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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

Receipe for Lemon Marmalade Cake.

This cake is very easy to make.

Ingredients.

1. 250 grams self raising flour.

2. 250 grams sugar (I used soft yellow sugar but I am sure white sugar will do).

3. 2 ripe lemons

4. half a teaspoon salt

5. half a teaspoon baking soda

6. Lemon marmalade

7. 4 eggs

Method.

Use a sufficiently large bowl where you can mix everything together in using a electrical cake mixer/egg beater.

Put the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda into the bowl. Break four eggs and add them in (holding back the shell of'course 🙂 ).

Take each lemon and using a fine grater grate of the rind of both lemons. Add the grating to the cake mix. Cut the lemons and squeeze and collect the lemon juice. Remove the seeds. Now add the juice to the cake mix.

Using the electrical beater, beat the cake mix until it is light and fluffy. The better you beat it, the lighter the cake will be. If you want a lighter sponge reduce the amount of flour by 25-30 grams .

Put it in the oven at 200 ºC for 40 minutes.

I prefer to use a round tray with a hole in the centre as I find this gives you   a more fluffy cake. You can use a standard 8 inch round baking tray too.

After the cake is ready pop it out, let it cool and then slice it into two. Apply a layer of lemon marmalade to the bottom part and then sandwich the cake back together. All done!

I find the cake tastes better from the second day onwards after the marmalade permeates it.

This is the receipe I used to make lemon marmalade. I only used 200 grams less of sugar per kilogram of lemons and add some pieces of cinnamon sticks and s few cloves.

https://snapguide.com/guides/make-lemon-marmalade/

All done!

As an aside here are some picks of water chilli pickle and some of my olives I have prepared. The olives are decent to eat :).

I just used a few slices of lemon, a couple of garlic and a bit of wild thyme. I got a lot more to marinade. Até logo peeps! Vesão em portuguese vai breve 🙂

Due to the large distances that needed to be traversed in the while carrying out harvesting and land management activities, I decided I needed some sort of machine to move about. Having to haul a loaded wheelbarrow an average distance of 2 km is not really my idea of fun.

I wanted an electric vehicle that would be in keeping my overall renewable energy strategy. I began searching for electric quad bikes. Initially all I could find were quad bikes only suitable for children and very expensive adult size quad bikes available and assembled in Europe.

Once again the Chinese came to the rescue with a solution. For the past three years I've been very pleased with the Chinese designs and built direct drive electric scooter. I now found a model of quad bike that seemed to be both affordable and capable.

I ordered it through a Portuguese company based in the north of Portugal. Now that I know the model, I know I could have saved over 100 euros if I had imported directly via a distributor based in Germany. However I am happy with the technical support I have received from the Portuguese company to date.

The Model: HB-EATV750M

The bike arrived partly assembled. I had to put on the wheels and the handle bar and not much else.

The bike is adequately suitable for a medium sized adult and can carry a maximum weight of 120 kilograms. It has a two speed controller and a reverse mode which is very useful for getting out of trouble. I find that the 1000 Watt motor to be sufficiently powerful for what's needed. It runs on a voltage of 48 Volts. If you open the throttle fully from a stationary position it will rear up and do a 'wheelie' 🙂 I won't be doing these intentionally as it is an unnecessary risk. This model is a chain rear wheel drive. The bigger front tyres do make a difference in clambering over obstacles.

The bike is not road legal and can only be used on private property. This does not affect me too much as I was banned from driving years ago. I have a bridle path I can go up and down and have created a corridor through a couple of Portuguese neighbours' properties.

It has a rated maximum speed of 25 km an hour and a range of about 20 kilometres on full charge. It is not recommended for use in wet conditions as the electrics have not been protected in waterproof housings. Fortunately we don't have many rainy days here in the Algarve, Portugal.

Work capability.

It's early days yet but almost a month of usage, I have to say I am really impressed with the quad bike.

