So with the lock down here I haven’t been doing much in April. In the agricultural sector anyway. Look at my poor excuse of a vegetable garden.

You can see a few tomatoes plants I planted a few days back. The spinach is really struggling. I sowed the prepared patch densely a month ago but the results have been poor.

But look at the cabbage. Portuguese staple variety - “ Cove Galega”.

I planted a couple next to several fruit trees and it has worked out well. I planted a few broad beans too. Just for myself. I didn’t bother planting extra for the people - ‘o Povo’ this year.

Olive trees. I transplanted a few and have put in some irrigation so hopefully they should grow well if slowly.

This is such a nice stone wall belonging to property just opposite to me. Hand crafted stone by stone – by craftsmen and labourers for the very wealthy here. A lot of sweat and some blood goes into building these walls. The craftsman and the labourer are not necessarily the same. But without doubt, both bear me a grudge. This being as I neither pay their wages nor work for their bosses.. . Ce la vie. In the foreground you can see one of my young pomegranate trees which is doing well due to plentiful amount of rain had here in the Algarve this spring.

Indeed, you can see here the almonds on the almond trees growing niceiy ad the almonds plumping out. I have some plum trees but they seem to have been attacked by fungi (peach curl leaf) and some parasite that is eating the leaves. So most of the fruit has dropped of. I will give them an second spray with some insecticide this weekend.

The guava trees are still in their red winter livery and the apple trees are still nude of foliage. This is because it still cold at nights.

Here is a fine apricot tree. Hopefully the black fly won’t ruin the fruit. I am trying to trap.

And here is a fine persimmon (sharon fruit) tree. it is still young just three years old so may not bear any fruit.

Finally a the bottom of the spread where self seeded olives and almonds are growing. And no, I don’t live in that caravan normally. 🙂

Using readily available biomass such as cut logs can help keep your overall energy bills down. If you are lucky to access to woody biomass which you can harvest sustainably

or access to wood residues like off-cuts it makes sense to spend time and energy collecting and processing these.

As it is on a small scale it is environmentally friendly and does not require huge amounts of energy to produce unlike wood chips or pellets.

During the winter months we use a lot more heat energy to stay warm. This can be in the form of gas central heating or electric underfloor heating or stand alone gas or electric heaters. In either case they are expensive to run. If you like your hot bath and showers in the winter this can add significantly to your energy bills. Using readily available biomass such as wood can help keep your overall energy bills down.

How much money can be saved using biomass as a form of heating.

Here is my own example. Metrics help separate fact from fiction. I like my hot showers and baths during winter. However the cost of electrically heating water at current energy prices is not trivial. [/lang en]

Let's look at the cost of heating a 100 litre tank from 18ºC to 50ºC.

The specific heat capacity of water is 4200 J per kg per degree Kelvin. This is the energy required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Kelvin (or Celcius).

The temperature change is 50ºC – 20ºC = 30ºC

100 litres of water is 100 kg

The energy E, in joules required to heat the water is given by E = mass x specific heat capacity x change in temperate,

So , E = 100 kg x 4200 Joules x 30ºC => E = 12600000J (Joules)

1 J/sec = 1 Watt (W)

Hence 12600000J /(3600s) 3500 Wh or 3.5kWh

The actual time it takes for me to electrically heat the tank is 2.5 hours.

I have a 1000 Watt heater.

Therefore 1000 x (2.5h ) = 2500Wh

This is equivalent to 2.5 kWh (kiloWatts)

It would appear I use 1kWh of electricity less that estimated. This maybe be due to the fact the water sinside the tank remains at a higher temperature that the estimated 20ºC

when I start heating electrically.

I get my electricity from the energy co-operative, Coopérnico .

This is their 2019 tariff for bi-horário.

So heating the water during off peak hours (vazio) costs 0.0987 cents per kiloWatt hour (kWh)

So 0.0987€ x 2.5kWh = 0.24675€

(7 days x 4) x 0.24675€ = €6.909

With IVA (VAT) at 23% = €8.4981 is what I can save a month.

I have a hot bath by boiling a pot of 5 litres of water on my wood burner. Doing this 2-3 times a week during winter is worth my while. Besides boiling bath water I can also do a little cooking on top of the wood burner to make further savings.

Locally produced Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The olive oil we made came from a variety of olives. These olives grew  and ripened under the Algarve sun in southern Portugal.

The black varieties included Cornicabra and Galega gave us extra virgin oil of 0.7 degree.

