Sunday, October 25, 2015
Jeannie glimpsed through the kitchen window. (Photo Devinder Oberoi)
Two old men in Linares de la Sierra (Photo Devinder Oberoi)
Photography group with Tim Clinch
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Misty mountains and muted light......and our photography week has begun!
It has been raining all night.
Well, the mushrooms are happy, the chestnuts are swelling, the quinces are putting on weight, the winter cabbages are drinking. The tomatoes are bursting.
The acorns are falling, and the pigs are gobbling. The sheep have been locked into a grassy enclosure so as not to eat the falling chestnuts before we can begin harvesting in early November.
Tim Clinch arrived, fresh from Burgundy, where he has been photographing great wine houses for Le Pan Magazine
This week he is coming down a notch and staying at our B&B, where he is running his five night photography course. Food and Travel; portraits, still life, village and landscapes. Platescapes.
Of course we shall be eating and drinking, and we shall also visit 5 Jotas
Here we will see how their exquisite Ibérico hams are produced. The piglets are followed through life; by careful selection, breeding, and diet. They lead a life spent out in the perfect dehesa landscape of wildflowers, grasses, roots, herbs, autumn mushrooms and acorns.
This is how the dehesa looks in springtime!
Well, the mushrooms are happy, the chestnuts are swelling, the quinces are putting on weight, the winter cabbages are drinking. The tomatoes are bursting.
The acorns are falling, and the pigs are gobbling. The sheep have been locked into a grassy enclosure so as not to eat the falling chestnuts before we can begin harvesting in early November.
Tim Clinch arrived, fresh from Burgundy, where he has been photographing great wine houses for Le Pan Magazine
This week he is coming down a notch and staying at our B&B, where he is running his five night photography course. Food and Travel; portraits, still life, village and landscapes. Platescapes.
Of course we shall be eating and drinking, and we shall also visit 5 Jotas
Here we will see how their exquisite Ibérico hams are produced. The piglets are followed through life; by careful selection, breeding, and diet. They lead a life spent out in the perfect dehesa landscape of wildflowers, grasses, roots, herbs, autumn mushrooms and acorns.
This is how the dehesa looks in springtime!
Misty mountains and muted light......and our photography week has begun!
It has been raining all night.
Well, the mushrooms are happy, the chestnuts are swelling, the quinces are putting on weight, the winter cabbages are drinking. The tomatoes are bursting.
The acorns are falling, and the pigs are gobbling. The sheep have been locked into a grassy enclosure so as not to eat the falling chestnuts before we can begin harvesting in early November.
Tim Clinch arrived, fresh from Burgundy, where he has been photographing great wine houses for @LEPANMedia
This week he is coming down a notch and staying at our B&B, where he is running his five night photography course. Food and Travel; portraits, still life, village and landscapes. Platescapes.
Of course we shall be eating and drinking, and we shall also visit 5 Jotas
Here we will see how their exquisite Ibérico hams are produced. The piglets are followed through life; by careful selection, breeding, and diet. They lead a life spent out in the perfect dehesa landscape of wildflowers, grasses, roots, herbs, autumn mushrooms and acorns.
This is how the dehesa looks in springtime!
Well, the mushrooms are happy, the chestnuts are swelling, the quinces are putting on weight, the winter cabbages are drinking. The tomatoes are bursting.
The acorns are falling, and the pigs are gobbling. The sheep have been locked into a grassy enclosure so as not to eat the falling chestnuts before we can begin harvesting in early November.
Tim Clinch arrived, fresh from Burgundy, where he has been photographing great wine houses for @LEPANMedia
This week he is coming down a notch and staying at our B&B, where he is running his five night photography course. Food and Travel; portraits, still life, village and landscapes. Platescapes.
Of course we shall be eating and drinking, and we shall also visit 5 Jotas
Here we will see how their exquisite Ibérico hams are produced. The piglets are followed through life; by careful selection, breeding, and diet. They lead a life spent out in the perfect dehesa landscape of wildflowers, grasses, roots, herbs, autumn mushrooms and acorns.
This is how the dehesa looks in springtime!
Friday, September 25, 2015
Monday, September 21, 2015
Matanza 2016
For those who are interested we aim to hold our matanza over the weekend of 15th January 2016. For an idea of what it involves, have a look at Tim Clinch's gallery from last January's matanza.....skip over the first few bloody images for his great black and white portraits of those who came to help out last year.