I was intially going to buy a trailer. Besides the expense I think what's available is inadequate. I have found a wheel barrow attached with a couple of elasticized luggage straps are adequate for my needs. This allow the the wheelbarrow sufficient diagonal play required during turning, I am going to modify the wheel barrow by cutting down the stands for additional ground clearance and fitting on some sort of extension to carry larger volumes of brush wood.

I haven't used it for recreation at all but I will keep you posted . 🙂

It was a sunny and quite warm 22nd of December morning. I finally pulled out the box containing the rotavator (cultivator) from the shipping container. Three years on! I had bought in England but had never got round to using it. It took me a good few hours to assemble it the previous afternoon.

The machine seems to be quite well built. It started up the first time round and ran well.

The make of the machine is Einhell. Model: BG-MT 3335. It has a gross weight of 35 kg. The digging blades have a circumference of 25 cm. It has 163 cm³ 4 stroke petrol engine is a light noise level of 95 dB whatever that means. I'm not sure how to gauge levels of noise by just listening. I need to read up on this. It would be good to know at what decibel level damage to hearing begins.

I trundled the machine on its one solid wheel, half a kilometre down the road to the neighbours. I was making a small vegetable plot for them and this was an ideal opportunity to test out the cultivator. I never used one before.

All in all it went pretty much okay. The only problem I had was that because the plot was on a slope the machine could not climb the gradient on the blades and I had to physically haul it uphill. It also needed this sort of donkey work when the ground was soft as it simply sank in.

The soil was a mixture of the native clay combined with 15 cm of imported topsoil and a couple of barrows of leaf matter, in this case carob leaves. Cultivator mixed this all nicely together in no time.

After this I finished off by terracing partially the plot. This was to stop the soil from running of in the event of heavy rain. For this I used a combination of logs and small stones to seal the gaps between the logs.

Not being in the mood to walk back home, uphill over stony ground, I opted to transport the cultivator by means of my electric bike and trailer. This went quite well in the cultivator is now back in storage eager to go again.

Update 29^th December 2017.

I had a chance to use the cultivator a bit more today. I used it to mix in compost. The soil was damp but still quite firm, being clay soil. This is due to the fact we have not had consistent rainfall during the winter season.

As my friend Kristen remarked cultivators are not easy to use per se. With this Einhell I found the narrow width and small size of the front wheel, makes it very difficult to push forwards. The engine is sufficiently powerful and the rotor blades keep turning. But the machine simply get stuck and it requires brute force to be pushed forwards or pulled backwards. You really have to be quite strong to use it. It requires real donkey work. Other than this it's very good for working round trees and small areas. As you can see I worked in the compost into the strip of earth in between the young guava trees.

In a nutshell, this Einhell cultivator like other cultivators would would be of better benefit if it had self drive built-in. But I guess this would increase the price. So it is a case of courses for horses and beggars can't be choosers.

Where to begin is the question. To know the exact point of commencing and reasons for a beginning.

Of'course I have been giving this some thought for a length of time. In a serious way for a couple of years before the container. I had been making trips to Portugal to look at properties in Lisbon and southwards from there. Even as far back as 2001 as a family we toyed with the idea of a holiday home in the Algarve.

I think it was whilst doing the Renewable Energy module along with the Oceanography module as part of my bachelor of science degree with the Open University that I understood the path I must take. I can't recommend Open University highly enough! I had superb support, with the course material being made available in audio format as well. Both modules were very good but I would say that the Oceanography module would have been better if it had been for more credits to cover all the topics in-depth. This is because it covered such a wide range of topics from geology, biology right up to monitoring the Earth from space via environmental satellite systems and data modelling that goes with them. This was during 2013 and 2014.

Prior to this the original idea was to come to Portugal and buy a flat or a town house and hopefully make a living by teaching English as a foreign language. This could probably work in a city like Lisbon where there is more demand for higher levels of english or in an area of Portugal where people speak and think in Portuguese.

But not here in the Algarve I think. I have found most of the native population and the resident communities of foreigners speak English.