Galega olives

The green varieties of olives produced extra virgin oil of 0.5 degree. These olives were more of a spherical type and some of them were huge with diameters exceeding 3 cm. I have yet to identify these varieties. Most of these trees were grafted by the Portuguese over 50 to 200 years ago.

For an explanation of the degree of olive oil see the previous article.

Cornicabra olives image credited to viveiros da bairrada

The healthy benefits are of Extra Virgin Oil are much vaunted .

The verified facts are:

• Rich in anti-oxidants so a good nuero protector.

• Unrefined olive oil is best as it is a rich source of antioxidants and vitamins.

• The antioxidants contained in Extra Virgin Oil oil do not break down on heating. This is great as as it means you can cook with extra Virgin Olive oil without loss of the antioxidants. This brings me to the myth of cold pressed olive oil. What temperature is this “cold” exactly? Because room temperature varies from 18ºC to about 24ºC depending on the individual. Unrefined Extra virgin Oil starts to congeal at temperatures below 16ºC so you would get very little oil pressing at these temperatures in the cold season of October to December. For this reason olive oil presses have to supply some heat during the extraction process. It does not affect the beneficial properties of the olive oil nor affect the oil's excellent taste which should be peppery ans grassy. Some Extra virgin oils are slightly bitter.

• Cooking with Extra Virgin Oil helps prevent the break down and loss of beneficial nutrients like vitamin C in vegetables.

• A diet that includes regular amounts Extra Virgin Oil oil has been proved to reduced bone fractures and loss of bone in the elderly.

Facts not completely verified are:

• Reduces the risk of Stroke and Heart Attack. This could be true as the Extra Virgin Oil would replace other fats in one´s diet responsible for cholesterol and restricted flow in the blood vessels.

“Where can I get some of this fine Extra Virgin Olive oil of yours?”

If you are in Hillingdon, West London or High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, we have a limited stock of this Portuguese unrefined Extra Virgin Olive Oil in 1 litre bottles. Email  ####@lineone.net for details.

Sources:

11 Health Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil That You Can’t Ignore

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28143667 (refers to bone loss)

https://www.viveirosdabairrada.com

2014 April , I had just been on the property for a couple of months. These early days were filled with wonder of all the trees that were on the property. The size of the property was and still is 1 hectare.

Mature Olive tree

With a tiny cottage which was incomplete. No floors for one. Amongst the trees were four mature olive trees. The tallest and these was 5 m or more. In addition to these, were over 100 wild olive trees which I hardly noticed at the time except for the ones that were in heavy bloom, like in the photo below.

Wild olive tree in bloom (2014)

Quite naturally, I tended to show off the four mature olive trees to visitors then as there wasn't much else besides the wild terrain. All four of these mature olive trees were in dire need of pruning and clearance around the base area of the trees. They now are in a better state but there is definitely room for improvement.

Then I had no idea about all the different olive varieties and what was involved in producing olive oil. And today, I still haven't identified the variety of these four large mature trees. They were grafted a very long time ago. I say this , because new branches that grow off their bases give a smaller black olive (Galega?) rather than the larger green ones.

2019, five years on. I mentioned black olives earlier. A good few of the wild olives trees produced round black olives in 2019 for the first time. The olives were of a decent size. Usually wild olive trees produce tiny oval olives that haven't much weight. From this excellent guide , I think they maybe of the Galega variety.

Thus I have over the years been learning about olives and producing a little olive oil. I also conserve olives for the table but did not prepare any this year as it is a time consuming process.

As you can see, I have been planting about 40 very new olive trees on my property.

young olive tree

It will be some years before they produce anything but I have the patience. I am not sure what varieties they are. The guy with whom I did this joint venture said that they were Cobrançosa and Picual. I am doubtful about the ones purporting to be Cobrançosa as the leaves are short and wide rather than long and slim. From this very excellent Portuguese guide, I think they may be Arbequina. This variety is also popular is Spain where the cuttings came from. The Extra Virgin olive oil of the Arbequina is sauve and of excellent quality. So we will see. For table olives I have a four young Maçanilha and the green olives from the four mature trees are well suited to preserving in bottles.

Could be Picual

I would love to have a micro olive oil press to experiment with all the different varieties. I don't have this option at the cooperative press I use. Out of necessity we(my neighbours and I), have to mix all varieties together to exceed the minimum half tonne required per pressing.

Properties of olive oil.

Percentage Free oleic acid.

This is what gives an oil have it greasy property. The percentage of free olive oil is also represented as a degree between 0 to 1.

