Half way through the month the weather became truly autumnal and

we had cold wet weather. Morning temperatures were as low as 4,4ºC

and we even had snow on the hills. We collected 191 in the rain gauge.

We had some very unusual sunsets

We gave the cows mainly dried forrage, grass silage and a little

feedstuff.

3 eggs

150 g sugar

500 g natural yoghurt

300 g soft creamy cheese

1 spoonful cornflour

Grated rind of one lemon

Preheat oven to 180ºC

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add and mix firstly the lemon rind, then the

yoghurt and, finally, the flour. Mix well. line an over proof dish with grease

proof paper and pour in the mixture. Cook for 40 / 45 minutes.

Flower of the month. Petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus)

This spurge is native to most of Europe where it tends to colonize

arable lands and gardens or other “disturbed” lands. Its green flowers

produce seeds that are distributed explosively and these seeds are

very persistent in soils. As with other spurges, petty spurge produces

a milky white sap that is toxic. Recent research suggests that this

toxicity could be of interest to control the spread of skin cancer.

Two cows calved in November, one giving us she calf and the other a

bull calf. As usual, we will keep the heifer calf for the milking herd but

we have already sold the bull calf.

This beautiful grey heron (Ardea cinerea) spent quite a time rootling

for worms and insects in one of our fields.

Apart from going to the weekly farmers’ market in Bilbao we also went

to a fair held in another part of Bilbao, where our mature cheeses were

very popular. Due to COVID the very popular “Santo Tomas” fair nor-

mally held in Bilbao on 21^st December was cancelled for several years.

This year, however, the fair will take place and it will be interesting to see

which farmers can go and where they will be located within the fair as our

experience has been that we have been located further and further from

the central fair location with notable effects on sales. Requests to take part

in the fair are collected in November and stands distributed in mid December.

Apart from the usual farm chores (milking, etc) we have been

topping fields, muck spreading and undertaking  maintenance

of farm buildings

The allotment is rather empty but we are still harvesting some

carrots and even some tomatoes. We have planted  leeks,

cauliflowers and cabbages taking advantage of the damper days.