“If you’re a farmer and you are not an optimist, you are not a farmer.”
– Glenn Roberts
When my father, who has been a farmer his whole life, asked me what I was going to do in Portugal I told him that I was going to farm. A bit ironic really coming from someone who couldn’t wait to leave the farming community she grew up in. Also, trying to grow a handful of trees and vegetables for our own consumption really isn’t farming. And if being an optimist is a requirement for farming (something I think holds true), then I am completely unqualified, as I am more of a realist – an optimist tempered with a good dose of pessimism.
On my Plate & In the Garden
After a hellish summer, and a failed tomato crop, I am glad I’m not a farmer. I was told that even some elderly Portuguese shook their heads, and pulled up their tomatoes, saying they’ve never experienced a crop failure like this before.
With the drop in temperature at the beginning of September, the rest of the garden started to flourish. It was like the land and everything and everyone living on it gave a collective sigh of relief. Including the flies, which have been pestering me ever since, but there are so many other things to make up for it that it is hardly worth complaining about.
The yellow, red, pink, and orange of Zinnias and Mexican sunflowers bring colour to the garden and joy to the bees constantly buzzing about, and while the calendulas and borage are still flowering, there are now marigolds adding their own dramatic splash of colour to the garden.
I still pick the occasional zucchini, but the eggplants, peppers de Padron, and chillies are really flourishing and producing a bountiful crop at the moment, while the chives which I split and transplanted are doing well too. As is the sweet basil, which is being turned into delicious pesto on a regular basis.
The hawthorne berries have ripened to a luscous red, and I’ve made a couple of batches of ketchup. It is a slow tedious process, as one needs nimble fingers to avoid the thorns while picking, and then a lot of patience to press the cooked berries through a sieve to extract the pulp. But it is delicious, and I’ve even experimented with different flavours – plain; with a dash of orange juice; and spicy chilli and cherry. Midnight and Lily have been good companions throughout, though, so I’ve always had company.
I’ve sowed melon seeds in the empty holes in the orchard, and although I am not quite sure how to gage when they are ripe, I should have about 6 melons sometime soon. Well, okay, 5, as I cut one open yesterday to see how ripe it is. Sadly it wasn’t ripe enough, but it already hinted at a feast, so fingers crossed I will manage to pick them at the exact right time.
Weathering the Weather
September has been in many ways the summer I longed for. Most days were beautiful and hot, but not scorching. The hottest day was 34.9°C, while the coolest was 20.3°C, which also coincided with some lovely rain. I measured a total of 63 mm for the month, which was a wonderful and unexpected gift, slowly coaxing a gorgeous shade of green from the dull brown landscape.
The cooler weather has also enticed me into more regular outside chores, and I’ve gone on some strimming binges, which is making a huge difference in the way the land looks.
Officialdom
I’ve received my certificate for the language course I did in a much shorter time than expected, but (of course there is a but) they misspelled my name. I am trying to stay somewhat optimistic in getting it resolved quickly, but as I’m a realist, and am no longer a newcomer to Portugal, I will refrain from engaging in overly optimistic expectations. ** UPDATE: A mere three days after I wrote this post, I received an updated certificate in the mail with my name spelled correctly, and just like that my belief in miracles was restored.
Midnight & Lily
Although they are still engaged in some power play and screaming matches every now and then, they usually call it a truce when we go for a daily walk around sunset. Like me, they’ve started looking for sunny spots as the month petered out, and both have started sleeping inside and on the bed with me.
Visitors
My Spanish niece, who is currently doing a three month internship in Lisbon, came for a weekend visit, which was lovely. I even dragged her off to a grape harvest I committed to, which she enjoyed as an unexpected novelty. And I also made good use of the extra pair of hands, as picking hawthorne berries, while chatting feels far less like a chore than when alone.
