All posts by Stephen Barstow
Rising moon
Jorge’s edible water garden
I’ll always be grateful to my friend Jorge Carona as without him I would never have been invited to Portugal. The story of how we met is told here:
He was also instrumental in suggesting that the Ecoaldeia de Janas should invite me to give a course! Added to that, he did almost all the driving on my trip. I also spent two nights at his house on the hills in Calhandriz above Alverca near Lisbon and was able to see his edible water gardens for the first time! So here are a few pictures of the garden, sadly neglected as Jorge wasn’t living here for some time! He has a large water tank under an outhouse to supply the water for this project! The pond is an oasis for wildlife in the dry countryside which has been suffering from drought for several years! Many thanks, Jorge!
Other edible water plants in the pond: Bacopa, Acorus, Oenanthe, Houttuynia, Aponogeton and watercress. Elsewhere in the garden, Jorge has planted apples, pears, orange, plums,fig and edible bamboos! A great little garden!
Sopptur 16th November
(Sopptur = Mushroom picking / fungal foray)
Still masses of winter chantarelle in the woods despite for frosts a week ago…and a few chantarelle and hedgehog fungus….
Tour de Portugal links
Perennials Resistence in Mertola, Portugal (video and interview) http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20370
Herdade do Freixo do Meia http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20042
Freixo de Cima http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20133
In search of the wild asparagus at Bombeira do Guadiana http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19856
Cactus pads for my last lunch in Mértola http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19658
The Holy Grail Kale and the Janas Ecovillage gardens! http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19949
Edible plants of the Sintra Natural Park http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19746
Mostly edibles at Majoito http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19685
The Ecoaldeias Janas extreme salad http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19669
Bombycilla garrulus and Coccothraustes coccothraustes
I try to “grow” as much food for birds as possible in my garden. This includes leaving some fruit, planting various species of rowan (Sorbus), not tidying the garden until late winter, so that, for example, seed of nettles and burdock is available for finches. I also don’t feed the birds with bought in sunflower seeds until it gets properly cold, until then there’s plenty of natural food available. There’s nowadays a large acreage put down to non-organic production of bird seed in other countries which is certainly detrimental to birdlife in those countries and there is evidence that providing bird seed during the breeding season can have a negative effect on some species! So, is feeding birds a good thing or just for our entertainment? A bit of both I think!
- Hawfinch and waxwings towards the end…taken from the living room /office!
2. Waxwing on apple. It was a bad rowan berry year and there are unusually few waxwings around (perhaps good news for an invasion further south, e.g., in the UK?). This is one of the apples I left for the birds…the video was taken from the living room!
Freixo de Cima
Dandelion harvest
Dandelions are one of my favourite winter perennial vegetables. During the summer, wild dandelions sow themselves on my cultivated beds….one of the advantages of having too much open soil! I deliberately let them grow on until late autumn when I dig up some of the roots, others left to grow on to the next year, and plant them in large pots ready to force later in the winter like witloof chicory. I usually force them by moving from storage in my cellar to a cool room in the house where I force them in the dark!
Jackdaw acrobatics
A flock of some 150 jackdaws were having fun this morning playing acrobatics in the wind!
Herdade do Freixo do Meio
Many thanks to my friend Alfredo Sendim for inviting me to hold a course at his amazingly diverse Herdade do Freixo do Meio farm. It is run as a cooperative using many innovative agricultural methods, inspired in particular by Ernst Goetsch and Syntropic Farming! I was very happy that Fernanda Botelho also joined us to share her knowledge on local edible plants!
The 3 videos at the end show Agroforestry methods on the farm at Freixo do Meio, olives intercropped with a wide diversity of edibles and other useful plants!
Clouded yellow butterfly on lucerne:
Agroforestry methods on the farm at Freixo do Meio, olives intercropped with a wide diversity of edibles and other useful plants: