Technopeasant & Quinta

We are in need of someone (ideally a couple / two friends) to look after the smallholding from 18 May until 01 June while we are away.  You’ll need to be responsible and willing to feed cats and dog, feed chickens and let them in/out of their shed morning and evening, muck out the horse stables and paddock, and water the gardens.

Beautiful eco house with all amenities to stay in, and lots of organic veg to eat!

QUINTA DAS ABELHAS (PORTUGAL SMALLHOLDING) IS FOR SALE!

A permaculture paradise and a smallholder’s dream
- great for horse lovers too!

Renovated 2 bed detached stone farmhouse plus renovated 1 bed detached cottage, 2 yurts and 3 caravans, on 3 hectares (7.5 acres) south-facing organic land with extensive permaculture gardens, woodland, paddocks, stables and manege.

Farmhouse: The farmhouse was fully renovated in 2009 and retains its original character with exposed granite stone walls and wooden beamed ceilings. The renovation followed sustainable design principles and has many energy saving features. The house has full central heating.

Ground Floor:
armhouse kitchen with hand-made wooden units, double sink below window with stunning views, 2 year old highly efficient esse woodburning range cooker (also provides central heating and domestic hot water). Door to covered porch with solar system controls and battery storage, coat hooks and boot rack, and veranda.
Big adega with extensive fitted shelving units, washing machine, dishwasher, and fridge/freezer (all included with the sale). This room has thick stone walls and stays a constant temperature year round making it ideal for storing all your produce. Door to kitchen and exterior door.
At the back of the house is a large covered woodstore.

First Floor:
Master bedroom with en-suite bathroom (bath, shower, washbasin and ecological toilet), with double doors onto balcony.
Double bedroom (currently used as office) with access to en-suite bathroom and living room, but also with independent access via exterior door.
Large living room with built-in airing cupboards, double doors to balcony with stunning views.

Cottage:
Ground Floor: Kitchen with ceramic tiled floor and walls, woodburning range cooker, gas cooker, gas water heater, door to veranda.
First Floor: Living room with tiled floor, double bedroom with wooden floor, en-suite shower, door to balcony.

The houses are south-facing (with stunning views of two mountain ranges) and each have a covered balcony/veranda running the length of the front which shades the interior from the hot summer sun but allows it to warm the house in winter. Both houses have double glazed windows. Interior paint is eco-friendly. The exterior walls have a lime render with natural pigment added for colour.

Outdoor Area: Between the two houses is a split-level “outdoor living” area with paving and flower/herb/salad beds – the upper level has a bread oven, and wide steps lead down to the lower level with 4 metre long wooden dining table and benches, a parabolic solar cooker, and an outdoor washing-up area with traditional Portuguese laundry sink and granite worktop. The whole area around the houses was enclosed with fencing suitable for young children and dogs.

Composting Toilet: Two-chamber dry composting toilet block with solar / wood heated shower, tiled floor with mosaic walls (our toilet has been featured in Permaculture Magazine!). There is also a screened outdoor bathtub (heated by a wood fire) in one of the gardens (especially romantic for candle-lit night time star gazing!).

Services: 1.2Kw solar electricity system connected to both houses, compost toilet, yurts and caravans. Mains electricity is available for connection and, if the solar system is expanded, surplus energy can be sold back to the grid. Water is automatically pumped from a 9m deep spring-fed well to a storage tank which then gravity feeds with plenty of pressure to both houses, yurt/caravan area, compost toilet/shower, gardens, chicken shed, and stables. There is also a spring and two water mines on the property that flow year-round but are not currently used as the well gives plenty of water. Telephone line with ADSL wireless internet connected to the farmhouse, separate phone line with ADSL internet to the cottage (not currently connected).

Yurts & Caravans: 5m painted Mongolian Yurt on wooden base with veranda, raised wooden decking for 4m yurt (could be put to other uses), 3m yurt on wooden base. Two 3 berth caravans with shade netting over. Small 2 berth caravan used as a kitchen with outdoor dining area, both with canvas shade/rain cover. Next to the caravan is a washing-up area with a double sink. More information and photos can be found on the www.portugalyurt.co.uk website (which is also included in the sale).

Land: Approx. 3 hectares of terraced land, managed organically for the last 8 years. Over 100 grape vines grow along the edges of the terraces and there are more than 150 olive trees throughout the land.

Two large permaculture gardens with raised beds for vegetables, asparagus beds, soft fruit (black, red and white currants, strawberries, raspberries, loganberries) and fruit trees (apple, pear, sharron fruit, peach, nectarine, pomegranite, apricot, fig, cherry, plum, loquat, nashi pear) and hazelnut.

Two small areas of newly planted fruit trees (mainly apple and pear), one on a slope with mini-swales for rainwater harvesting/irrigation.

