The very local food

23/04/2018

Another sunny hot day. The ground is drying very quickly but the early dew of the morning is keeping the vegetation and the flowers still in a good shape. Last night took me an hour and half to water  all the new plants plus the others which were planted previously. I am using a watering can as it is efficient and uses  less water. Pietro’s system with a variety of pipe work going in different directions, with taps to connect more pipes, allow us to water plant easily in different places. In addition the dripping system saves lots of water and time. You open the main tap from the pool and then the watering does not need you around. You came back 2 hours later and all is done efficiently and with no waste of water. This system is in place in a couple of areas, so we need to improve it investing more on it.

The pipe work where we planted some of new vegetables

We walk a lot during the day as different tasks are in different places but also, simple tasks as getting water from the well, require switching on and off connection and literary going to the pump to be operated then again do the same when everything is finished. Or switching the boiler for the shower means switching off water in the house, then going to the toilet to connect boiler and do the reverse when finish. There is only a 1.5 KW power so you can run one item at time. So, water from the well is priority in the morning. first thing to do after the coffee.

There will be courgettes

We are washing our clothes outside in the old fashion way. Line for drying them is between two olive trees. Sometimes ants travel on the washing line between trees so you need to shake them off. Washing machine would not operate anyway and tumble dryers here are a joke . As per television  we are happy without it. In fact we do not think about it at all. There is a radio but we switched on only a couple of times. The outside world is connected via internet, a couple of times a day.

Yesterday we collected the first broad beans. In the next few days there will many to be collected before they became too old and dry ( Good for keeping ). So, for lunch today I cooked some of them.

broad bean with pod

The beans without the pod

Analysing  the content of my lunch gives you an indication about sustainability when living here. Every single ingredient to make the meal  was from here. The water, the oil, the onions, the garlic, the wild fennel and the broad beans. The bread to accompany the meal  was made by us with flour from Sardinia grains. I had our wine but did not drink it as it is far too strong for lunch . I do drink the wine in the evening though. I had my lunch under the new veranda looking out towards the Oliena mountain ( Corrasi) and surrounded by the colour of  yellows, reds, purples orange wild flowers. On the higher  grounds the Mediterranean machia of  different tonalities of greens complete the picture.

cooking the beans

At the moment we have onions, lettuce, cauliflower, broad beans, peas, spinach, beat  all cultivated and  to be harvest. Some more wild herbs are still available. In a month time broad beans will be gone, but other types of beans will be ready alongside with the courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes , chicory, lettuces, cabbages, peppers and more. We will be back in Drum by then.

I have taken my time to calculate approximately the number of broad beans planted. There are about 3000 and 300 peas plants. if we have used 3000 litre of water the other day , that is 1 litre per plant which is pretty good. plants maybe  need more water for another time. The plants produce around 5 to 8 pod each which will be around 15,000 or 24,000 pods. This is around 750 kg .

My brother Tonino sells some but most  of them are divided between 4 families , presents to other people and kept in the freezer for later consumption. The other day our neighbour called Angheleddu ( little Angel. he is 82 and he was working with the strimmer cutting grass for about 2 hours non stop)    gave us some potatoes, then he asked if we had some parsley. I said yes, plenty of it, go and get it. We had a little chat as he was collecting the parsley. This is the way here. We exchange products and we have a chat...

First sign of the figs. They will be ready in June. Too late for us.

The Goji berry tree. One of the many  so called "superfood" grows well here

and the plant produces plenty of if fruit.