Having just got over Christmas and the New Year celebrations, another one pops up. Last night the villages celebrated the coming of the Three Kings in true Spanish style....... with lots of fireworks amongst other things. Today was a holiday and again, we heard lots of fireworks from the villages near us.
We however have been continuing with the olive harvest. Picking, pruning, cutting the branches down for firewood and then taking the unwanted trimmings up to the shredder for shredding (surprisingly enough!) and then composting. We have probably got about 2 cubic metres of finely shredded olive trimmings which should rot down well and will eventually be rotovated into the vegetable terraces. There was a time today when neither of us thought we'd get it all trimmed down, moved up to the shredder and into the compost heaps but eventually we were on our last heap of branches but of course they were the furthest away from the shredder and by that time of the afternoon our legs were tired. Perhaps we should have started at the bottom while we were fresh this morning and then worked uphill. Hindsight - a wonderful thing!
After 6 days, and most of our top terraces done, we are taking a break tomorrow - but only from olives as we have house stuff to catch up on - bread baking, washing, ironing and packing away the Christmas decorations - I know they should be down by 12th night but we've had other things to do as well.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Happy New Year
We had a quiet night in with a few drinks and watched the fireworks from around the world on TV, at midnight the usual fireworks started around the villages here but as it was drizzling we decided not to go outside to look at them, just stayed inside and had another drink. Actually, I'm not sure we'd have seen much really due to the cloud cover.
The forecast for today was on and off drizzle, possible light snow this evening, but we woke to blue skies and sunshine. Olive harvest! But the trees were dripping with last nights rain, and harvesting under that is like having a cold shower so I thought I'd clean the house while the trees dried off. So at 10.30, with the house almost sparkling I thought I'd better tidy myself up. I did brush my hair before I took the dogs out but that was it, and since then I'd raked out the wood burners and relaid them, swept, dusted etc etc and was feeling a bit grubby - not to mention a lack of makeup. Not that I wear much, a touch of mascara but it's enough to make a difference.
On my way upstairs to try and look slightly more myself, I heard Mariano outside. "Where are you, I've come with a bottle of Cava to celebrate New Years Day!" "Oh no, I'm not ready for visitors!" "Never mind, come and have a drink, that doesn't matter."
So at 11am, we were outside in the sunshine polishing off a very nice bottle of Cava - makes a change from our usual cup of tea.
We did get olives done, another 2 large trees which gave us another 2 sacks. And if it's dry we'll do some more tomorrow.
The forecast for today was on and off drizzle, possible light snow this evening, but we woke to blue skies and sunshine. Olive harvest! But the trees were dripping with last nights rain, and harvesting under that is like having a cold shower so I thought I'd clean the house while the trees dried off. So at 10.30, with the house almost sparkling I thought I'd better tidy myself up. I did brush my hair before I took the dogs out but that was it, and since then I'd raked out the wood burners and relaid them, swept, dusted etc etc and was feeling a bit grubby - not to mention a lack of makeup. Not that I wear much, a touch of mascara but it's enough to make a difference.
On my way upstairs to try and look slightly more myself, I heard Mariano outside. "Where are you, I've come with a bottle of Cava to celebrate New Years Day!" "Oh no, I'm not ready for visitors!" "Never mind, come and have a drink, that doesn't matter."
So at 11am, we were outside in the sunshine polishing off a very nice bottle of Cava - makes a change from our usual cup of tea.
We did get olives done, another 2 large trees which gave us another 2 sacks. And if it's dry we'll do some more tomorrow.
Thursday, 30 December 2010
The beginning....
Yes, today has been the beginning of this years olive harvest. TV adverts may make it look very laid back and gentle....shake the tree and off they drop...... No, in reality that just doesn't happen!
First lay out your nets. We have 3, each one is 8 metres by 4 metres, they take some moving, and you can't drag them in case they snag on the ground and make holes which the olives will fall through. Having laid them out, you need to peg the ones on the lower terrace up onto poles so the olives don't roll away as they land. Then you can start harvesting. This is usually done by whacking the branches with a long pole or by using a large plastic comb to separate the olives from the branches. Even though they are very black and oily they don't want to come off easily. Lots of leaves and small ends of branches all come down as well, these have to be thrown away before the olives are put into sacks.
Any well-laden branches that we can't reach, John cuts out as part of the pruning process and I pick it clean when it's on the ground, when one tree is finished and the olives are bagged, then we tidy up the trimmings, firewood etc before moving on to the next tree.
As you can imagine, it's a time consuming business but usually it's worth doing for the oil and cash. This year however the price is less than last year and that was even lower than we'd ever known.... we're down to 30 cents a kilo. I'm sure the supermarket price will be the same though.
So 4 hours work, 3 trees harvested (1 small, 1 straggly with very little on it and 1 good one) has given us 1 sack of olives. About 30 kilos, which will pay about €9. They do say it's better than nothing and every little helps....at least the sun was shining and I had nothing else to do!