Please let me know if you are a chef or charcutier and are interested in joining us over the weekend as we prepare Chorizo, Morcilla, Caña de Lomo, Salchichón, Jamónes and Paletas de Cerdo Ibérico. You can email me directly at buenvino@facilnet.es to book a place in the house or in one of the cottages. It's a jolly, social and hard-working occasion.
Costs per person for three nights (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) are €450. this includes all food and drink (Welcome dinner, breakfasts, 2 different matanza lunches Saturday and Sunday, and Sunday night's supper).
Please let me know if you are a chef or charcutier and are interested in joining us over the weekend as we prepare Chorizo, Morcilla, Caña de Lomo, Salchichón, Jamónes and Paletas de Cerdo Ibérico. You can email me directly at buenvino@facilnet.es to book a place in the house or in one of the cottages. It's a jolly, social and hard-working occasion.
Costs per person for three nights (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) are €450. this includes all food and drink (Welcome dinner, breakfasts, 2 different matanza lunches Saturday and Sunday, and Sunday night's supper).
Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness....
......well, give it a few weeks more until autumn weather is really here. We are now sliding into our Indian summer. Blue skies, the leaves turning, the smell of damp earth and rained-on dry summer grass. The wild mint (menta poleo) is easily spotted in the fields and woods, with its spikes of green - grey leaves and purple flowers glowing out of the yellow sun-dried grass. The tuber-roses are in bloom, and we have armfuls of them scenting the staircase and hall.
Last night, waking at 4 am to a completely silent world, I went out onto the terrace. The feeling of floating in silence was due to a complete lack of wind. Stars spattered the heavens from horizon to horizon, the milky way bleaching its way from West to East, and Orion and Taurus over my shoulder. Then I heard it, what had presumably woken me; the roaring of a stag from the valley, then further pained groans from surrounding hills, and yet further away faint calls muted by the trees and folding landscape. A single bell from the church tower of Fuenteheridos announced the half hour, and it was time to return to bed.
Last night, waking at 4 am to a completely silent world, I went out onto the terrace. The feeling of floating in silence was due to a complete lack of wind. Stars spattered the heavens from horizon to horizon, the milky way bleaching its way from West to East, and Orion and Taurus over my shoulder. Then I heard it, what had presumably woken me; the roaring of a stag from the valley, then further pained groans from surrounding hills, and yet further away faint calls muted by the trees and folding landscape. A single bell from the church tower of Fuenteheridos announced the half hour, and it was time to return to bed.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Another joyous week of creativity, walks, good food and meditation with Elaine Kingett. The early autumn weather has been perfect; cooler evenings and warm golden days. Jeannie and I retire to bed after dinner, and listen to the laughter wafting up from the courtyard.
On Tuesday we had the Romeria de la Peña de Alájar
This weekend we say goodbye to our writers, and lurch into the Los Marines Fiesta, with dancing and fireworks....then a fitness week with Sarah Maxwell, and photography with Tim Clinch.
This photograph was taken at our butchery and matanza day last January, when we were about to brand the hams before salting them. We are heating up the FBV (Finca Buenvino) brand so that we know our hams have not been 'got at' by ham rustlers!
Our next matanza (Pig Killing and butchery days) will be held on the weekend of the 15th January 2016. Anyone interested in learning how to make chorizo, salchichón, caña de lomo and jamón is welcome to attend. We have limited availability for those who are truly interested in nose-to-tail charcuterie preparation in Spain. Email me, Sam at buenvino@facilnet.es for details and prices.
On Tuesday we had the Romeria de la Peña de Alájar
This weekend we say goodbye to our writers, and lurch into the Los Marines Fiesta, with dancing and fireworks....then a fitness week with Sarah Maxwell, and photography with Tim Clinch.
This photograph was taken at our butchery and matanza day last January, when we were about to brand the hams before salting them. We are heating up the FBV (Finca Buenvino) brand so that we know our hams have not been 'got at' by ham rustlers!
Our next matanza (Pig Killing and butchery days) will be held on the weekend of the 15th January 2016. Anyone interested in learning how to make chorizo, salchichón, caña de lomo and jamón is welcome to attend. We have limited availability for those who are truly interested in nose-to-tail charcuterie preparation in Spain. Email me, Sam at buenvino@facilnet.es for details and prices.
Monday, March 02, 2015
Rabbit, Rabbits, Rabbits!
We were always taught to say "rabbits" three times when waking on the first of every month. Supposedly this will bring luck for the next thirty days or so.
Today is the second of March, and oh woe is me, I forgot to sing out yesterday, and today doesn't count.