Portuguese Words
The song for this month is As regras da sensatez by Rui Veloso, sung by Raquel Tavares
| Nunca voltes ao lugar Onde já foste feliz Por muito que o coração diga Não faças o que ele diz Nunca mais voltes à casa Onde ardeste de paixão Só encontrarás erva rasa Por entre as lajes do chão Nada do que por lá vires Será como no passado Não queiras reacender Um lume já apagado São as regras da sensatez Vais sair a dizer que desta, desta é de vez Por grande a tentação Que te crie a saudade Não mates a recordação Que lembra a felicidade Nunca voltes ao lugar Onde o arco-íris se pôs Só encontrarás a cinza Que dá na garganta nós São as regras da sensatez Vais sair a dizer que desta, desta é de vez Só mais uma vez, só mais uma vez Só mais uma vez, só mais uma vez | Never go back to the place Where you were once happy No matter what your heart says Don’t do what it says Never go back to the house Where you burned with passion You’ll only find shallow grass Amidst the flagstones of the floor Nothing you see there Will be like the past You don’t want to rekindle A fire that’s already gone out These are the rules of wisdom You’ll go out and say this time, this time it’s for good However great the temptation That you may miss Don’t kill the memory That reminds you of happiness Never return to the place Where the rainbow set You’ll only find the ash That goes down our throats It’s the rules of wisdom You’ll go out and say this time, this time it’s for good Just once more, just once more Just once more, just once more |
To Visit
I managed a quick 2-day escape, overnighting in Marvão, but also visiting Nisa, Castelo de Vide, Portas do Rodão, and Beirã. It was good for my mental well-being, and stomach, as I carefully planned and booked a table at Fago for dinner, an intimate restaurant serving incredible food made only from fresh local produce. It is only open from Thurday to Sunday, and definitely worth planning a trip around. Marvão itself is one of those picture perfect towns tourism boards like to promote. It is quaint and lovely, and I was lucky that my visit coincided with an annual celebration and parade through town from the Convento de Nossa Senhora da Estrela, which gave it a more local and intimate face.
Here are a couple of panorama shots I took. I am thinking of changing the format of my blog posts next year to focus on some Portuguese towns, so I’m saving the photos and stories for those.
Written by: Jolandi
I’ve never heard the quote you used to open this piece, but it is beautifully appropriate! With this, I think I could actually be a farmer 🙂 I’ve grown up with farmers and ranchers, and yes… they were very much optimists. From your writing, I, too, sense such great optimism and love for what you do and have done with this land of yours. What a great life you are creating ~ and I can imagine how delicious your creations are when it is your hands doing all the work from dirt to plate 🙂 A perfect post for autumn, and once again, congratulations on your adventures.
I love the idea of how being an optimist can make it possible for you to actually be a farmer, Randall. And what a blessing that you grew up with ranchers and farmers. I think that alone ties one to the earth and food in a way that forever changes the way one lives. And you are so right that food always tastes nicer from “dirt to plate”. Love that phrase, as my hands tend hold on to dirt these days in a way I can’t seem to be able to scrub off. 😆 I hope you are enjoying a lovely autumn too. – Jolandi
I’m just curious, what ultimately killed your tomatoes? I gave up on growing them because they require a lot of water, and it didn’t seem fair that actual farmers were forced to ration their water while amateur gardeners in my town were allowed to water as much as they liked. (We are still in a drought with municipal water restrictions.) I also noticed that my neighbors in the community garden who did grow tomatoes were not doing well this past summer. The cherry tomatoes were tiny but looked okay, but the larger salad and beefsteak tomatoes were weirdly shaped or wrinkled, perhaps because of the intense heat, or inconsistent watering.
The lyrics to that translated song are lovely. Nostalgia is nice, but it helps to remember that time only moves forward. Glad you are doing well in spite of all the little bumps in the road!
I’ve recently listened to a couple of podcasts that highlighted some aspect of the drought and many reasons for the water shortages in your part of the world, Hangaku, so it doesn’t surprise me that you still have water restrictions. Water is such a precious resource, and it is often wasted or misused, which is really sad. I think that ultimately it was just too hot for the tomatoes this year. I overwatered last year, so this year they got 2 litres of water three times a week via drip irrigation, which was more or less spot on, and they had plenty of flowers, but when it came to setting fruit, they failed. A friend said it was too hot for pollination, so I guess it could have been a big part of the problem, although I’m such a novice that I really cannot be sure. The couple of tomatoes that did grow were all under-sized. I did manage to pick and eat a small amount, but ultimately I also thought it was simply a waste of water and effort. They would definitely do better under 40% shade cloth. I’m grateful for the bountiful harvest of last year, as that will motivate me to try again, but definitely with some adjustments. Sadly the weather is so unpredictable that the lessons learned from one year doesn’t always transfer to the next in a helpful way. Life is always about embracing all sorts of bumps in the road, but I can definitely manage to do that so much better when the weather is good. 😉 – Jolandi
So glad to hear you are getting some respite and reclaiming your routine to some extent. Is Lily helping you maintain a yoga pose in one of those photos, or had you simply collapsed from overwork?
