Ready to use!

Removable bucket (with lid, not shown in pic) for easy emptying.

I made up a brine of water with enough salt in it to float a medium-sized peeled potato, and gathered rosemary, bay, garlic and piri-piri from the garden to flavour the olives.

I spooned olives and flavourings into the jars in layers. I used 2 garlic cloves, 2 piri-piri, 1 bay leaf, and one small sprig of rosemary per jar. This is total guesswork, so I need to remember when we eat them to write down if these quantities worked or not.

Then I filled the jars with brine, put the lids on, labelled the jars, and put them in the adega.  They’ll be ready for eating in 6 weeks, although I’ve done one jar covered with olive oil and put it in the sun to steep which we will try tonight.  The olives have already lost a lot of their bitterness and I’m interested to try really fresh ones!

I’m loving that, apart from the salt, all the ingredients are from our land – even the water

Thanks to multi-talented Conny Kadia for her eating olives recipe.

I also hung up some piri-piri plants and some bay to dry in the kitchen.

Andy was out having a bonfire of olive prunings and managed to burn himself – eek! So he got Aloe Vera and a bandage for the burn, and home-made raisin bread with our own honey for lunch.

Meanwhile … Jonny’s been making a loveable loo:

Fence around Albert's Paddock

And I took a photo looking up towards the houses.

View up to houses from Albert's paddock

Lizzie and Albert

So … even though we’re selling up and moving (to www.valedaslobas.com) we’re building a new stable, and putting up some more secure post and rail fencing to keep them all separate whilst they get used to each other.

Adding a third stable onto the existing two

Inside the stables

Post and rail fence under construction

Happy grass-munchers

Frankie took the slightly new layout in his stride, Maurice couldn’t quite understand why the door to his stable was now in a different place – but there was hay inside so who cares really?!

We had 4 tonnes of granite stone delivered and a metre of sand, and some sacks of cement. Last Saturday, Shawn and helpers started by building the dry stone granite base of the oven.

As the base reached the desired height, it was important to create a level base on which to build the actual oven. Before the cement was added, a fair bit of sand and gravel was filled into the centre. We had a block of slate hanging around, which was used to form a shelf/lip in front of where the door was to go.

Now the fire bricks could start to be put into place, cemented in with fire cement.

Once a rough circle was completed, Shawn starts building the walls. Some of the bricks had to be cut to form the circle.

Upright bricks make up the sides of the door, with an arch over, and the wall bricks continue at an angle to make the dome of the oven.

At this point it looked really unstable and bodged!

Voila! The insides of the oven are completed.

Next, we covered the top in fire cement, and pointed all the bricks properly.

So, after 3 (or 4?) days of work, a fire was set within, to help set the cement casing.

Pizzas were enjoyed later in the evening.

Then we got to play with mud! Mixing cob is an art form, with lots of stomping mud, sand and straw into the mix until it felt about right. Young Tru couldnt resist sitting in it.

When the mud fight was finished, the work of covering the oven in cob could begin. Using hands, a good layer of cob was added, and smoothed out to get the desired shape.

Several layer went on over several days, with the oven being used in the evening to cook dinner, and to help dry out the oven. Before the final coat, indentations were made in the top, so that it would really stick. Any cracks that appeared were smoothed out, filled up, or slipped over (slip – a watery clay mix).
The finished oven is beautiful and practical. It heats up very quickly, burning only twigs and prunings, offcuts and scrub, and stays hot for a long time, thanks to the thick heatsink of cob, stone, bricks and cement. The inside gets up to well over 200 degrees centigrade, while the outside is only warm to the touch (the cats love to sleep on the granite lip around the oven – a cosy spot now the nights are getting chilly).

We still need to make a door for it, fire bricks will work for now. We are very happy indeed with this new low energy cooking option added to the quinta.

And Matt made a start on his no-energy fridge, made with concrete blocks (which will be tiled inside) that sit under the upper floor of the house where it stays cool all year round.

Everyone Welcome

This will not be run as a formal workshop but simply an opportunity for anyone who’s interested to come along and see how it’s done (and hopefully lend a hand!).

Lunch & drinks will be provided for which there is no charge, but please let us know if you will be coming so we have an idea of how many we need to cater for.

Depending on the final design, weather, number of people, etc, we expect the build to last 3-5 days.  You are welcome to come for as much or as little as you like.

On Saturday we’ll start with building the foundation / base for the oven.

Saturday evening is the last night of our village festa, with live music and fireworks (and a pool tournament at our local bar) – so there’s lots of fun to be had this weekend!

If you want to bring a tent and camp here for the Bread Oven Build that is no problem. We have a kitchen caravan where you can prepare your own breakfast & evening meal, a solar shower, a compost toilet, and a swimming pool! 5 euros per night (small tent) / 10 euros per night (large tent). Some yurt accommodation may also be available. More info at: www.portugalyurt.co.uk

Does anyone have a slab of stone (granite, slate, …) at least 1m x 1m that we can have / buy for the base of the oven?

New Steps

Then we will have to mosaic the rising bits to make them look nice.