Quinta das Abelhas

Andy spent all day at the mill yesterday getting 650 kilos of olives pressed, out of which we got 72 litres of oil. We still have half the trees left to harvest olives from, so we should get the same amount again, a good amount this year. 350 kilos is the minimum amount of olives needed to get your own pressing (meaning our organic olives don’t get mixed in with others) and we’ve more than enough olives this year to have two pressings, so we’re really pleased. This is the first year we’ve harvested our own trees as last year (when we’d just moved onto the land) the ex-owner was entitled to the harvest.

I spent the day weeding, sorting out the yurt to make it comfortable for the volunteer who’s arriving on sunday, and collecting clients from the station, taking them to meet our mechanic who has a car they’re buying, and then dropping them at their hotel. Then I did some shopping for useful things that we keep meaning to buy and somehow never get around to - bungee ropes for the roofrack, an extra light for the kitchen, 20m tape measure, so I felt organised today and that I’d accomplished something!

We were both knackered at the end of the day so decided to go up to our local bar to eat their standard fare (if you don’t book in advance) - bifanas e batatas fritas (pork chops & chips), not the best meal in the world, but neither of us wanted to cook and it was nice to go up there an mingle with the locals as we haven’t been out for ages. The owner of the bar celebrated our presence by giving us each a glass of xiropega the portuguese “lady’s drink” made from wine mixed with aguardente and sugar.

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