Two small areas of woodland, a mix of mature and younger pine, eucalyptus, cork oak, and medronha (strawberry tree). and plus young stone pine, oak, hazel, mulberry and elder. There is also an area of mimosa trees near the gardens.

Pond and Pool: There is a sand-filled base for a 4m diameter above-ground pool (included in the sale, along with eco-friendly treatment balls) by the yurts. Small concrete splash tank. Next to the gardens is a spring-fed pond (haven for frogs and newts) which flows into a small stream running alongside the gardens and down through the land. Several willow trees grow in the stream, as well as watercress, lovage, and yellow flag iris. The area where the two water mines are situated would be ideal for creating a natural swimming pool / lake (all inclusive price for a natural swimming pool with 50m2 swimming area is 15,000 euros).

Outbuildings: Brick-built store shed (approx 30m2) with large double metal doors. Poultry pen with wooden post and chicken wire fencing and brick-built shed. Fig, apple and nashi (asian pear) trees inside the pen give shade and fallen fruit for food. Adjoining smaller pen with wooden shelter for raising chicks.

Livestock: To save them the stress of moving, we are happy to include in the sale the chickens and ducks, and 3 farm cats!

Equestrian Facilities: Much of the land is fenced for horses with wooden posts and electric wire, and there are 3 rustic wooden stables. There’s a 25m x 15m sand school / menage surrounded by woodland which provides shade in the heat of summer. The outriding is superb along miles of country, forest, and riverside tracks. There are other English people keeping horses in the village, with a natural horsemanship philosophy. Portuguese high-school dressage lessons (with English-speaking instructors) are 30 mins drive away!

Access: Access is via a dirt track suitable for all vehicles to a parking area for 3-4 cars, the last 50m down to a parking area by the houses is best driven with a 4×4 (a Portuguese registered 5 door Suzuki Vitara is available by separate negotiation).

Location: The location of the quinta is absolutely fantastic, all services and amenities are nearby and there is a thriving local community which is typically rural Portuguese but also has a number of English-speaking immigrants. It’s just 10 minutes easy walk to a lively village with several bars (a beginners Portuguese language group meets weekly at the nearest one), restaurant, general store, baker, butcher, mechanic, and primary school (secondary school is 3km away with a bus service for the students). On the outskirts of the village is a forest garden project, a yurt maker, and other smallholdings run on permaculture principles mainly by English, Dutch, and Germans. The local Portuguese people mostly live from their land and are very friendly and helpful. The nearest towns are Tábua (5km) and Carregal do Sal (7km) and both have a wide range of shops, supermarkets, banks, weekly market, etc. Carregal do Sal also has a train station. The Kapingbdi cultural bar is 15 mins drive and hosts regular live music, film nights, monthly flea market plus many other events and classes. The cities of Viseu and Coimbra are both around 45 mins drive.

This is a very special property and is already set up for immediate living and enjoying your own produce, but still with plenty of scope for further improvements and making your own mark on the place!

Reason for Selling: The only reason we are selling this idyllic quinta is that we want to embark on an even bigger project! If you want to get an idea of what life is like here, have a look at our blog at www.portugalsmallholding.org.

Purchase Options: The farmhouse and cottage are each on their own plot of land, and there is one further plot (of mainly woodland) that make up the whole quinta. It would therefore be possible to purchase the quinta between friends / family members / group.

More Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/108063846259870362260

Price: 275,000 euros (approx. 235,000 pounds sterling)

Our compost toilet is featured in Permaculture Magazine!

After the pig killing / butchering workshop, I put a ham into a big bucket of salt. It’s very important to press the salt deep into the meat and to ensure that there is 10cm of salt all around it, and that the bucket has a hole in the centre with a bowl underneath to catch all the liquid that is being drawn from the ham by the salt.
After 2 months the presunto comes out of the salt, is washed and then coated with a layer of vinegar, to ensure that no bacteria can get into it. It is then wrapped in muslin, and tied up tight, then hung up for another couple of months. Ideally it should hang in a cool, dry, dark place in the wind, but ours was hung in our adega / food cellar (which has no wind!)
A couple of days ago was the big unveiling. I wasn’t at all sure what we would find under the muslin, so was a little anxious, especially as I’d promised ‘bacon’ butties to some friends.

In a word AMAZING!

There was a little mould growing on the outside of the ham, which of course was cut off and given to the dog, but underneath was the most succulent and tasty presunto I have ever eaten. The pig was free range and organic, and had been professionally killed with a bolt gun, so no nasty chemicals in there, or adrenaline fear (which I have heard will ruin the taste). Nothing but pig and salt.

And if you fry up the presunto in nice chunky slices it makes a far better bacon butty than the paltry stuff that is normally sold as bacon around here.

I’ve just made a loaf of bread with chunks of presunto in it – I wonder what that will be like, probably delicious!

The last few mornings have been so beautiful, with mist filling the valleys in front of the houses.

