PRESERVING OLIVES

Olives destined for the table are picked while they are plump, firm, and just beginning to turn from green to yellow, as they are now. When the olives become soft and black, which will be in a month’s time, they will be harvested for oil.

Having selected the best of the olives, the next step is to make a slit in each one with a small, sharp knife. This is very important, as it draws out the bitterness. The olives are then covered with spring water, into which a handful of sea salt has been dissolved. After four days, the olives are drained and covered with a fresh solution of brine. This process has to be repeated at least four times, or until the bitterness has been removed. Some people preserve the olives in water, but I prefer to put them into jars, with plenty of peeled cloves of garlic, plus a bay leaf or two, and cover them with last year’s olive oil. After a few days, they are ready to eat. Prepared this way, olives keep well, retain their nutty flavour, and don’t become soggy.

WINTER VEGETABLES

WINTER VEGETABLES

There has been more torrential rain to the north and east of us, and this morning we were watching on Spanish TV film footage of the floods in Almeria, Murcia and Alicante. These areas are still on orange alert for more heavy rain. Up here in Los Guajares we have escaped the worst of the weather and the rains have been welcome. Showers, punctuated by long spells of warm sunshine, have provided ideal conditions for replanting our vegetable garden with winter produce.

We have sown broad beans, carrots and spinnach. Broad beans (habas) are a very popular crop in Andalucia during the winter. They are very sweet and because they don’t have the tough skins of beans grown in colder climates, they’re often eaten raw. When the first crop is ready, you often see piles of discarded pods on the floors of the local bars, where they’re offered as tapas. Habas need to be sown early because later crops suffer from blackfly infestation, a garden pest which is on the increase, and occurring earlier with each consecutive spring, due to climate change. We have also planted seedlings of winter lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage and onions. Our vegetables are grown without pesticides and we compost all our kitchen waste. We also collect goat manure from the nearest corral.

Our organic vegetable garden is a wildlife haven. The compost bin is literally alive with all kinds of insects, worms and grubs. Spotted flycatchers perch on the bean canes all day long, making frequent forays to snatch flying insects. Frogs and toads have also taken up residence by the compost bin, again because of the plentiful supply of insects. I’ve seen numerous male spiders of the Argiope lobata genus, which favour rank vegetation, but only one female example. Five times larger than the male, it is a most striking creature with a pale, yellowish abdomen, lobed around the edges and shaped like a limpet’s shell. Small rodents are also attracted to the vegetable garden and are hunted at night by owls. By day, eagles circle overhead, looking for the lizards and snakes which feed on the insects.

A STROLL TO FARAGÜIT

Today, on another beautiful September morning, we set off to walk along the old mountain track to Guájar Faragüit. You start this walk by taking turning left at the entrance to Guajar Alto. You can either follow the old mule track upwards, as we did earlier this week (see previous blog), or stick to the wider country lane. Either way, when you come to the first junction, turn left.

This wide track, passable in a 4x4 vehicle, hugs the contours of the mountains overlooking the valley of Los Guájares. We wandered through pine woods and olive and almond groves. When Guájar Faragüit comes into sight there are some spectacular views of the village, looking into the light through the pines and olives, with the Contraviesa mountains as a backdrop.

Although I am not a geologist, I found the rock formations and the lovely shades of the different minerals, in the form of very fine sand, along this walk fascinating. Next time, I shall take some containers so that I can collect samples.

The track ends abruptly in the middle of an olive grove, but from here we picked up a narrow path which winds in a steep descent down precipitous slopes to the Rio Toba below. We were glad we had good walking boots for negotiating this path. The going is muddy as you approach the valley, and the stones are slippery. Curtains of maidenhair fern tumble from the damp rocks, and there are frogs and darting dragonflies.

When we got to the river, the dogs had a welcome drink and a swim in the clear, turquoise green water. We then forded the river and found a path that took us up the opposite bank to the main road and through the valley outside Guájar Faragüit. We returned to Guájar Alto along the road, stopping for some refreshment at the communal picnic area along the way. The walk took us 4 hours.

RUTA DE LOS GUAJAREÑOS

This morning we walked the first part of the old mule track, Ruta de los Guájareños, that the people from the village took to reach civilisation before the current road, along the Rio Toba, linking Guájar Alto with the main Granada road, was built.

At the entrance to the village turn left up the rural road and then, about 100 metres on, just before a little goat farm, take the track to the left. This winds down into a barranco (ravine) and from here you need to climb up the path on the left of the barranco, through the pine forests. Nobody seems to use this path now but you can tell from worn cobbles that it was once a well-used camino (road). There are some lovely views of Guájar Alto as you look back. The meandering path eventually comes out on to a wide dusty camino. Here, the old villagers would have turned left and continued with their mules, carrying produce to sell in the market, to Motril via Guájar Fondón. However, as we were going for a short stroll, we turned right and eventually came to a crossroads where another right turn brings you back down to the village. This walk takes about 2 hours.

It was a beautiful September morning (the autumnal equinox) with clear light and intense blue sky, but as usual we encountered nobody except, towards the end of our excursion, a farmer harvesting grapes. With the generosity typical of the villagers here, he presented us with a bunch of juicy sweet fruit. This provided welcome refreshment as it was beginning to get very warm. Here are some photos taken along the way.

SEPTEMBER WALKS

Although it was a beautiful morning, a fresh breeze made it feel cooler than usual for the time of year, and so we decided to go on one of the long circular walks around our mountains. The walk was the same one I recorded on this blog on the 10th April, but if you look back in the archives at the photos I took that day you can see the change in the landscape. Dried grasses have replaced the colourful wild flowers of Spring but colour is provided by the fruits of the prickly pear cacti and pomegranate trees against the clear blue sky.

This walk takes about four hours if your starting point is the village centre. You take the camino out of the village along the Rio Toba and turn right just past the picnic and bathing area. When you reach the T junction at the top in the pine forests, turn right again and keep right, passing the ruins of Guájar La Vieja and hugging the north face of the Espejo, the escarpment that dominates Guájar Alto. After passing through the ruins of Cortijo de Girón, the camino descends to the main road, 2km before Guájar Alto. Here there is a picnic spot with a waterfall where we stopped so that our dogs could refresh themselves.

Mountain goats may be seen in the rocky slopes along this route, while eagles and kestrels patrol the sky. At the end of this month many migratory birds will be passing over our village, while already the swallows and bee eaters are lining up along the cables in preparation for their return to Africa.

SEPTEMBER RAINS

After months of drought we had some heavy showers yesterday evening. The rain was very welcome as the two reservoirs which collect water from the Rio Toba to supply us and the neighbouring fincas are at a very low level. The olives which are ripening on our trees need water at this time of year to plump them up, otherwise they will shrivel to nothing. Here is a photo of this year’s crop taken this morning. Next month we will select some of the best olives for preserving and in November we will start to harvest the rest for oil.

We heard that there had been some early snow on the Sierra Nevada so this morning, which was beautifully clear, we walked up the mountain track behind our house until we reached an altitude where the Sierra Nevada comes into view. We were hoping to get some photos of the snow-clad peaks, but unfortunately the snow had already melted. Nevertheless the view was beautiful, as you can see from the photo.

At least this year we have so far escaped the terrible storms we experienced in September in 2006 and 2007. A storm reminiscent of these inspired the climax of my children’s book The Wise Old Boar (see www.margaretmerry.wordpress.com). Jaen, the next province, north of Granada, has not been so lucky. After heavy rains, there were severe floods there last night which caused two fatalities. The film of this on the news this morning was horrifying.

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COUNTRY HOUSE FOR SALE

Our country house in Guajar Alto is for sale. We are not moving from the area but need to move on to our next project. We have created our own blog for this property which we think is the nicest cortijo in the valley of Los Guajares. Have a look at our blog where we have posted a full description and lots of photos. This photo is of our pool terrace. www.countryhouseinspain.wordpress.com

PRINCESS PROOF

I have just received the print proof copy of my third children's book, The Adventure Of Princess The Pony. I am very pleased with the quality of the production and it should be released for sale within a few weeks.

I posted a synopsis of the book and some of my illustrations on this blog in June. Here are a couple more. I will let you know when it is finally on sale.

FINCA FOR SALE

I have to write about this finca for sale in Guajar Alto because it has been reduced in price to 89,000 euros from the original asking price of 129,000 euros and it is the only one for sale locally with planning permission from the Junta de Andalucia already in place for a family house

The finca has over 6,500 sq. metres of land, is just 10 minutes walk from Guajar Alto and is south facing, sheltered with superb mountain views and good access. It is mainly planted with olive trees in production but there are also numerous varieties of other fruit trees including avocado, mango, soft fruits and citrus.

Water and electricity are already connected to the land.

The Junta de Andalucia have approved plans for a vivienda unafamiliar (family house) of 227 sq. metres. This took the owners 3 years to get and is extremely complicated to obtain as planning regulations are getting stricter. This is a unique opportunity for somebody to construct their own country house without going through the planning minefield. The owners are selling because of a change in family circumstances.

Please contact info@guajar.com if you are interested.

IN SEPTEMBER THE GRAPES ARE RIPENING

This weekend I thought I would be checking the proof copy of my third children’s book,The Adventure of Princess the Pony. When it did not arrive on Friday I contacted my publishers who traced it to a depot in Jaén, about 100 miles away, where it has been languishing for 10 days. The couriers claim they cannot deliver because there is no street on my address. I have told everybody that I live half-way up a mountain and there are no streets up here. I collect my mail from the little post office in the next village, Guájar Faragüit, but if a packet is sent via a courier, all they have to do is drop it off in Bar Carmen, in Guájar Alto.
Carmen signs for, and keeps safe, deliveries for many of us reclusive camposinos whom a courier van driver would never find.

Instead we have spent Sunday harvesting grapes so we can start making our annual vino de tierra. We have not enough grapes on our own land to fill a couple of barrels, so we normally supplement ours with grapes from neighbouring cortijos. This year we were asked to look after a small cortijo recently purchased by a Dutch lady who has returned to Holland for a few months. Her vines are rampant, obviously unattended for some time, and are climbing all over the rocky terrain below her house, collapsed with the weight of their own fruit. Her soil must be fertile because the crop was heavy and comprised mostly juicy sweet Muscatel grapes.

We follow the traditional process of making wine up here. First, we lay out the bunches of grapes in the sun for a few days in order to concentrate the sweetness and hence the alcohol content. Then we crush the grapes before putting them through a manual press. We simply pour the juice into oak barrels and leave it to ferment. After about 40 days the liquid in the barrel stops making a noise, indicating that it is ready to drink.