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Up to Our Eyes In It

Apparently, some types of manure are better than others. I’m not quite sure of the details as I tend to switch off when the subject is raised (funny that), but one thing I do know is that we have copious quantities of the stuff beside our barn, a positive mountain!

CG and our neighbour went off at the crack of dawn last Saturday morning to a local dairy farm and came back with a truck full. The good thing, from my point of view, is that in his usual sociable, friendly way my husband made friends with the farmer and we now have an endless source of fresh milk. As a good friend of mine has found rennet for sale in her local shop I now have everything I need to have a go at cheese making.

I’ve been looking forward to trying one of the recipes from the lovely old fashioned cook book I mentioned last week. ‘A Novice’s Method’ was sent in by Mrs K Churchill from Dorsetshire who must have been a farmer’s wife. She describes how to make a Cheddar type cheese without all the proper equipment. I have the essential cook’s thermometer thanks to a recent gift from my parents and a very large pan, but that’s about all. So I was pleased to see that you can improvise the rest using things most people have in their kitchen.

I think I will have to scale down the recipe a bit though as Mrs Churchill used ‘three gallons of milk from three consecutive milkings’ for each cheese, but I’m willing to have a go on a smaller scale one day next week. I’ll keep you posted.

Now, back to Roly the pig’s reproductive cycle - with apologies to anyone who is fed up with this subject. On Wednesday we came to the end of another three week cycle and so we went once again to Pequena Terra, the educational centre near Alcobaca who are so very helpful, and collected some more boar poo to see if we could convince her that there might be a likely suitor nearby and trick her hormones into bringing her into season.

We have been given graphic details of what to expect if she does eventually come into season and although her behaviour changed a bit, her bottom remained decidedly dry (sorry, a bit too much information for non- pig lovers perhaps).

This afternoon however, I was sitting at the computer in the kitchen writing this blog when CG burst in from the garden saying that it had definitely happened, there was no doubt, she was in season.

We both raced off to her pen to see her only to find on closer inspection that she had just been sitting in a muddy puddle, nothing had changed.

So, as a last resort we have decided to go ahead with hormone injections at the start of her next cycle. It doesn’t seem to be as bad and unnatural as it sounds, and only needs to be used once. After she has had her first litter she should be able to have many more naturally with ease.

Our only other options seem to be to have her slaughtered (I can hardly bear to think of it) or to keep her as a massive 100 kilo, hungry pet, which we really can’t afford.

Finally I have to tell you that CG’s beautiful fruit and vegetables are to go on sale at Union Jacs, the newly opened British food shop in Tornada. James, Sylvie and the team have kindly agreed to stock our produce.

As it is still early in the season we only have a few things to offer, but there is loads more on the way all grown in a natural, organic (although not officially certified) way.

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