On the 11^th a group of families from Bilbao came to visit.

Once again we helped out with the Bizkaia Food Bank in their

Christmas campaign.

We continued to clear encroaching vegetation around the edges of fields, sometimes regaining several metres of land for grazing.

The rye-grass sown last month is germinating, thank goodness!

There are many different ragwort species. Common ragwort (Senecio jacobaea or Jacobaea vulgaris) is a very common wild flower native to Europe and Asia. Senecio species contain many different alkaloids, some of which make them poisonous to certain animals, including cattle. However there are very few cases of documented poisoning and, in any case, we do not often see this plant in our fields. On the other hand, these species play a very important role in environmental terms… in the UK ragwort provides a food source for over 70 insect species, for example.

With the damper weather conditions different fungi appear in the fields.

We went to the farmers’ market in Bilbao three times in December and

we have been invited to go every week next year. We also went to

the yearly fair in Gordexola on December 4^th and the very important

annual Santo Tomas fair in Bilbao on December 21st

Although the weather has been colder in general, it hasn’t been wintry.

We only had below zero temperatures one morning (-2ºC) and, thus, only

one light frost. Maximum temperatures reached an unseasonable +15ºC.

It rained 6 days and we only collected 39 litres in the rain gauge.

As in November, we gave the cows dry alfalfa and vetch, grass silage

and hay and a little feedstuff.

100g rice

50g grated cheese

4 apples

Sultanas

Boil rice and drain thoroughly. Mix in grated cheese and liquidize.

Heat oven to 180ºC. Pour several drops of olive oil in one medium sized pyrex bowl or four small ones and spread. Wash, peel, core and dice apples (roughly 1cm) and place in bowl. Sprinkle with sultanas, the more added the sweeter the result. Spread on top the rice and cheese mix and place in over for 15-20 minutes or until the apple is cooked. Serve hot.

It is important to only prepare the apples when the rice and cheese mix is ready so they don’t go brown.