The trouble is that February is such a short month, that it's easy to wake up and find yourself in March without having counted the days through one of the most dismal months of the year, which you are longing to be over and done with.
Now, although it is by no means hot, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the grass is coming up, the flowers are adding colour under the trees. There is a feeling of optimism, and we have the house full of guests for the week, which makes us realise we are over the winter hump.
Perhaps our failure to mention the rabbits will not bring disaster after all?
Friday, January 23, 2015
The joys of living in a natural park.
It's said that living in a natural park has it's advantages. Advantages, I suppose, because it attracts grants for the local government to promote tourism and activities and in theory it creates employment. Most of this appears to be within the bureaucracy itself; park police, inspectors, pen pushers.
The disadvantages are more obvious to us; the slow paper movement, the rules and the bureaucracy for those who live within its boundaries. For example we could have started to prune and pollard our chestnut trees at the beginning of the month, but first we had to prepare a petition to do so, fill in the forms, and wait for one of the inspectors to roll up at an inconvenient hour. That took about one week. We have the nod, but now we have to wait for the paper permits to arrive. It's usually about three weeks to a month in all. Of course you will say that we should have filled in the application earlier, but all the business of paperwork puts people off and it's not always possible to be thinking of the business of the day, or the month when it is not the season; or else when the person who is going to do the work is not available.
Looking over the landscape it is possible to see areas that are worse administrated than they were before the creation of the park. Bureaucracy discourages smallholders from investing energy and money into the land, when it seems they are consistently banging their heads against a brick wall, being told that no, they cannot plant an olive tree, nor repair a shed.
Gardening is also a problem. Once we had put up a pergola, and the young 'townie' who turned up to ook our place over, informed us that we would not be allowed to plant anything to grow over it which was not native. We had been thinking of wisteria, or vitis cognitae for shade and colour. Whe I asked what he would advise, he suggested brambles. On the other hand, the ministry of agriculture is giving out grants to remove brambles and to clear scrub....well this is only hearsay as we have never received them.
Grumble grumble.
The disadvantages are more obvious to us; the slow paper movement, the rules and the bureaucracy for those who live within its boundaries. For example we could have started to prune and pollard our chestnut trees at the beginning of the month, but first we had to prepare a petition to do so, fill in the forms, and wait for one of the inspectors to roll up at an inconvenient hour. That took about one week. We have the nod, but now we have to wait for the paper permits to arrive. It's usually about three weeks to a month in all. Of course you will say that we should have filled in the application earlier, but all the business of paperwork puts people off and it's not always possible to be thinking of the business of the day, or the month when it is not the season; or else when the person who is going to do the work is not available.
Looking over the landscape it is possible to see areas that are worse administrated than they were before the creation of the park. Bureaucracy discourages smallholders from investing energy and money into the land, when it seems they are consistently banging their heads against a brick wall, being told that no, they cannot plant an olive tree, nor repair a shed.
Gardening is also a problem. Once we had put up a pergola, and the young 'townie' who turned up to ook our place over, informed us that we would not be allowed to plant anything to grow over it which was not native. We had been thinking of wisteria, or vitis cognitae for shade and colour. Whe I asked what he would advise, he suggested brambles. On the other hand, the ministry of agriculture is giving out grants to remove brambles and to clear scrub....well this is only hearsay as we have never received them.
Grumble grumble.
Monday, January 19, 2015
De Matanza
It’s half past seven; Sunday night, and the mist on the hills has
faded into darkness. We’re all up at the house again, and it’s hot baths
and showers for everyone; to get rid of the smell of garlic and
paprika, pepper, and pig’s blood.
After two days’ of work we have 8 Iberian hams and 8 shoulders pre-salted and hanging in the shed, along with chorizos, morcilla tonta, salchichón and cañas de lomo.
Thank you all for your hard work, Jeannie, Celeste, Inmaculada, Juan David, Fingal, Ivan, Alex, Cristina, Joanna, and Ted, Jago and Charlie, Eduardo, Alquin and Joris; and thank you Tim for your lovely photos of an often unlovely activity.
***
Yesterday morning we were up at 8, supping coffee and toast before climbing up the hill to meet those not staying. Eduardo, Celeste and Juan David from Los Marines, and Inmacualada from Cortelazor. Later that morning we were joined by Alfredo from Seville, and Mercedes and Maria Jose from Jerez.
We had the Irish crew: Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen smokehouse, who arrived with one of his wonderful knives and also Ted Berner and Ivan Whelan and also Cristina and Joanna (from Dingle and Dublin respectively).