As the sun pokes through between the patches of cloud, it feels like spring.

A great time to listen to Tom Jones while cleaning up horse manure in their stables/paddock, and feeding the chickens.

Its probably my favourite time of day – alone in the company of nutty horses, loud music on my headphones, the caffeine rush in my head…

Love this poem:

And thus the people every year
in the valley of humid July
did sacrifice themselves
to the long green phallic god
and eat and eat and eat.
They’re coming, they’re on us,
the long striped gourds, the silky
babies, the hairy adolescents,
the lumpy vast adults
like the trunks of green elephants.
Recite fifty zucchini recipes!

Zucchini tempura; creamed soup;
sauté with olive oil and cumin,
tomatoes, onion; frittata;
casserole of lamb; baked
topped with cheese; marinated;
stuffed; stewed; driven
through the heart like a stake.

Get rid of old friends: they too
have gardens and full trunks.
Look for newcomers: befriend
them in the post office, unload
on them and run. Stop tourists
in the street. Take truckloads
to Boston. Give to your Red Cross.
Beg on the highway: please
take my zucchini, I have a crippled
mother at home with heartburn.

Sneak out before dawn to drop
them in other people’s gardens,
in baby buggies at churchdoors.
Shot, smuggling zucchini into
mailboxes, a federal offense.

With a suave reptilian glitter
you bask among your raspy
fronds sudden and huge as
alligators. You give and give
too much, like summer days
limp with heat, thunderstorms
bursting their bags on our heads,
as we salt and freeze and pickle
for the too little to come.

- Marge Piercy “Attack of the Squash People”

With the blackcurrant bushes overflowing, we found ourselves thinking of delicious things to do with them. Having picked over 3 kilos in a few days (even if we did eat quite a few on the spot) it was obvious that we had to preserve them somehow. This turned into a blackcurrant feast with jam, Swedish-style blackcurrant cordial, bottled fruit and a yoghurt and blackcurrant cake – so good we had to make it again the next day.

We’re posting the recipes for all these things below, just in case anyone else is in the same situation…

Blackcurrant Jam

This jam is simple and delicious (we know because we already ate a whole jar!). Currants are a great fruit to make jam with because they’re high in pectin – especially when just under-ripe, though ours weren’t – so they set without adding any other fruits.  This recipe is from the River Cottage Handbook of Preserves.

We used

1.5 kg of blackcurrants, without twigs or stalks (though the shrivelled bit left from the flower can stay)

2,250 kg of sugar

900 ml of water

Put the currants with the water in a pan and place over a low heat to bring to simmering point. Leave for 15-20 mins (the fruit should be soft but not totally disintegrated), then add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Then, bring to a full rolling boil and maintain it for 5 minutes while stirring.

Remove from the heat and continue stirring gently for a couple of minutes to cool. You’ll know if the jam is ready by testing for the setting point. When it is done decant into sterilised jars – from our currants we got (more or less) six:

Jam!

Bottled Blackcurrants

This is a great way to preserve the little delicious black balls themselves. This project was also a way to test out using the solar cooker and oven to sterilise jars, which was definitely the most work-intensive part! To sterilise jars we boiled water in the solar cooker (at about 88 degrees centigrade) and filled up the jars, which we then left in the solar oven for some twenty minutes.

Jam jars sterilising in the solar oven, with the screw tops in hot water

We needed:

1,750 kg blackcurrants

1,2 l water

450 g sugar

a few lemon verbena leaves from the garden

The actual bottling involved cleaning the blackcurrants and packing them into the jars, with a few verbena leaves layered in each. Then, we added the syrup we made from the sugar and water – it should be at 60 degrees. We closed the jars without tightening the lids much and put them in a deep pan with a tea towel at the bottom filled with warm (38 C) water up to the jar necks. The point of this step is to create a vacuum inside the jars  by slowly heating the water to simmering point (88C again) and letting it boil for just a couple of minutes before removing the bottles and tightening the lids. After a day or so, they should be properly sealed and last for about a year… Fingers crossed.

Adding hot syrup to the jars

To be continued due to low solar power…

Hedvig & Sara

Went to the market in Tabua (translation: “plank”) on Sunday to pick up more chickens for the coop. Despite Andy naming them after the date he intends to eat them, it felt like a rescue mission, packed 20 to a cage as they were, sqawking in fear as we approached. They didn’t really enjoy the trip to the supermarket, but once we got them into their own little coop they seemed a lot happier, and shook of their bedraggled look almost instantly.

Giles.

In the box

Getting out

Getting up very early (at 6.30 am) and walking through the garden is one of the most beautiful things here at Quinta das Abelhas I can think of.

When the dawn lies still over the hills around here and the sun beginns to warm the plants, then it seams as if heaven would kiss the earth awake. Magic moments of totale silence and amazing abundance.

Inga (wwoofer)