Bush beans

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The bean which does not climb is the bush bean. This bean is usually eaten dry.

Regarding to the pole beans which climbs along stakes, the bush beans usually stays with their pods stiffer and fibrous earlier.

Our harvest is done when the pods are already filled, while they are not very dry, we thrash them up and freeze them for consumption either in normal meals or in soups. If the beans are dry, it will be harder to cook and therefore we must boil them.

Sowing pumpkins

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Pumpkin is a fruit very important, especially for its nutrition values and by its diversity inclusion in meals. The pumpkin seeds are considered protein supplements.

Most soils can be used for growing pumpkins, if properly prepared. The way the soil is dug, its fertilization, the sowing, the weeding, the watering and the area of ​the ​land required for the pumpkins to develop and expand themselves are important to have the expected good results.

Broad beans: end of the harvest

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The beans came close to a month to be taken and 90% went to the freezer to be consumed throughout the year. The beans are a vegetable that does not require great care in their development. In the end there are only the branches that will be buried to enrich the soil.

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Spinach for soup

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Like popeye the sailor man, we all eat spinach at home. Spinach is a weed originated in South Asia and we usually use it for soups. It is important you clean it well before cooking and the cooking water should be discarded. This vegetable has a high number of nutrients that makes us stronger.

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It is planted in a shaded area with easy access to water. Throughout the year there is a good production of spinach with the exception of the colder months like December and January.

Own seeds of portuguese kale

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This year we will enjoy the old spindly kale to sow seeds of their own. After all, we have the seeds ... and is simple to remove the small pods after completely dry. If we succeed, we will of course do our own crops.

Has always been our option to purchase these vegetables to plant in the garden here, to private producers in the area.

They can have larger stalks, be more open or closed, with leaf more or less dark ... I believe that much of the population does not exempt the Portuguese kale, above all, cooked with cod.
To protect the kale seeds from the wind we involve the pods with a kind of net so they don't be destroyed.

First meal of broad beans

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Yesterday I had my first meal of broad beans (fava beans) of the first broad beans harvest. Nothing like a meal of fresh broad beans from which we can feel them full of taste. Of course we usually freeze them to have full year of eating, but like any kind of food if it's fresh it tastes much better. It's a vegetable we really like because it gives us a good feeling of being well fed. The sowing was not different from the potatoes, they were sown just before the potatoes, in the last half of November, and in the same way. Even the fava bean seem to be more stronger against diseases than the potatoes and more stronger against the frost. The only problem now is they are too tall and the wind is taking them down. The lucky thing is that they already have pass the "flower" stage and they all already have at least little fava beans. It doesn't seem we would take much advantage from putting stakes into the ground at this time, now that were waiting for more two weeks to take the full harvest. 

Want to read about seeding potatoes?

So read and enjoy the following article

Preparing potatoes for seed

Organic fertilizer

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The soil organic matter results mainly from vegetable waste, although the animal remains contribute significantly in its composition. Thus cattle, microorganisms from the terrain, insects and man himself, directly or indirectly, participate in the decomposition of plant residues and their distribution through the layers of soil. For this and other reasons, we find plots with different levels of organic matter. These levels reach the maximum in peaty soils and down to the minimum value in desert soils. Manure is what is most precious on a farm.

Our garden is very well fed with organic fertilizer, most of it is manure. It is bought always in the same place because we trust on that person. It is important that the manure is of good quality to avoid diseases and have a good harvest. It comes always with many earthworms which is very good for your soil, a soil with earthworms means it has life and it breaths. Only one thing the seller told us, is that there are some plant roots inside the manure which are bad for the soil. That is because that kind of plant roots are not digested by the animals. To solve that problem, while we distribute the manure on the garden we are checking for the roots and we take them off and leave it in the garbage because it's not useful even for waste compound.