Vista Alegre Baserria Month by month in the farm
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January 2018 PDF Print E-mail

What did we do in January?



One of the most notable events in January was the loss of access to

about 9 hectares of the farmland we have been running to date. This

has meant reorganizing management of the dairy herd and our remaining

pastureland for harvesting hay and silage, plus checking to see if, with-

out this land, we still comply by the EU rules for organic livestock farming,

(particularly, in this case, the rule that at least 75% of the dairy herd’s

forage be provided by land we manage and that cattle density on each

hectare is no greater than two cows per hectare). Loss of access to

land on farms is devastatingly widespread throughout the world, whether

due to forced eviction, changes in the land planning status of farmland

for urban use, an end to leasing rights or a long list of other reasons. In

our case the problem has arisen because of the way in which parish coun-

cil land is managed in the Valley of Karrantza and, despite the content

of the Parish Land Reglament, no parish council has actually managed to

guarantee working farmer access to such land. The result is a growing

insecurity amongst farmers regards their access to farmland, which is

particularly worrying for those farmers trying to move towards more

environmentally land-based production models, as is the case of our

farm.

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A family spending New Year´s Eve and New Year’s Day in the nearby

Fuenternilla farm tourism cottage visited the farm and dairy on New

Year’s Day.

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On the 12th, Buenaventura Guamis,  Professor of Food Technology from

the Autonomous University of Barcelona visited with a group of friends.

The visit was extremely interesting as we were able to ask many ques-

tions and received a lot of information for which we are very grateful.

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Two girls from Catalonia and a third from Alava visited us on the 27th.
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Flower of the month.  Mouse-ear Chickweed (Cerastium

fontanum).

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There are about 200 different known species of Cerastium, found mainly

in the northern hemisphere. Mouse-ear Chickweed is also known as

Common Mouse-ear or Starweed. It is one of the few flowers to be

spotted in the fields in the winter months. This species has no particu-

lar fodder value but is important for some butterflies and some people

eat lightly boiled or steamed Mouse-ear chickweed leaves as a vegeta-

ble dish.


Around mid-January we slaughtered the two pigs we have been fatten-

ing over the past ten/eleven months. This year we have made salami

and chorizo sausages, both, as usual, for home consumption. The salami

sausages are hung in the farmhouse attic to cure,

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whilst the chorizo sausages are hung to cure in a small room below the

farm house in which we light a slow burning wood holm oak fire.

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1 bull calf was born in January.


The Farmers’ Market in Bilbao was held every Saturday from the 13th of January.


Recipe of the month: Leek, cod and cheese supreme.


Serves four

 

6 medium sized leeks

500g mature cheese (strong)

1 kilo fresh cod fillets

500ml milk

50g butter

Plain flour (around 20g for a mdium thickness sauce)


Lightly boil the cod in 200ml of milk, remove any bones and flake.

Wash the leeks, halve lengthways, chop into 2cm lengths and steam

for 10 minutes until soft. Grate 500g cheese.

Make a cheese sauce by melting the butter in a pan, slowly adding

the flour, mixing continually and then adding the milk little by little

continuing to stir all the time (making use of the milk the fish was

boiled in). Add milk until the desired consistency is reached, more

or less liquid depending on taste, but bearing in mind that other

ingredients will be added and thus the initial sauce should not be

too thick. The sauce should be smooth. If lumps appear, do not

panic, liquidize the mixture. Stir in the grated cheese until thoroughly

melted and then stir in the leeks and cod avoiding breaking up the

flakes of fish. Serve hot. A possible side dish for this time of year

could be steamed brussel sprouts tossed in chopped and fried

garlic.


What was the weather like?

December’s rains continued during the first part of January and some

intermittent streams were very noticeably full.

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The snow was back on the hills and we had several frosts on drier

mornings. The rain and cold returned periodically throughout January,

mixed with spells of milder weather. Maximum temperatures thus

varied from only 6 to 16ºC whilst minimum temperatures ranged from

-3ºC to +9ºC. We collected a total of 260 litres in our rain gauge.

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What did the cows eat?

Once again the cows were rarely able to graze given the rain soaked

state of the fields, despite abundant grass being available. We thus

fed them grass silage and hay, dried alfalfa and peas and a small

amount of feedstuff.


With the hope of trapping whatever animal has been stealing some

of the hens, we left a cage-trap in which, after four or five days,

we found this common genet (Genetta genetta). This species is

native to the North of Africa and was brought to Mediterranean

Europe possibly 1000 to 1500 years ago. Its’ diet includes birds

eggs. However, despite the implications for our hens and their eggs,

we let the genet go.

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The quality of our milk

Parameter

Optimum result

Farm result

Fat content

>3,70

3,90

Protein

>3,10

3,18

Bacteriology

<100.000

9.000

Somatic cell count

c.150.000

130.000

Presence  / absence antibiotics

Absence

Absence


 
Schools


Special corner for schools: visit our special corner for schools for special information about our farm and the farm dairy. There are resource materials for teachers. In this corner you can find out how to arrange a class outing to our farm.



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