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.
