The Seventh Congress of the Vía Campesina was held in the Basque

Country in July.

The Via Campesina is a worldwide farmer organization with hundreds of

member organizations that represent hundreds of millions of families

that live off the land or the sea and jointly campaign for food sove-

reignty. Our farm belongs to EHNE, the Basque Farmers’ Union, which

is a member of the Vía Campesina. On July 24^th, following a meeting

with the Karrantza Parish Council, thirty Via Campesina delegates

visited the farm and dairy as part of a series of visits organized to

farms adopting food sovereignty criteria.

(Our apologies for the poor quality of the following photo)

Siena, a US free-lance journalist specializing in dairy farming and

covering the Via Campesina meeting visited us and stayed on the farm.

Several families also visited the farm and dairy during July. On the

22^nd a Brazilian family living in Castro,

and a family From Valencia on the 30^th.

(If they send us a photo we will include it here)

The Bilbao Farmers’ market was held every Saturday in July and

after a successful meeting with the Bilbao Town Council a more

formalstructure and calendar will be established for the market.

We also went to the organic farm produce fair held in Elorrio on

the 2^nd of July.

We usually save leek seeds and thus leave the flower heads to form

and dry in the allotment. When dry, but before the seeds drop, we

collect the flower heads on their stalks and store them hanging up-

side down over a large paper bag into which the seeds eventually

fall. It is then a question of separating chaff from seeds which are

ready for sowing.

In the case of spinach, we also let the plant go to seed and dry in

the allotment and then sow the seeds straight from the plant on to

the patch of allotment set aside for them. Once they have germinated

they are thinned and we give away plants if a neighbour or friend

wants some!

The seeds of different vegetables can usually be kept for several years

but the rate of germination obviously falls. Preventing illegalization of the 

historic right of farmers to save and exchange seeds is one of the main

Via Campesina campaigns.

The weather continued to be very changeable in July with maximum

temperatures varying from 20ºC to 35ºC and minimum temperatures

from 10 to 19ºC. We had relatively little rain (39 litres) but, as we

mentioned below, we were fortunate in that it generally fell after

mowing and gathering in grass (as silage or hay).

Extreme weather conditions, which we are suffering more and more

due to climate change, affect animal behaviour and welfare. The

photo shows how our pigs look for shade on hot days and stop

rootling for food in the fields,

whilst hens tend to lay fewer eggs in very hot or very cold conditions.

Apart from the usual farm chores such as milking and feeding the cows,

we have made more silage and topped the fields.

We were also lucky enough to be able to make some hay during the

 last week of July.

This year, despite adverse weather conditions, we have managed

three cuts and even four in some fields. This has been possible for

two reasons: firstly, we have been “lucky” as in general it rained after

mowing and gathering grass, just at the right time for the grass to

start growing again. Secondly, we have mown the grass when it was

quite short, as in high temperatures the grass tends to develop seed

heads sooner and thus loses nutritional quality for the cows.

Thus, weather permitting, grass is cut sooner to optimize nutritional

quality, but to the detriment of the amount harvested in terms of

biomass.

We managed to locate a secondhand milk refrigeration tank in good

working order to complete our cold water closed circuit system in

the dairy (see monthly update for June).

This plant has quite a few different names including ground apple which

arose due to the fact that when crushed the plant gives off an apple

like scent. Its medicinal use is documented since ancient Egyptian

times and the plant is still used today, particularly as a calming,

soothing tea, helping with stress and insomnia but also for many

other medicinal problems. Before the invention of refrigeration meat

was sometimes immersed in a chamomile infusion to prevent spoilage.

The cows were fed the same as in June, adding a little alfalfa towards

the end of the month.

When moving the compost in the allotment we spotted a couple of

slowworms (Anguis fragilis), one of which is in the photo below.

Although compost heaps are normally often frequented by reptiles

due to the warm, damp habitat they provide we have only spotted

them there twice in over twenty years: European green lizards

(Lacerta viridis) one year and the slow worms this year. Surprisingly

we have never seen snakes there.

We often see birds catching insects this time of year, in this case a

female blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) with a cricket.

This is a very good example of why all elements of farm ecosystems are

important… in this case the blackcap helps control the insect population.