While working through the afore mentioned course modules I gained insight into how energy from the sun drives our weather systems and provide us with other forms of useful energy such as fossil fuels – (yes your gasoline was originally solar radition), biomass (e.g wood), wind and of course solar energy which we can harness directly in the form of solar thermal (for hot water) and Photovoltaic (for electrical energy).

This helped change my thinking and I was able to appreciate that being able to grow once own food and generate ones own energy was in the right step to living a more independent life. And a life less dependent on fiat currency (money) as a resource. And so I started looking for a bit of land rather than holiday type properties.

Time was ticking, two years on and still nowhere to go.

The house was already up for sale so I decided to buy a shipping container. Yes, one of those big metal boxes that brings your goodies from China.

The Container

I went for a single use 20 foot long shipping container from Budget Shipping Containers . They provide an excellent service. I went for a single use container as they are almost new and have a valid shipping license which increases your transportation options. They also come with a wooden floor as standard which is nice.

This is where I was going to put my things if the house was sold before my move. Coordinating the delivery truck with a mobile crane capable of offloading it from a different company proved a little bit of a challenge. But we got there in end and had the container sitting in my front garden.

Seeing as I did not know exactly would end up I will end up decided to make the container habitable as a sort of makeshift mobile home.

The Conversion.

This involves insulating three sides of the container as well as putting in wiring for lights and sockets. The hardest bit I remember was getting the ceiling panels fitted in as they were quite heavy. I think I used 9 mm OSB. Behind the OSB panels I used 50 cm of foam insulation. I can testify that this is sufficient to keep out the heat during the height of summer in the Algarve.

My brother Yuri is a very talented chap. He is multi disciplined and can turn his hands to most things. We experimented with solar photovoltaic technology as we doing up the interior of the container. It was new and exciting stuff. I also had some very good help from my friend Jorge . My other two friends Anthony and Jacob also chipped in helping with the wiring and carpentry to put the OSB (oriented strand board) panels in place. It all went quite smoothly.

All the hardware material was sourced from the Wickes hardware store. I got most of the solar kit from Bimble Solar.

When I finally found a spot in the eastern Algarve, I used Algarve Freight to transport the container first by sea to Setubal and then by road. They really did an excellent job.

Middle of October was amateur olive picking season commenced in the eastern algarve mid October. This was linked to the Co-operative press in Santa Catarina do Fonte da Bispo starting up. No money ideally exchanges hands. People collect their olives and take them in for pressing to extract the oil. The co-operative keeps a percentage of the oil. I have yet to confirm this, but I believe you get about 1 litre of olive oil for every 10 kg of olives pressed.

The first pressing of a batch of olives gives you the coveted virgin olive oil. If you want to get the this virgin oil from your own batch of olives you need to make an appointment to take them in and you need to have a minimum quantity. I believe this to be 400 kg.

The batch I combined my small harvest of 41 kg exceed one tonne. This was a combined harvesting effort of seven to eight people, including my two neighbours with whom I harvested olives. For the purpose of oil extraction the size or variety does not seem to be critical. Having said this, if a batch has too many very raw green olives it will be rejected. This is because of raw olives adversely affecting the pH value of the oil finally produced.

I have recently found out that there is place in Tavira which buys harvests of eating quality olives for 75 cents a kilogram. These would have to be harvested carefully, preferable by hand to avoid damaging them. I may explore this option next year.

Harvesting olives for pressing is hard word. You lay mats, tarpaulin sheet or nets around the base of the trees and then use suitable implements to knock off the olives. Implements we used included cane poles, garden rakes and some plastic rakes from the Chinese shop. The latter proved to be ineffective. Olives that a lower down can be stripped of the branches directly into a bucket.

Luckily the weather was on our side and those two days though tiring were fun as the it was sunny enough and not too hot. My neighbour kept the troops well fed and watered as we worked harvesting the trees on her plot. All in all, it was a great experience.

