Portugal Smallholding » Gardens & Produce

Summer Bounty (almost)

Andy — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:53:39 +0000

We are just on the edge of summer abundance, with a basket of veg coming out of the garden every day, but not yet enough to start preserving for the winter.
Tomatoes are starting to reach full size, but not yet ripening. When they do, it looks like we will be awash with them (hopefully).

We have been eating courgettes for a couple of weeks, although most plants are only just fruiting now. On sunday we hope to get an old window from the scrap yard to build a solar drier for the July and August bounty.

Cucumbers will be a while yet, as temperatures have only just reached the heights that they like. It still feels moderate to us, while visitors think it is very hot in the day.

Nasturtium flowers are adding a sweet spiciness to our salads.

Young runner beans are crispy but not stringy – wonderful.

We do not have so many strawberries this year, but still we are eating some every day.

Peppers and aubergines have some way to go. They like it HOT. The plants are growing quickly, and will fruit when temperatures go over 30 degrees consistently. We have 160 pepper plants in the gardens!

The wild leeks are flowering, attracting some weird and wonderful insects.

Several of my pumpkins are larger than footballs now – I hope to show them off in the village if they get big enough.

And the 3 sisters bed, with Trail of Tears beans, Hopi blue corn, and a few butternut squashes are looking really good.

Pixie Yurt New Beds (for plants!)

Kirsten — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:26:59 +0000

Inga has made some new beds for herbs outside the pixie yurt which are looking lovely. Plus there is a new hammock on the terrace which makes it a perfect spot for a person who wants to get away from it all (and there are 11 of us on the quinta at that moment!)

Inga outside the Pixie Yurt with its new beds

A perfect spot

Beautiful White Lilly

Andy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:49:01 +0000

Its in full bloom, simply spectacular:

Baby Tomatoes & Courgettes

Andy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:13:59 +0000

Just a few photos of the baby tomatoes and courgettes. We have loads of tomato plants in this year, of many different colours and varieties. Its exciting to see what shaped and coloured fruits appear.
We also have about 25 courgette plants, at various stages of development, hopefully giving us plenty over a long period of abundance.

Look at this Beauty!

Andy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:51:45 +0000

This pumpkin is already the size of a melon, and visibly growing with each day. I think it is a Big Max variety, that can grow to 500 kilos!

Something Has Been Eating My Onions!

Andy — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:54:01 +0000

Moles, voles? Something well and truly munched their way through this onion!
I don’t mind, as long as they leave some for us!

Horse Manure Compost

Kirsten — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:03:02 +0000

Good things about Horse Manure

Maurice and Daan

Maurice and Daan certainly do their job here on the quinta by providing us with their manure.

Composted Horse Manure

Animal dung has been used for centuries as a fertiliser, as it improves the soil structure so that it holds more nutrients and water, and becomes more fertile. It encourages soil microbial activity which promotes the soil’s trace mineral supply, improving plant nutrition. It also contains some nitrogen and other nutrients itself which assist the growth of plants.

It also helps keep us fit as we have to dig it up and push it up the hill to the gardens!

Strawberry Season has started

Kirsten — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:37:05 +0000

We are very happy

Strawberry's in the garden

Grape Vines

Kirsten — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:30:22 +0000

There are teeny tiny bunches if grapes forming on the vines which we will pick in around 5 months.

Grape Vine outside the kitchen

Blue Salad -Borage Flowers

Kirsten — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:35:48 +0000

Last night we had borage flowers in our salad which is a first for me.

Borage can be used as a fresh vegetable or a dried herb. The flower has a sweet honey-like taste and is one of a few blue-coloured edible things. (Although maybe you shouldn’t eat tons of them as they contain a tiny amount of a chemical that could harm your liver) Eating the plant apparently tastes like cucumber but I have yet to try it.

It has many medicinal uses including for the regulation of metabolism and the hormonal system including for PMS and menopause side effects. It’s also used to help colds and respiratory infections and for it’s general anti-inflammatory properties (please note I have no specific skills for using this herb it is just general information!)

According to the internet…use of borage is common in Germany and in Italian Liguria, borage is commonly used as filling of the traditional pasta ravioli and pansoti. The leaves and flowers were originally used in Pimms before it was replaced by mint. And it is used to flavour pickled gherkins in Poland.

Borage is used in companion planting and if planted near tomato plants is said to improve their growth and make them taste better. It is also thought to protect spinach and brassica and strawberries.

Borage Plant in the garden

If I’ve missed anything about this plant let me know!