Fig and orange jam

There are starlings here. And more noisy types. And they all like figs. Lots of figs. More than half of my nice and black figs is already gone! I could "save" just about two kilos..

Cook half an hour with the zest of an orange, the juice, a lime, some extra sugar, a bit of vanilla sugar, pinch of salt (huh?) and a bit of cinnamon. Nice red jam!

Apparently this tree has two fruiting seasons, it is still full of small green figlets. I guess they are ripe in August, like last year, when if was full of fruit, too.

Fun with a reservoir?

We chose this place because there is water. Well, we can get water: agricultural irrigation water. About 70 m³ per month. You need a water reservoir to store that water, they call that a "balsa", here. You need to have a balsa constructed by digging a hole, covering it with plastic, ... And first get planning permission.

And, we'd like a swimming pool. Amongst other things.

Well, in front of the workshop there's an odd bit of space, surrounded by a wire mesh fence. I had though before that could be an old balsa, but now I am almost sure. Because of all that irrigation the past weeks I took a closer look at the canals, and what did I see?

Our maybe-balsa has one of those small sluices too! Hidden behind plants first, but now out in the open. It's not there for nothing, I'm sure. The area is not a field, it can only be a balsa.

But, how deep is it? If it is a meter and a half it's quite usable as a swimming pool already! Just whack in some tiles, et presto! However, the soil is too hard to dig in with a spade. But, already clear is that the thin-ish wall that is visible above ground is bilt on top of a much wider wall, in the ground.

One of these days someone is coming with a small digger, we could ask him to try and find the bottom of this well?

The "balsa: area is ca. 8x11 meters, we could use half as a pool, the other half for watering the garden, and for topping up the swimming pool?

It would be so great if this indeed is an ancient balsa, as we then don't need any planning permission!

Interesting times!

Slip slap slop!

So, generally speaking, the weather here is quite pleasant. However, as a white northerner, you shouldn't go out in the sun unprotected. Not even a tanned Spaniard, but they're less affected. In Australia, they have a great slogan:

Slip, slap, slop - Slip on a shirt, slap on a hat, slop on sunscreen.

So, this fine canvas hat from Australia is gratefully used here.

And SPF 50 sunscreen.

(size M, for anyone who comes across one ;-)

Weer weer

I will say nothing.

I just grin.

























hahaha!

The plastic soup origins

Ik ben al twee keer streng toegesproken door dezelfde winkeljuffrouw in de Mercadona. Je mag hier namelijk niet met je blote handen aan de groenten en fruit zitten. Ook niet aan de uien. Je wordt geacht een plastic handschoen aan te doen.

Ik weet nu waar de plastic soep vandaan komt.

/ I have been spoken to, sternly, twice already, by the same shop lady in the Mercadona. It is strengstens verboten to touch the fruit and vegetables with your bare hands. Or the onions. You are required to wear plastic gloves.

I now know the origin of the plastic soup.

Fig picker

Iron wire, a plastic bag, duct tape and a bamboo stick. €2,50 instead of € 30
Also notice the clever nudge to nudge the figs' stems.

Figs continued

Fresh figs (off a tree) are quite nice, if they're completely ripe. Many fall when they're not completely sweet. Let's see if that gets better by drying them. 30 seconds in boiling water to kill off fungii, bacterii and insectii, then dry for a number of days. We'll see. And taste.

Tung

Tung oil. Made of nuts from trees in China. Well suited to treat wood with, instead of paint or lacquers.

And it so happened.

Door

This is the old door of the workshop/garage. (It's rotten.)

And this is the new one. (Not rotten.)

We did keep the old lock.

Because you don't want to get rid of such a nice old ironwork key.

Eh?

Identify this citrus?

This citrus tree. What is it? Tell me, please!

These are small round hard oranges, perfectly round, 5 cm diameter (2 inches). The peel is enormously aromatic. A mix of orange and vanilla.

(Grand Marnier beware, if I get this tree to fruit..)

Yellow leaves, lacking fertilizer.

Thin branches, with razor sharp thorns all over! Not pee-ing near this one..

Dung!

There are about ten citrus trees here. At least one tangerine, some orangy things, and some trees that I did not see any fruit on yet.

They are not doing terribly well, because they were not much loved the past few years, like a certain dog. Hardly any water, certainly no fertilizer. So you get yellow leaves and barren trees. Lucky I have relatives far away, who know all about lemons, and the like. Dung! my sister knew, and the roots are very close to the surface my mother said.

Google knew citrus trees love nitrogen fertilizers. So, that means we need to pee under those trees. Which we'd rather not, as they are very prickly, and have nasty thorns.

There are not that many garden centers here, but there was one that had a 1 kg box. At home, with Spanish reading glasses, it became clear you needed to feed about 40-100 grams per tree, depending on, among other things, blossoming (no), setting of fruit (no), winter (no). There was no dosage for neglected citrus, but I decided on 100 grams per tree. That kilo was soon gone. (More was purchased.)

And, lo! Two weeks later: fresh new green, blossom buds!

Poe, heet! 38º / Wow, hot! 100º

38º (or 100º for Fahrenheit types.) ! But inside it's fine, 26º. Windows and shutters closed!

Weather

Did I mention the weather here is pretty good?? (And it stays that way for a bit.)

Figs

We always looked for a house with a big old walnut tree. Not many of those here, they don't like dry and hot. But figs do! There is quite a big one here. I noticed it last year August already, with all it's figs dropped off, and unpicked, and a thick sweet scent like Pedro Ximenez, if you get my drift.

Fig season starts NOW. All of a sudden there are a lot of figs, that were really green last week, turning dark! And they are very good. Quite unlike the fresh figs in The Netherlands. I always found them rather mwah, nothing much.

It isn't easy to judge a fig's ripeness, but we'll study it carefully the coming days.

Meanwhile, this is appears to be a special tree, as other figs around here have no ripe fruit at all!

Roadkill (not suitable for vegetarians)

Oh wat zielig! / Oh dear.