By 9 am the four pigs were slaughtered, and driven down to the workshed in the trailer. By midday the animals were butchered, the vet had passed them as being trichinosis free, and we were able to start separating the various meat cuts, removing excessive fat and sorting them into separate bowls for mincing and marinading for each type of sausage.
Lunch was prepared, with bottled tomatoes from our summer harvest, cooked up with olive oil, garlic, onions, oregano (which we’d picked in the forest and dried last June) and then with the addition of spare ribs of iberian pork, and one of the livers sliced into chunks. This was cooked by me in a huge pot and took most of the morning. We served it up in ceramic bowls with slices of crusty country bread; cheese to follow; oranges and tangerines, and magdalenas and coffee.
Everyone sat down together and enjoyed the meal, accompanied by mosto wine from the Aljarafe of Seville.
Then back to work until dusk, and a jolly dinner at the main house.
Today we returned to the sheds after a breakfast of fresh Burgos-style black puddings (rice, cumin, onions, blood, salt and pepper) and Scottish black puddings (oatmeal, cloves, nutmeg onions, blood, salt, pepper and a pinch of dark cocoa), bacon and farm eggs.
For lunch we had the typical cocido, (onions and garlic, turmeric, chickpeas previously soaked overnight, peeled potatoes, salted pieces of spine, lung and tongue, boiled up slowly with a tablespoon of sweet páprika and a dash of black pepper and chilli). Otherwise lunch took the same format as yesterday, with a few people less.
By nightfall the bulk of the work was done.
For pictures of the work see Tim's blog: http://www.timclinchphotography.com/blog/2015/1/22/how-pigs-become-ham
After two days’ of work we have 8 Iberian hams and 8 shoulders pre-salted and hanging in the shed, along with chorizos, morcilla tonta, salchichón and cañas de lomo.
Thank you all for your hard work, Jeannie, Celeste, Inmaculada, Juan David, Fingal, Ivan, Alex, Cristina, Joanna, and Ted, Jago and Charlie, Eduardo, Alquin and Joris; and thank you Tim for your lovely photos of an often unlovely activity.
***
Yesterday morning we were up at 8, supping coffee and toast before climbing up the hill to meet those not staying. Eduardo, Celeste and Juan David from Los Marines, and Inmacualada from Cortelazor. Later that morning we were joined by Alfredo from Seville, and Mercedes and Maria Jose from Jerez.
We had the Irish crew: Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen smokehouse, who arrived with one of his wonderful knives and also Ted Berner and Ivan Whelan and also Cristina and Joanna (from Dingle and Dublin respectively).
By 9 am the four pigs were slaughtered, and driven down to the workshed in the trailer. By midday the animals were butchered, the vet had passed them as being trichinosis free, and we were able to start separating the various meat cuts, removing excessive fat and sorting them into separate bowls for mincing and marinading for each type of sausage.
Lunch was prepared, with bottled tomatoes from our summer harvest, cooked up with olive oil, garlic, onions, oregano (which we’d picked in the forest and dried last June) and then with the addition of spare ribs of iberian pork, and one of the livers sliced into chunks. This was cooked by me in a huge pot and took most of the morning. We served it up in ceramic bowls with slices of crusty country bread; cheese to follow; oranges and tangerines, and magdalenas and coffee.
Everyone sat down together and enjoyed the meal, accompanied by mosto wine from the Aljarafe of Seville.
Then back to work until dusk, and a jolly dinner at the main house.
Today we returned to the sheds after a breakfast of fresh Burgos-style black puddings (rice, cumin, onions, blood, salt and pepper) and Scottish black puddings (oatmeal, cloves, nutmeg onions, blood, salt, pepper and a pinch of dark cocoa), bacon and farm eggs.
For lunch we had the typical cocido, (onions and garlic, turmeric, chickpeas previously soaked overnight, peeled potatoes, salted pieces of spine, lung and tongue, boiled up slowly with a tablespoon of sweet páprika and a dash of black pepper and chilli). Otherwise lunch took the same format as yesterday, with a few people less.
By nightfall the bulk of the work was done.
For pictures of the work see Tim's blog: http://www.timclinchphotography.com/blog/2015/1/22/how-pigs-become-ham
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Iberian Problems will be solved this week!
Well, there I was bragging about my wonderful greenhouse. We were going to have crunchy salads and fresh herbs for the Christmas invasion.
