On January 20th a group of twenty secondary school students

from Portugalete visited the dairy as part of a course module

on entrepreneurial skills.

Apart from the weekly farmers’ market in Bilbao we also went to

an alternative fair organized by the cultural association ZAWP in

Zorrozaurre (Bilbao) on January 15th.

This is obviously some sort of brassica, possibly from the rape family,

but there are many species, subspecies and cultivated varieties and we

have not been able to positively identify this particular plant. It is not,

however, a member of the natural biodiversity of our farm but rather an

adventitious plant that has probably arrived either in seed mixes (current

legislation permits a certain degree of contamination in seed packets) or

has perhaps been brought by rodents or birds. In any case it’s coloniza-

tion of different pastures on the farm is quite notable and we have to

remove it manually.

The weather has actually been quite appropriate for the time of year!

Minimum temperatures dropped to below zero 14 mornings and we had

quite a few frosts, several quite hard.

The minimum temperature recorded was -6ºC. One morning the trees on

the hills over the valley were completely white, presumably a freezing

fog left its mark and the frost did not melt until the next day.

The maximum daytime temperature was 18 ºC (due to a

southerely wind). It rained and hailed half way through January

and we collected 255 litres in the raingauge, 147 of which fell

in only two days.

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

and hay and a little feedstuff.

Although this cake is traditionally eaten on the 6^th of January, the local

bakery version is so successful they take and deliver orders from

November to February. There are many different recipes and all are

fiddley and take some time to prepare.

Ingredients:

350g flour (hard wheat flour)

25g fresh yeast

125ml full cream milk

100g sugar

75g unsalted butter

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

Grated rind one orange

1 tablespoon brandy or aniseed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pinch salt

Optional: clotted cream, crystalized fruit

Heat milk but only until tepid and break into it the fresh yeast. Stir

and leave for 15 minutes. Sieve flour over a large mixing bowl. Make

a hole in the centre and add the sugar, orange rind and the milk.

Mix thoroughly until attaining a thick puree like texture. Add the egg

yolk, sal and butter and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle a Little flour on the tabletop and start to knead the dough

mixture. Knead for two minutes and then leave to rest 10 minutes

with the mixing bowl placed upside down over the top of the mixture.

Knead again for several minutes until the dough is fine and does not

stick to the table.

Grease another bowl with olive oil and place the dough inside, covering

with clingfilm or a cloth and leaving to rest in a warm place until the

dough doubles in size. Then knead for another 10 minutes to get rid of

any air and then leave covered for another 15 minutes.

Place greaseproof paper on an ovenproof tray and grease a baking ring

(doughnut shaped) with unsalted butter placed on the tray. Make a

hole in the centre of the dough and start making a ring (as if it were

to be a doughnut shape) and once the right shape and size place in

the baking tray.

 Glaze with egg and leave in a warm place until the dough rises again

to double its size (Maybe overnight). Then glaze once again with egg.

 Preheat oven to 160ºC.

Mix two tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of water and pour over

the dough. Place in the centre of oven 25 minutes or until browned.

Remove from oven and when cold, remove the cake from the cake tray.

In this part of the Basque Country the cake is then cut horizontally and

clotted cream placed between the two halves. Optionally, crystalized

fruit is placed on top of the dough before placing in the oven.

We slaughtered the pigs at the start of the month and made black

puddings the same day and chorizo sausages three days later.

This tree sparrow (Paser montanus) visited our garage.

One morning this moth settled on the dairy doorstep. We would be

grateful if anyone could confirm that it is a mottled umber moth (Erannis

defoliaria).