I did some floor stretching exercises yesterday, and yikes! Was I stiff. It’s been too hectic to prioritise that kind of self-care lately.
I am so enjoying these musical snippets and trying to follow along with the Portugese. Some words make immediate sense, such as nunca, diga, faças, and casa. Casa, of course, is the same in Italian. Faças would be related to the verb “to do” (da fare), diga, the verb “to say” (da dire) and nunca mais, I think, is never again – but since that is not how to say it in Italian I have no idea where I picked that up. Even the word cinza rang a bell. Cinderella in Italian is Cenerentola, because ashes are ceneri.
But the one that really resonated with me is saudade – that word which evokes such feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. I think I must have first come across it in a book, and after having looked it up in a dictionary it stuck with me. I just checked again and found “sad state of intense longing for someone or something that is absent”.
Well I’m guessing for you, that “something” is not the August heat of 2022!
Your brain is clearly wired for making a variety of connections when it comes to language, Gwen. It is amazing! A lot of Portuguese music appeals to me, and I always think it is a great way to pick up new vocabulary and get used to the sound of the language, as hearing what people are saying is one of the things I struggle with the most. Yes, you are right, I will definitely not have any saudades for this past summer. 🙈
I took that photo of Lily on my lap early one morning sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee. The cats often join me on my yoga mat, but they both usually just challenge my ability to move over them, as they refuse to move once they’ve curled up in the spot they claimed for themselves. Well done on finding time for some stretching, even though you can now feel it. I’m sure it was much needed, as your schedule sounded hectic. Hope things will slow down a little bit for you. – Jolandi
Good to know the worst has gone, at least for now — fingers crossed next year’s summer won’t be as punishing. Those hawthorne berries look delicious! I don’t think I’ve ever tried it. Why did they have to misspell your name? This reminds me of a similar incident that happened to me many years ago when I tried to get some documents in Indonesian translated in English by a sworn translator — who misspelled my name so in the end I couldn’t use it. I’m curious about the new format of your blog posts. But that’ll have to wait.
Fingers crossed indeed, Bama.
Hawthornes are said to be excellent for heart health, so I guess my stock of hawthorne ketchup will keep my heart healthy this coming year. 😁 It is not particularly tasty on its own, but when made into a sweet and sour ketchup is delicious.
I know, right! And ironically my name was spelled correctly on the address part of the letter, but just not on the certificate where it matters. One would think that people would double check things like spelling of names against the original documents (in this case a passport copy), but . . . . As with your experience, a small mistake like that renders a document completely useless. #Sigh! Some days I feel emotional exhausted as every single official thing feels like some sort of battle. * Update: A couple of hours after I wrote this comment I went into town and received my certificate with my name spelled correctly in our post box. I was taken aback with how quickly it was rectified, and just like that my faith in miracles was restored.
I’m not quite sure how I will restructure my posts next year, but I do want to also highlight some of the culture and gorgeous towns. I will most probably do two seperate posts a month – one focusing on what is happening on the quinta, and one showcasing a bit of Portugal. – Jolandi
Yay to the revised certificate! Gosh, Portugal just sounds like Indonesia in this respect. When I get so frustrated with so many things that go wrong in this country, sometimes out of the blue things happen that in some ways restore my faith in it. Oh well.
Isn’t it amazing how something small can restore our faith again?
…but so wonderful that it does. It shows that both of you really want to have faith in humanity, and so at the smallest encouragement, you grab it! It says so much.
It really was a very hot summer everywhere and most people I have spoken to had diminished harvests, whether they are arable farmers or gardeners like us. Our tomatoes did okay though we had some end-rot with the first of the crop. All of our other vegetables failed and many of our flower-garden plants died. I am glad September was a better month for you and you have managed to catch up with your strimming. It is amazing what a little tidying of edges and paths can do; everything looks so much better even if the weeding and dead-heading haven’t been done!
