Three cows calved in September. This calf was born on the 7^th.

We went to the farmers’ market in Bilbao every Saturday. We also went

to the organic fairs in Mungia, Algorta and Astrabudua.

There are around 20 species of gorse, all native to parts of western

Europe and northwest Africa. It has no grazing value on our farm, but

is high in protein and is grazed by horses on the hills and was tradition-

ally used in some areas as fodder, being made palatable either by

bruising or crushing, or finely chopped and mixed with straw. Gorse is

an important part of agroecosystems… many birds nest in gorse, for

example the common stonechat (Saxicola torquata) whilst various

moth caterpillars feed on different parts of the plant: flowers, woody

stems or prickles. Gorse flowers are edible and can be used in salads

or teas. The plant is nitrogen fixing and therefore often used in land

reclamation projects.

Granny stayed with us in September and as usual helped out

with many jobs, such as making a new cheesecloth for the

dairy and shelling kidney beans.

Recipe of the month: Stuffed marrow

1 medium or large sized marrow (but not old!)

1 medium sized onion

1 medium sized tomato

500g minced meat

Salt, pepper and basil to taste

200g grated cheese

500ml chicken or beef stock

Peel marrow, cut horizontally into two equal halves and place in an

oven proof casserole dish with a lid. Remove pulp containing seeds.

Fry onion, minced meat and tomato with salt, pepper and basil to

taste, until meat thoroughly cooked.  Fill marrow halves with mix-

ture and sprinkle grated cheese on top. Pour stock around the

marrow but not on top, put lid on casserole and place in oven at

180ºC for around 45 minutes. Check to see if the marrow is done

using a fork. If the marrows are small, adjust cooking time.

What was the weather like? Once again the weather was

very unsettled, with hot sunny days interspersed with cloudy and

rainy days. The temperature rose to around 30ºC several days

although usually hovered around 19-22ºC. The minimum temperature

was below 10ºC and there were heavy dewfalls. We collected 147

litres of rain in the gauge. This weather meant we could let the

cows, heifers and calves graze every day. There were some lovely

sunrises on the clearer mornings.

What did the cows eat? The cows were able to graze outside

every day and we also gave them some dry alfalfa, vetch and pea

based fodder, grass silage and a little feedstuff.

We continued to move the dry cows from field to field to make best

use of the available grazing, taking the gear for an electric fence

with us.  We topped each field once the animals had grazed them.

This dragon fly managed to get trapped in the garage and had to be

rescued.

On the website for august we included the photo of a Jersey tiger moth

(Euplagia quadripunctaria). In September we spotted a different sort of

tiger moth… the Garden tiger moth (Arctia caja).