First pickings...

What lovely weather we are having at the moment, its hot during the day, but for us anyway, it is nice and breezy and much  cooler at night. This I could cope with forever...
Today I was up bright and early, have to be nowadays as its getting too hot to work during the heat of the day so we have to find the hours somewhere. So I get up earlier, the garden was still lovely and damp from last nights watering, so nice and cool for working. I picked, two big bunches of baby carrot thinnings, a colander of peas, another large bowl of french beans, thats the second this week. Plus a large bunch of baby beetroots,  five small green peppers and ahandful of courgettes..
Nothing will be wasted, The peas were podded and put in the freezer, the pods were chopped and put in the dog bag towards tonights meal for them, the baby carrots were scrubbed, topped and tailed and put in the freezer, they go into rice dishes etc, the carrot tops I trimmed and put in a bag and into the freezer for bulking out soup during winter, great vitamins. Some french beans were put aside for tonights dinner while the rest was frozen. The peppers and courgettes will be eaten tonight also. And I'll pickle the beets tomorrow...
All in all a good first pickings...

The peas are coming on well now, we should have more than last year, and we have made a large second sowing too so will have some late sept time too...
We are keeping on with the beet sowings to make sure of plenty of those, and cabbage of course, Ive tons of red cabbage coming so lots of recipes needed to make it different.

Sunshine & Sardines

One of the great joys in life living in this country are the fantastic people we meet and share our lives with.
One of those people is Dona Lara, one of our closest friends and a nearby neighbour. Shes in her mid seventies and lives alone, but is always cheerful and smiling. She works so hard from first light to dark. She has chickens, ducks, goats, cats and a dog, grows all her own food and food for her animals and bedding for them too. She is a really lovely lady and often invites us for lunch at her home. Today was one of those days.
Although she has a good kitchen she, like most Portuguese would never dream of cooking fish inside the house... she has a fire pit in the yard with a grid over that she cooks the fish on, we prepared, tomato and onion  salad  plus shredded lettuce and onion salad, boiled potatoes she dug just as we arrived, and fresh bread and olives, lashings of her own olive oil and a large jug of her own wine to wash it all down with. We sat outside under her shady vine covered yard and stuffed ourselves... she then came back with a homemade Pudim which is kind of eggy desert.... and fresh plums from the tree...
What a wonderful way to pass the afternoon... the sun was shining, we had good food and wine, lovely company . Its what living here is all about for us. We may not have any money, but the quality of life is unbeatable...
One of the good things is also that I know the meal she gave us, didnt cost her much either, apart from the actual fish everything else was her own grown...

Herb teas...

I went out today and was given a lovely cup of home dried mint tea... and suprisingly as Im not a 'minty' kind of person it was delicious, so this afternoon I went behind the house and picked a couple of huge bunches of the wild mint that grows there, its a nice shady place and its still nice and lush and green up there.
I plan to dry it nicely over the next few days , then I'll brew it up, add a couple of spoons of either the Stevia or some honey, then chill it in the fridge, which we've just moved back into the house for summer.  It will make a lovely refreshing drink on hot days... and cost me nothing...
I hope to dry enough for the winter too so I can drink it hot then when I want...
Im also madly drying Mullien, good for all chest, lungs, coughs, mucus, and of course pain relief... the plants are huge at the moment,  and stunningly beautiful with their tall yellow flowering spikes... great additions to any winter herbal teas...
As is Lavender, Im picking some this week to dry for adding to herb teas in winter, good for headaches, migraines, or just adding to your bath (if you are lucky enough to have one,) a great relaxing stress relieving scented bath for last thing at night...
The wild  Fennel is huge here too right now.... Ive picked and dried my Fennel leaf already, great in teas for indigestion, wind, colic in babies, etc... makes a great Liquer too...

Now is the time to make repeated pickings of Lemon Balm and Lemon Verbena, great in many different winter teas and remedies. Lemon Balm, is a beautiful calming, mood lifting tea , also good in salves as a skinhealer  and soother...
Lemon Verbena is excellent for most nasal complaints.. like sinisitis., etc.. good for coughs and colds too... also settles the stomach a little...

Stevia Herb Update.

Well.... it wasnt a great success, the trying to grow my own plants... It actually wasnt a success at all... I managed to buy 40 seeds, so far Ive potted up 20 of them, in batches of ten at a time.... nothing... nada... zilch... I really thought I would be able to germinate them with it being so warm and humid here...
I have another batch Im going to try this next week at its turning warmer still...
But in the mean time, I saw the lovely German lady that told me about the Stevia herb originally and she sold me some for a couple of euros, its the green Stevia which is dried ground up leaf ... Im trying it in tea... it is defo MUCH sweeter than sugar... I use around just less than a third of a spoonful... when normally I would take three sweetners in coffee... so its much sweeter, it does have a very unusual taste... and I could understand if some people didnt like it... I didnt the first few mouthfuls... but I persevered and I think I could become accustomed to it in time... In coffee.... hmmm not sure... Im trying tea and then will work up to it... all the time telling myself.... its calorie free.... its calories free....
It does actually have a sort of chemical taste... which is strange... but thats more pronounced the more you use, so less is defo best in this case.
You can buy a refined Stevia liquid, which is supposed to be better than the green, but I really want to grow it, so getting use to the green leaf type is right for me...