When we built the dairy, over eight years ago, we installed solar

panels to heat water. This January we finished installing more solar

panels, in this case to provide electricity for the dairy and farm.

On January 3rd Jean and Erlantz visited the farm and dairy.

Jean works for the Foreign Trade Commission of Spain (ICEX)

and is promoting exports of good quality foodstuffs to New

York. We explained how neither the size of our farm nor our

aim to sell our produce as locally as possible would facilitate

such exports.

On January 24^th 23 first year Secondary School students

from Balmaseda visited the farm and dairy.

In January we slaughtered the pigs and mad three sorts of

sausages: chorizo, black pudding and salami (salchichón).

We left the pigs’ entrails out in the field for carrion birds that appeared

in no time, mainly Griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) and red kites (Milvus

milvus).

Recipe of the month: Vegetable, onion and cheese rice

300g rice (of the sort preferred by each particular cook)

100g vegetables: depending on the time of year, carrots, green

beans, Swiss chard, celery….

1 large onion

200g grated mature cheese (the stronger the cheese the better)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt, pepper and basil to taste

Steam the vegetables until very nearly but not completely cooked.

Do not throw away the water. Finely chop the vegetables.

Finely chop and sauté the onion in a little olive oil in a largish frying

pan and then add the rice and the salt, pepper and basil. Leave over

a low heat for 30 seconds stirring now and again and then add the

water from the steaming. Cover the frying pan until thoroughly heated

and then let the rice cook gently. After five minutes add the vegeta-

bles to the rice to finish cooking. (The cooking time needed for the rice

depends on the type of rice used).

Grate the cheese and when the rice is cooked add the cheese and stir

until completely melted and mixed in.

Serve hot.

Flower of the month: (Erica cinerea) Bell heather

(or heather bell).

This species of heather is native to the west of Europe

and occurs mainly on moors or heathlands with relatively

dry, acidic, nutrient poor soils. Although it may therefore

seem strange to find it on the farm given that the under-

lying bedrock is mainly limestone, there are pockets of

clay and more acidic rocks in which it can be found. What

really is strange is finding a flower at this time of year.

Bell heather has no forage value for milking cows but is

a very important source of food for honey bees.

We recently took some she-calves up to the barn we

call La Casilla, where they will stay enjoying the fields

around the barn until their first calving after becoming

heifers.

We only collected 22 litres of rain in the gauge between the first and

16th of January. The weather was dry, sunny and cloudy with some

quite cold mornings. In fact the temperature went down to -2ºC one

dawn and we had many frosty mornings. From the 16th onwards the

weather changed and we had many rainy, cold days and collected a

further 422 litres (in other words, a lot) in the rain gauge. Snow

appeared again on the hills.

The changes in the weather often have quite striking results. On

the one hand the cooler, wetter weather has allowed the grass to

grow considerably.

On the other hand, the rain filtering into the ground and gradually

wearing away both soil and limestone sometimes produces new

swallow holes,

Additionally, the 422 litres of rain that fell in only two

weeks led to many landslips, one in a neighbouring field

that deposited mud, earth and vegetation in one of

our fields.

The security light on the dairy usually attracts moths

and we saw these two in the first, drier days of January,

the first is a male Mottled Umber (Erannis defoliaria)

(the females have no wings) and we have been unable

to positively identify the second.

As we decided to leave the allotment fallow for some

time, the only vegetables left are some spinach plants

in one corner, the Brussels sprouts which we will finish

harvesting soon and the peas which are growing nicely

despite the attentions of a mole. We took advantage of

the drier weather at the beginning of January to spread

manure, something we hadn’t done for several years.

We went to the weekly farmers' market in Bilbao every

Saturday in January.

On January 19th, different social movements jointly

organised an event in favour of policy change in school

canteens to guarantee healthier, locally produced food,

with school canteen meals being directly linked whenever

possible to themes taught in the classroom. Finger food

was provided using local produce, including Vista Alegre

cheese and the event ended with a declaration that can

be viewed on the website of

https://www.gureplateragureaukera.eus