On the 9^th, the local tourist office organized a visit for a group of

25 people, including 8 very well behaved youngsters.

On the 21^st 44 eight year olds visited the farm and dairy. The school

children were from the Avellaneda Primary School in Sodupe and were

also a delightful group.

On the 7th we presented the Vista Alegre project to third

year students in the local Secondary School in Karrantza.

This was part of a class project on livestock farming, the

students having visited an intensive dairy farm the previous

week.

Mistletoe is a hemiparasite because although  it is attached to

its host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium,

through which it extracts water and nutrients from the host

plant, it also performs a little photosynthesis for at least a short

period of their life cycle. Birds such as the mistle thrush (Turdus

viscivorus) help disseminate the seeds of the plant which are

slightly sticky and thus easily adhere to other trees or other parts

of the same tree from which they are taken. Mistletoe is poisonous,

but not usually fatal, with toxins concentrating in the berries and

leaves of the plant. As with many other poisonous plants, mistletoe

has been used historically in medicine for its supposed value in

treating arthritis, high blood pressure, epilepsy and infertility. It is

currently used as a complementary medicine for treating cancer

and as a veterinary herbal medicine.

Mistletoe has been an important element in many different cultures.

Pre-Christian cultures regarded the white berries as symbols of male

fertility, with the seeds resembling semen. In particular, the Celts

believed the berries to be the semen of Taranis whilst the Greeks

referred to mistletoe as “oak sperm”.

Druid, Norse and Roman mythology all refer to mistletoe in

different rituals, stories and customs. One that has been

maintained until the present day is the custom of kissing

under mistletoe.  The tradition was that a man was allowed

to kiss any woman standing underneath mistletoe and that

bad luck would befall any woman who refused the kiss. One

variation on the tradition stated that with each kiss a berry

was to be plucked from the mistletoe, and the kissing must

stop after all the berries had been removed.

Although February started with wet, cloudy conditions and even

hail (and snow on the hills), most of the rest of month was charac-

terized by sunny weather, with cold mornings and temperatures

reaching 15-18ºC at midday. We collected 82 litres in the rain gauge.

The drier sunnier weather meant the ground dried out enough to allow

us to mow and gather fresh grass for the cows. We also gave them

dried alfalfa and some feedstuff.  The dry cows and heifers grazed

outside.

None of our cows calved in February.

Recipe of the month: Milk and cinnamon sweet

10 eggs

300g plain flour

240g sugar

1 litre full cream milk

1 tablespoon essence of vanilla

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Heat the milk in a large saucepan over a medium flame until nearly

at boiling point. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.

Leave for 10 minutes.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl with the sugar until stiff or the mixture

has doubled in volume. Fold in the flour taking care to avoid lumps. If

necessary use a liquidizer. The texture should resemble that of a

béchamel.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC.

Place the saucepan of milk back on the heat and slowly add the flour,

egg and sugar mixture, stirring continually to avoid lumps forming and

making sure the mixture never reaches boiling point. Once the mixture

begins to thicken, remove from heat, but continue to stir for another

minute.  The mixture must thicken and will later solidify in the oven.

It is best to sieve the mixture if it contains lumps.

Pour the mixture into a 28cm diameter oven proof dish (previously

greased and floured if necessary) and cover with foil paper. Place in

the middle of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, removing the tinfoil after

half an hour.

Cool and then place in the fridge. Leave for several hours before turning

out of the dish. Before serving spread honey or jam (whinberry, black

current, strawberry or raspberry, for example) on top of the sweet which

is best served very cold.

We had to very carefully remove this moth from the dairy.

We haven’t been able to positively identify the species but

would be grateful if anyone could help us.

We once again donated milk to the local Food Bank.

We have prepared half the allotment ready for onions and potatoes

and a small propagator for leeks.

The local parish council has repeatedly detected nitrate-related

pollution of sources of drinking water in the valley. The most obvious

source of nitrate pollution would be from the livestock farms in the

valley, although domestic sources cannot be ruled out. The parish

council is carrying out systematic tests to try and identify where

the nitrates are entering the hydrological system and amongst other

things, are introducing an environmentally friendly dye (floresceina)

in water sources on farms over the limestone area of Karrantza to

see if the dye reaches the sources of drinking water. The intricacies

of limestone geology and geomorphology make this quite an iffy

experiment but it is definitely better than not doing anything about

the problem.  On the 27^th the parish council carried out the test on

our farm and we will update next month on results.

During February we have also topped some fields and spread slurry .