Three ladies from Trapaga, near Bilbao visited on December 1^st.

On December 11^th a twenty strong group from Bilbao visited the

farm and dairy, organized by the Bilbao branch of Caritas. On

December 12^th 40 10-13 year olds visited us from five different

EU Member States: Poland, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria and Spain,

as part of an exchange programme coordinated by the local San

Viator school in Sopuerta. This visit was entirely in English.

Flower of the month:  Annual mercury (Mercurialis annua)

Annual mercury is native to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East

but occurs in other continents, having been introduced over the cen-

turies. It’s name is derived from the Roman God Mercury who is reported

to have discovered the plant’s medicinal uses.  For example, it is rich in

potassium and was used as a purgative in herbal medicine. However,

the plant is poisonous if eaten by livestock, the seeds being the most

poisonous part of the plant. On the other hand, the seeds constitute an

important part of the diet of bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula). As with

many plants, the presence of annual mercury may or may not be advan-

tageous according to who or what you are.

In December we went to the farmers market in Bilbao every week

except the 22^nd given the annual, important Santo Tomas fair took

place on the 21^st. Unfortunately this year we were given a stall in

a really bad site, along with about ten other farmers, given that the

space we usually occupy was being used for another event. So, the

fair was not the major selling event one would have hoped and cer-

tainly did not warrant all the effort involved in going to such a fair.

December was unusually dry and warm with predominantly southerly

winds for days on end and we only collected 31 liters of rain in the

pluviometer. However, there was abundant dew fall in the mornings

which helped keep the ground damp. The weather became colder in

mornings towards the end of the month and the last five mornings of

December were frosty.

Once again, the cows ate forage (alfalfa, etc) and  a little concen-

trate but grazed very little. The grass is, however, graowing nicely

ready for next year!

Once again we have had no success in calving from the point of view

of securing new heifer calves to eventually replace older milking cows.

This month a couple of bull calves were born and will be sold off as

soon as possible.

A Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) landed in one of our fields, very probably

to sun and dry its wings.

Our pasteurised milk sales continue to be very satisfactory despite the

change in packaging from plastic bags to glass or plastic bottles, with

sales in glass bottles still exceeding those in plastic bottles and cus-

tomers have returned about 66% of the glass bottles for re-use.

Recipe of the month: cottage cheese

If you find you have a liter of milk left over, then try making cottage

cheese:

Ingredients:
1 Liter milk
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt

Rinse a large saucepan with cold water and then drain. Bring the milk

to the boil in the saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add the lemon juice

and salt. Stir well. Set aside.

After about 5 minutes, the milk will begin to separate into curds and

whey (a watery liquid), although it may take longer than 5 minutes.

Once the curds have completely separated from the whey, strain

through a sieve. (There are many uses for the whey which we can

suggest in future recipes). Rinse the curds under a cold tap to cool

them and then push down to squeeze out as much water as possible.

The cottage cheese is now ready to eat.

Despite protecting the peas sown in December with boards and netting,

a mole has travelled along one line of the seeds, meaning many have

been brought up to the surface. We will just have to wait and see how

many germinate (Grrr!).