As we mentioned last month, we have been preparing to change our

milk packaging from plastic bags to bottles, both plastic and glass,

the aim being to gradually remove as much plastic as we can from our

packaging. We actually started marketing milk in the new packaging in

November and with encouraging result: about 55-60% of the customers

that buy our pasteurised milk have opted for glass bottles rather than

plastic and we do hope this percentage will increase as awareness grows

concerning the problems generated by plastic dominated packaging.

Two of the reasons for which about 35% of our customers continue to

prefer plastic are the bother of washing glass bottles for recycling

and/or how to organize returning bottles and recovering the 10c deposit

we offer for each bottle we recover for reuse. We hope these difficulties

will be overcome shortly.

This species belongs to the mint family Lamiaceae. There are three sub-

species, one from Eastern Europe, one from the Eastern Mediterranean

and the third from western Europe, this being the one found on the farm

but only in one marginal area. In fact its status is listed as threatened

on the IUCN conservation status list. The genus name is derived from the

Greek melitta, which is in turn from melissa ("a bee") and it is mainly poll-

inated by bees (and to a certain extent moths) attracted by its strong

aroma. Although unusual in the area and of no forage value it is an im-

portant element of biodiversity for pollination and has been and is still

used in traditional medicine. It usually flowers from May to September

but the unusual weather conditions means one or two are still flowering

at this time of year.

The weather was very varied in November with dry, warm weather

some days due to a prevailing south wind and other days in which

the north wind brought colder temperatures with rain and even hail.

We collected 95l in our pluviometer. This rain meant the grass recovered

in the fields, although too late to be harvested for the animals.

What did the cows eat?

Once again, the cows could only graze a little  so we gave them dry

forage and a little feedstuff.

During November we have continued to top fields, muck spread, cut back

hedges and mend fences. We prepared quite a few new fence posts ready

for this last job.

We didn’t only spread slurry this month, but also manure, which is far

better for fertilizing the land than slurry given that it contains more

solid material such as straw and less water and is therefore leached

more slowly from the soil and has more chance to be properly absorbed.

Recipe of the month: Walnut “bread”

30g butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

350g self raising flour

200g sugar

250ml milk

1 egg

100g sultanas

100g walnuts (in pieces)

Mix together egg, butter and sugar. Slowly work in milk, oil and flour.

Lastly mix in nuts and sultanas. Introduce in a greased baking tin and

place in the middle of the oven for 45-60 minutes at 180ºC.

In October we went to the farmers market in Bilbao every week and

to the yearly farm fair held in Sondika (18-11-2018).

On November 29^th and 30^th two groups of students from the teacher

training college in Deusto, on a course entitled Social Education,

visited the farm and dairy, the first group in Basque, the second in

Castillian (Spanish).

We finally have quite a few new heifer calves, although some bull

calves are still being born aswell.

The local rural development agency “Enkarterrialde” organized a one

day meeting on November 22^nd in Karrantza on innovation in dairy

farming in the Encartaciones area and invited us to explain how we

have innovated on our farm: introduction of environmentally friendly

farming methods, change from milk sales to big dairies to on farm

cheese and yoghurt making, resource (energy and water for example)

saving innovations and lastly, innovation to recover direct contacts

and exchange of information between farmers and consumers, such

as the trilingual website and visits.