About Me

We moved out to Portugal to live a frugal but better , simpler and peaceful life, our house is a very basic, semi ruin, up in the hills outside Figueiro Dos Vinhos, where we work our land, enjoy life with each other and our dogs, and hope to make the smallest carbon footprint we can,

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Growing... plans for this year..

I hope to continue my more fresh less freezer plan this growing year. So far we've done quite well, considering I decided to do this pretty much too late in the year to get much in the ground for the worst part of the winter.
But this spring I plan to plant, all our normal main crops,
Peas, runner beans, french beans, yellow waxy pods, portuguse green beans for shelling , beetroot, carrots, cabbage, caulis, onions, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash,corn and potatoes.
But.... Im going to try to plant in a more organised way, instead of the all in at once way we usually do it...
More of the a little an oftne type of planting, plus Im planing tons of different squashes this year as they keep so well all winter. Pumpkin, spaggetti pumpkin, butternuts, and chirik kiri ... Im sure I didnt spell that right... but hey... you get the idea. Also I was very pleased with the courgette marrows.. not something we'd normally eat. I just let them grow as big for chutney making. But had three left that I didnt know what to do with, they stayed green and firm all over the last 4 months.. I used the last one the other day , I roasted some in big chunks with herbs and put the rest in soup... well worth another go this year.
I also have the jerusalem artichokes in the ground for next winter... plus we plan tons more cabbage, this year they have been excellent but still not enough... I cant believe how much cababge Rick can eat!! The second batch of caulis I planted in July, have been very good, keeping us in leaves for soup and around one cauli a week... for the last couple of months.. and if I look after them a little better this year I hope for more... definately something we'll be doing for the winter...
The Grelos was a bit dissapointing, but I think the land where we planted itwas just exhausted... I need to rethink the winter garden areas...
Im going to plant and try to keep more varied veg going over the winter, especially carrots.. we eat so many of them... and I still have the odd one growing so the cold doesnt bother them too much...