 

 

September was simply fantastic in that I had the chance to visit my dear friend Jorge Morais and his parents in the town of Albergaria a Velha, in the north of Portugal.

 

 

While up there, I gave Jorge a hand in what little way I could, He is renovating a ruin in a semi abandoned village which he hopes one day will be a meditation centre. Jorge is also in the centre of a reforestation project up there. The project involves creating a corridor of native trees such as oak through an area dominated by monoculture of eucalyptus trees grown for paper pulp. Senhor and Senhora Morais were impeccable hosts.

 

Senhora Morais is a fantastic cook and made an huge array of desserts during my week long stay. A new dessert almost every day. I am sure this is what made me gain a couple of kilos. Jorge was kind enough to take me to meet his friends whist I was up there. It was really great meeting all these very friendly people.

Thanks to Jorge I was lucky enough to visit Figuiera da Foz, Aveiro and the historical university town of Coimbra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weather wise,  it's significantly fresher up north than in the Algarve, hence greener too.

 

Back on the home front things progressed a bit slow. Still no running hot water so I have have to boil water in a pot for bath. I am also still waiting for a quote for the kitchen units. Outside things are growing. Lots of lettuce and cabbages. The odd melon and pumpkin. The cherry tomatoes have fizzled out but I am getting a few plum tomatoes “Alex” variety still coming through. The bougainvillea given to me by Vitor, of Viverplanta is doing really well. This ruellia was given to me by my swedish neighbour has really taken off and is growing well. I get immense pleasure seeing the vivid purply-blue flowers daily. When up north we visited Claudia, who generously gave me this pear melon plant amongst so many other gifts.

I am really pleased that it is growing well!

 

 

 

Senhor Morais was kind enough to give me a variety of portuguese basil, called Manjaricão and Peppermint (Vietnam Horta) Both are growing well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am also pleased that the lemon grass given to me my a kind lady by the name of Beverley, from the local gardening club is doing really well and can soon be divided.

The work on the earth bag chicken house has been slow. But I did start laying the roof rafters today for a reciprocal roof.

My excuse is that I have been working part-time with Vitor :). That' s about all for September.

 

 

Well, this month has been a bit slow in terms of getting things done. It has been scorching hot since mid July but things have cooled down now. That's my excuse.

Down by the swale, aka Seven Sisters Ditch, I finally got a pumpkin. I had almost given up as they have been flowering but nothing.

Melons were a bit of a let down they started of well with strong leaf growth and young melons but
then suddenly died back.

 

 

 

This is the last melon plant in the same location as the pumpkin with  a decent sized melon.

 

 

 

 

Nearby the young fig trees are growing vigorously thanks to the irrigation pipe my brother put in when he was here.

The tomatoes were amazing but the bushes have started to die back. There are still Sweet Million F1 cherry tomatoes coming online but the 'Alex' variety has all but died out.

The plum trees have been shooting away after I began some extra irrigation with the hosepipe.

 

 

 

 

Using the hosepipe I have managed to keep about half of the carob seedlings I bought. I lost almost all where there was no irrigation.

Managed to find a few self seeded carob seedlings which I transplanted into pots. A couple are growing quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The avocado that I grew from seed has also made it through the summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been picking my almonds. It is a slow business as I have to pick them off the trees by hand as I can't see them on the ground.

 

 

 

 

Processed the first olives of the season for pickling. This year is a good year for olives. Despite it being bone dry my three large olive trees are loaded. The dry conditions also seem to have deterred the mediterranean fruit fly as almost none of the olives I harvested, had the tell tale puncture marks.

 

 

 

 

 

With a decent amount of irrigation and manure the  lettuce has been growing well. I swear a good amount of it is self seeded.

The earthbag build is going slow but steady. I have to really step it up before the rains come.

The casinha itself is progressing slowly. I have yet to put in a hot water system and a kitchen. The UV filter I bought on Amazon literally burst into two... O_O

So all in all, plenty to do still.