Alas, on the 20th December the Iberian pigs ran amok, broke through the fence into the lemon grove and barged their way into the greenhouse, ploughing through my carefully nurtured rocket, oakleaf lettuce, frilly Portuguese salads, escarole, mustard greens and chard. They knocked over my pots of seedlings and left a terrible mess.
Three days later I had settled the salads back into the ground, but now, almost a month later, they are only just beginning to recuperate, and emerge from a muddy sulk. The greenhouse door will never quite be the same. I have to confess it is not a proper greenhouse, only a metal frame with plastic stretched over the top....oh for something more beautiful!
The chief advantage of the escapade was that the pigs made their way into another part of the oak forest and stuffed themselves on acorns. Eccellent timing, as this is the very week they will meet with the grim reaper.
We have Fingal Ferguson, he of the Gubbeen Smokehouse, putting in a guest appearance, and Ted Berner and Ivan Whelan of Wildside Catering specialists in hog roasts (Here's a photo of some of the wild bunch). They will be helping and learning; making chorizo, salchichón, caña de lomo, black puddings, and preparing the hams for salting. We are being joined by food blogger and chef Joanna Bourke from Dublin, and her friend Cristina, who both completed the Ballymaloe course last autumn.
There'll be two days of hard work, and the usual feasting: day one, tomato stew (our bottled summer tomatoes, dried oregano from the forest, and offal /organ meats) served with country bread, and manchego cheese and oranges for after. On the second day we make a massive puchero the Spanish version of a pot-au-feu, if you will, which has many versions. Ours is made with chickpeas (garbanzos) and garlic, and belly fat, and spare ribs and espinazo, and turmeric and potatoes. Tim Clinch will be here to record everything on camera.
I hope to post pictures and will try to keep away from the gore for the more sensitive readers.
Alas, on the 20th December the Iberian pigs ran amok, broke through the fence into the lemon grove and barged their way into the greenhouse, ploughing through my carefully nurtured rocket, oakleaf lettuce, frilly Portuguese salads, escarole, mustard greens and chard. They knocked over my pots of seedlings and left a terrible mess.
Three days later I had settled the salads back into the ground, but now, almost a month later, they are only just beginning to recuperate, and emerge from a muddy sulk. The greenhouse door will never quite be the same. I have to confess it is not a proper greenhouse, only a metal frame with plastic stretched over the top....oh for something more beautiful!
The chief advantage of the escapade was that the pigs made their way into another part of the oak forest and stuffed themselves on acorns. Eccellent timing, as this is the very week they will meet with the grim reaper.
We have Fingal Ferguson, he of the Gubbeen Smokehouse, putting in a guest appearance, and Ted Berner and Ivan Whelan of Wildside Catering specialists in hog roasts (Here's a photo of some of the wild bunch). They will be helping and learning; making chorizo, salchichón, caña de lomo, black puddings, and preparing the hams for salting. We are being joined by food blogger and chef Joanna Bourke from Dublin, and her friend Cristina, who both completed the Ballymaloe course last autumn.
There'll be two days of hard work, and the usual feasting: day one, tomato stew (our bottled summer tomatoes, dried oregano from the forest, and offal /organ meats) served with country bread, and manchego cheese and oranges for after. On the second day we make a massive puchero the Spanish version of a pot-au-feu, if you will, which has many versions. Ours is made with chickpeas (garbanzos) and garlic, and belly fat, and spare ribs and espinazo, and turmeric and potatoes. Tim Clinch will be here to record everything on camera.
I hope to post pictures and will try to keep away from the gore for the more sensitive readers.
2015 an unhappy start to the New Year
The internet brings terrible news of murder from Paris, of chaos in Syria, of violence, of drifting boatloads of refugees in the Eastern Mediterranean, (and here in the straits of Gibraltar); yet in spite of these horrors and the murmur of xenophobia throughout Europe we have to carry on with optimism and hope. There is no other way.
Truly the image which fills me with sadness is the smiling face of Ahmed Merabet. Let us hope that the mass demonstration of a determination to work towards unity will be of some comfort to the bereaved and will act as a counterbalance to the Pegida marches in Dresden.
It feels 'out of place' to be mentioning all this in our blog from the peaceful Aracena mountains, but it would have been equally wrong to pass through this week without mentioning it.
Truly the image which fills me with sadness is the smiling face of Ahmed Merabet. Let us hope that the mass demonstration of a determination to work towards unity will be of some comfort to the bereaved and will act as a counterbalance to the Pegida marches in Dresden.
It feels 'out of place' to be mentioning all this in our blog from the peaceful Aracena mountains, but it would have been equally wrong to pass through this week without mentioning it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