The The percentage of free oleic acid of Extra Virgin olive oil must be less than 80% or 0.8 degrees. The oxidation process of olive oil will increase as the oil is exposed to air and sunlight.

This is why it is important to store olive oil in a cool dark place and in air tight containers.

Standard olive oil has almost no taste or fragrance as it almost 100% free oleic acid and is like any other vegetable cooking oil.

One of the principal health benefits of Extra Virgin olive lies in the fact that it is rich in antioxidants.

Sources:

https://www.aceitedelasvaldesas.com/en/faq/preguntas-aceite-de-oliva/acidez-del-aceite-de-oliva/

Olives

It has been a busy November with the olive harvest, what. And now they rains are with us. This year was a really good for olives. The trees were loaded. I wasn't able to harvest all of the olives on my 0wnand a neighbour's plot because it takes along time especially if you are working alone. I did manage to get about 65 litres of oil in the end. We had three grades of oil 0.5 º , 0.7º amd 0.9º which are measures of the oleic acid in the oil.

The 0.5º was the best quality. Extra virgin gourmet. The 0.7º was extra virgin too. Both were from our own olives and pressed by the Cooperativa Lagar (olive press) at Santa Catarina. The 0.9º was pressed at a different lagar , Alberto Rocha at Santa Catarina. This oil although blended and probably not of from own olives is also good virgin quality and better than the standard stuff you can buy at Portuguese supermarkets.

This season I have had quite a few of olive trees that have appeared magically bearing olives. These are round black olives mainly. A couple are of a more elongated shaped olive. I will prune them and hope for a better crop from these next season. I confess I am dubious if there will any olives next year. The trees usually rest every other year.

Machine at work

Olive picking is hard work. Even with a machine. But the machine does help. I had one good helper this year. It was a pleasant experience picking olives together.

Picking olives

I have a a number of guava trees that are growing well. They seem to have fruited a little late this year. But this did not stop me.

guavas

Since the guavas are not that good to eat I made some guava cheese (perad). There is still something of a Goan left in me. 🙂 It turned out quite good. A little on the soft side so I cut it up and put the pieces onto paper cups.

guava cheese (perad)

I don't think I will be celebrating Christmas but things could change. I will put up some lights if I can find them. In any case this old barrel stove is keeping us warm.

wood burning stove

I use it to boil water which helps cut down on electricity and gas bills. The batteries of my solar system aren't working well. Five years, so they are probably exhausted. Replacing them is a costly affair is not an option at the moment but like I said this could change too. 🙂

I know it is already October but I am a bit behind.

So here is what has been happening with me in September.

Been earning a little money which is always useful working in the agricultural/gardening sector for a handful of people. It has been going okay.

Oh no, I failed my bike test again on another technicality. I have my own bike but I cannot insure it myself as only have a learner license and nobody in Portugal will insure you with this. So I am looking for a solution to this particular problem.

Outstanding Avacado tree

On the home front it's been going so so but I need to do more.  Bonji and Pipoca look after the place while I am away 🙂 The olive trees I planted along the borders are growing well. The avacado and fig trees are suffering due to infrequent irrigation. This with the exception of one avacado tree which looks marvelous. I really need to run a pipe.

When life doesn't give you lemons – use limes. 🙂 . The lime tree is doing well this year.

lime tree

The mango tree has managed to survive and is growing slowly in a pot.

Picked my almonds! No easy to do for me. I sold three quarters of the crop.

Almonds

Lettuce in pots under the alfarobeira (carob) grew very well in August and September. The shade really helps.

Physallis Peruviana (cape gooseberry) were a disappointment. The berries were few and mostly shriveled. I think it was due to it been extremely hot and not having sufficient water made available.

Diospero (Persimon) One of them is now three years old and has filled out and has two fruits! All of them have some of infection of the leaf. The leaves have a black dusty coating I think it is a fungus or a microscopic mite I will try soapy water.

Persimon/diospiro

I have 5 young pomegranate trees. Three of them have fruit this year. I have been irrigating them a couple of this a week which helped them during the heat of summer.

pomegranate

I have a few grape vines but only one gave me grapes this year. My fault as I neglected them. Dona Maria variety. They are sweet when the ripen properly.

Dona Maria

I have apples this year! Not many but still - Yay! This is their second year in the ground, I am pleasantly surprised as they are not supposed to do well in hotter climates and the heat during summer was intense.

This about wraps it up.

Apples