Alex and Christian went to Gernika to pick up the trophy presented by

the Bizcaya Provincial Government to the best dairy farm of the year

that Vista Alegre Baserria has now won twice. This prize is not only

encouraging for our farm but also for the organic movement in general,

proving the often questioned efficiency of organic milk production.

October has been another very busy month for presenting and selling

our produce in fairs, particularly the first weekend of the month when

four different and important fairs coincide: the huge BioCulture fair in

the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (30/9 to 2/10), the organic fair in Gasteiz

(1/10), the yearly farm fair in Karrantza  (1/10) and the yearly famous

Gangas fair in Zalla (3/10). This year we shared a stand in the Bio-

culture fair with Mikel from Urduña who makes jams and fruit juice from

produce from his own orchards.

We went to another 6 fairs throughout the rest of the month: twice to

the small farmers’ market organized by the Bilbao Town Council (8 and

22/10), the annual organic fair in Durango (810), the special fairs to

promote organic produce organized by the Basque Organic Council in

Gasteiz (15/10) and Bilbao (22/10),

and to the annual farm produce fair in Arrigorriaga (23/10) and, lastly, the

annual fair in Galdames (23/10).

There are more than 90 species of Inula native to Europe, Asia and

Africa. We are not able to clearly identify which of these species is the

one we find along some field edges or tracks on the farm. Some Inula

species have medicinal properties.

Although the temperature was generally much lower, it was still warm

for the time of year, with daytime temperatures around 20ºC many days.

The 20^th of October was one of those unusual days in which the

minimum temperature was not at dawn but rather the temperature

went down during the morning from 12ºC at dawn to only 9ºC at

midday and then rising to 17ºC in the afternoon. There was very

little precipitation and we only collected 33l in the rain gauge. However,

there were very many heavy dewfalls.

Unusually for this time of year, the heifers looked for shade during

the day.

This American recipe can be adapted to whichever fruit is available

at each time of the year.

Base:

100g unsalted butter

150g sugar

2 eggs

280g flour

2 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp fine salt

1 tbsp lemon zest (1 large lemon)

150g natural yoghurt

1 tbsp vanilla

300g blueberries

Topping:

60g plain flour

100g sugar

¼ tsp fine salt

½ cinnamon

60g unsalted butter

60g walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Butter 23cm round baking dish.

For the base: Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one

at a time, mixing after each addition. In a separate bowl, mix together

the flour, baking powder and salt. In a third bowl mix together the lemon

zest, yoghurt and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter and

sugar, mix, then add the rest of the base ingredients and mix until

smooth. Mix through the blueberries. Pour into the prepared baking

dish.

Topping: mix the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Rub in the butter until

a sandy texture is reached. Stir in chopped walnuts. Sprinkle the mixture

over the cake batter, allowing some of the base to show.

Bake for an hour and serve with yoghurt and a drizzle of honey.

During the first two weeks of October some of our fields suffered

infestations of common armyworm caterpillars (Pseudaletia unipuncta

also known as Mythimna unipuncta or Cipris unipuncta). As their

common name suggests, the caterpillars move in large groups across

fields eating all green parts of plants belonging to the Gramineae or

grass family. As can be seen in the photos, patches of land can be

eaten bare overnight and this has been particularly alarming as the

grass in our fields was just beginning to recover from the very poor,

dry growing conditions we suffered over the last months. Fortunately,

this caterpillar has many natural enemies (different beetles, spiders

and ants amongst others).

Nature is, fortunately, capable of regeneration even though this means

a lot of work clearing brambles, weeds and scrub. We have already had

to clear around some silage bales made in the summer ...

The Armañon Nature Park Council (Karrantza) once again organized a

visit to our farm and dairy, this year on October 30th.

The same day in the afternoon a family from Navalcarnero (Madrid) came to visit us.

Fungi of different sorts such as this giant puff ball (Calvatia gigantea)

have started to appear in the fields with the autumn rain.

The autumn clearance of allotments has started. The soil is turned and

either planted with winter veggies such as carrots, broccoli, peas or

cabbage) or left to rest overwinter.

The dairy cows were able to graze quite often although we obviously

had to give them dry alfalfa and vetch, grass silage and a little feedstuff.