I love the photo of Lily asleep in the marigolds!
I’m glad to hear that you at least managed to harvest some tomatoes, Clare, but what a pity that the rest of your vegetables failed. Yes, it really was a challenging summer for most people. It is heart breaking to put so much love, care, and effort into a garden, just to have so many plants died. I guess I was lucky then that just my tomatoes were a failure. You are so right about the difference a bit of tidying up can do. Not just for the general look of a garden, but also once emotional well-being. – Jolandi
Hmmm. Sounds like a lovely September. You needed it! xo
I’m stuck in a completely different world so it’s nice to step into yours — lush, and full of beauty and bounty.
Looking forward to seeing your place in Fall and Winter. Hugs from soggy Thailand.
Rain can definitely bring a lot of joy when it has been brown and dry, but in more tropical areas, I can imagine that it can also start to weigh a bit on the soul. As I’m writing this comment there is a bit of rain falling softly on the roof, something I really appreciate after this hot and dry summer. – Jolandi
I am breathing a sigh of relief both for and with you. It has been a sweltering summer here also, but right now the weather is pretty heavenly. Still summery but not so oppressive. Like you and others, I had little luck with tomatoes this year. I’ve never heard of hawthorne ketchup, but it sounds good and healthful. Hope fall brings even more refreshing weather and that you can find a little time to roam to more little towns!
Thanks, Lexie. I’m glad to hear that you are also experiencing some lovely weather after a sweltering summer. I suspect the weather will start to change soon, but for the last month and a half it was the summer I would have preferred to have. Something I have been very grateful for before having to face winter again. Hawthorne ketchup is delicious – it has a sweet-sour taste, and although it gets sugar and/or honey, hawthornes are supposed to be excellent for heart health. And like always, I so love finding something useful for something that grows wild on the land. – Jolandi
Hello there! Happy to see your beautiful bounty in the garden/farm and at least you’ve got your father’s expertise and optimism to fall back on. Farming is a lonely business these days and a stressful one for those who are selling their food to the rest of us. The photos of your cats always get me smiling, they are such characters!
You are so right about farming. Farmers don’t have it easy these days, especially the smaller ones, and yet, if there are no farmers there will be no food and no life.
I’m glad to hear the photos of cats make you smile. They bring such joy to my days, and is such an integral part of my life here. – Jolandi
Hello Jolandi,
So glad to hear that there is a welcome reprieve from the record-breaking heat!
I couldn’t help but smile while reading your words, picturing the antics that Midnight and Lily are up to (glad to hear they have come to a truce – we humans could learn a lot from them…), and the vivid colors of those berries! So happy to learn that some processes of “officialdom” are coming along smoothly – I agree, even the smallest miracles can raise our spirits a lot and keeping fingers crossed that the process will continue to go as smooth as possible.
The prefecture where I live is quite famous for farming and like you say, farmers don’t have it easy at all. My husband and I try to do our part by supporting our local farmer’s markets (especially the “smaller” ones) but even we can see it is not easy.
We too finally have a much-needed and much-welcome break from the heat. My country has had to deal with rainstorms and typhoons (it is one extreme to another, it seems) but we are welcoming Autumn as it slowly makes its way here.
Keeping you in my thoughts as always, and may you have a wonderful autumn ahead!
I’m so glad to hear that you are also enjoying a much needed reprieve from the heat of this year’s summer. It is crazy how the weather is fluctuating between extremes. I wonder what we are in for this winter. I hope the lovely autumn weather is holding. Big hug from a rainy Portugal. – Jolandi
As you wished for me (thank you) we had a long, warm end of summer and into Autumn. It was delicious and made me so happy. Now the rains have started for good and I remain content. Mother Nature gave me a gift and for the moment I remain grateful. I’m sad about your tomatoes. Mine were also a bust, for the cold instead of the heat. I had six large, healthy plants covered in blossoms, and with my bees, they were thoroughly pollinated. When summer finally started, time was almost out, and we only had about six good weeks of heat. It was just not enough. I have never heard of using Hawthorne berries and yours not only look so gorgeous in the bowl, but made into a ketchup sound like a great condiment. It was fun to see the mud puddle and to hear how happy the rain made you. I wonder if you have seen more rain by now. I’m off to check your October post and see.