But here are some sunny photos of olives and someone in the distance is burning their olive trimmings.
First lay out your nets. We have 3, each one is 8 metres by 4 metres, they take some moving, and you can't drag them in case they snag on the ground and make holes which the olives will fall through. Having laid them out, you need to peg the ones on the lower terrace up onto poles so the olives don't roll away as they land. Then you can start harvesting. This is usually done by whacking the branches with a long pole or by using a large plastic comb to separate the olives from the branches. Even though they are very black and oily they don't want to come off easily. Lots of leaves and small ends of branches all come down as well, these have to be thrown away before the olives are put into sacks.
Any well-laden branches that we can't reach, John cuts out as part of the pruning process and I pick it clean when it's on the ground, when one tree is finished and the olives are bagged, then we tidy up the trimmings, firewood etc before moving on to the next tree.
As you can imagine, it's a time consuming business but usually it's worth doing for the oil and cash. This year however the price is less than last year and that was even lower than we'd ever known.... we're down to 30 cents a kilo. I'm sure the supermarket price will be the same though.
So 4 hours work, 3 trees harvested (1 small, 1 straggly with very little on it and 1 good one) has given us 1 sack of olives. About 30 kilos, which will pay about €9. They do say it's better than nothing and every little helps....at least the sun was shining and I had nothing else to do!
But here are some sunny photos of olives and someone in the distance is burning their olive trimmings.
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
So that was Christmas.
Another Christmas over! Only 3 mince pies left now, a half of a Stollen, about half a figgy pudding and 2 bowlfuls of sherry trifle - I'm sure I spent longer cooking it all then we did eating it. Although to be fair, we haven't eaten all of it, friends came up for drinks and tapas on Christmas Day and quite a lot of the mince pies and Stollen were eaten then. But we still have lots of chocolates left to enjoy in the New Year - no, not home made but pressies from friends.
Mat came down from Paris for his Christmas break, despite the bad weather the flight was only 30 minutes late in to Almeria, but when we got down there this morning for his flight home, the flight up to Madrid was cancelled as the incoming plane was iced in somewhere. Luckily there was availability on the next flight out and they changed his ticket, also the connecting Madrid to Paris flight was changed. If only we'd known.....we had to get up at 6.30 and left home at 7.10 in the pitch black. And we could have had a lie in!!! Oh well.
A belated Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to everyone who regularly reads this - hope it gives you some idea of life in the Alpujarras.
Next up - olive harvest! The mill in Yator is up and running already so we'll be out picking quite soon. Let's hope the sun continues to shine.
Mat came down from Paris for his Christmas break, despite the bad weather the flight was only 30 minutes late in to Almeria, but when we got down there this morning for his flight home, the flight up to Madrid was cancelled as the incoming plane was iced in somewhere. Luckily there was availability on the next flight out and they changed his ticket, also the connecting Madrid to Paris flight was changed. If only we'd known.....we had to get up at 6.30 and left home at 7.10 in the pitch black. And we could have had a lie in!!! Oh well.
A belated Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to everyone who regularly reads this - hope it gives you some idea of life in the Alpujarras.
Next up - olive harvest! The mill in Yator is up and running already so we'll be out picking quite soon. Let's hope the sun continues to shine.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
A wonderful Christmas present.
And it's open!! They said the road would be done by the end of the year and they were right. The last of the concrete was laid on Friday, the road remained shut over the weekend for it to harden/set/go off and late on Sunday evening we heard the first car since the end of October go past here.
Today it has poured with rain - and still is - but we went out to the shops just because we could! It was nice not to have to go togged up in boots and wet weather clothes with a rucksack like last year.
There are parts of the new road which have mud and gravelly stuff on which has washed down from the land but because the surface slopes slightly into the hillside, any mud and stones is mostly washing down the drains. Some stones have rolled out onto the road but nothing major.
And here is the final bill. Many thanks to whoever applied for the funding and to those who provided the money. What a wonderful Christmas present to those of us who live and/or work their land in Montenegro.
But remember - to those of you who know this area - the road only goes from Yator to Montenegro. From here up to Yegen remains a track so if you couldn't drive it by car before, you still can't.
Today it has poured with rain - and still is - but we went out to the shops just because we could! It was nice not to have to go togged up in boots and wet weather clothes with a rucksack like last year.
There are parts of the new road which have mud and gravelly stuff on which has washed down from the land but because the surface slopes slightly into the hillside, any mud and stones is mostly washing down the drains. Some stones have rolled out onto the road but nothing major.
And here is the final bill. Many thanks to whoever applied for the funding and to those who provided the money. What a wonderful Christmas present to those of us who live and/or work their land in Montenegro.
But remember - to those of you who know this area - the road only goes from Yator to Montenegro. From here up to Yegen remains a track so if you couldn't drive it by car before, you still can't.
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