back in Locoe

 We  apologize for not updating this blog since May 2024. We have been very busy both in Sardinia and then in our new Borders home in Scotland. During the summer and autumn 2024 Lesley was busy organising the move from Drumnadrochit while I was in Sardinia. 

                              

                                                    Growing vegetables in Locoe

Unfortunately only I am now in Sardinia as Lesley had a fall from the bike and broke her wrist, Hopefully she will join  me by the end of October.  Grapes were harvested the weekend of 20th and 21st with a very good quality  which we have not seen for many years. Also the amount of grapes we collected was good. 1400 kg. Too much for our wine stock so, we have sold some of them.

                  

                                            very good quality of cannonau grapes

                                    

                       The grapes were crashed and fermentation has already started

                                      

In the meanwhile we have started working on the vegetable patch ,clearing the area of weeds and  planting new vegetables (onions, cabbages, broadbeans and peas)

                                                 

                                                     after clearing the weeds as below  

                                                    

                       This year there are some olives but not that many. It  is patchy. Some trees are                                good others less so. Hopefully some rain will come to help those with tiny olives to recover.

                                         

                                                    tres with good olives

                 

                   Making some logs for the bread oven from the prunings of almond trees. 

                                        The almonds were collected in August.

     

preparing logs for the winter

                                                

Almond tree: we have several almond trees including some bitter almonds. Almonds are collected generally in August / September, then peeled of their the outer skin and left out in the sun to dry 

for about ten days before storing them in containers in the dark. Almonds here are mostly used for making cakes, the bitter ones which are not edible are used in small quantities ( 5% ) for making amaretti.This gives these traditional biscuits their name. Amaro in Italian means bitter.

   

                                                     Almonds before peeling and drying in the sun.

                                                       They still need to be cracked before use.

                               

I have also been collecting fichi d'india (Prickly pears in American). There is always an aboundance of this perennial fruit and as well as  eating the fruit, we do not make other things from them. This year I have decided to make "sapa", a sticky syrup like honey which can be used in winter as a substitute for sugar/honey.

Processing the fichi d'india

                               Planting broadbeans. We planted over 3000 seeds in groups of 3.

                                         My brother is planning to sell them later in winter