In Spain it is legal to keep a couple of pigs on your own land, for your own consumption without licenses and all the other paperwork and DFRA records and numbers required in the UK. This is a tradition for Spanish people and many people in the countryside still do it.
It is over 15 years since I had anything to do with pigs, and then it was on a commercial basis. I remember only too well covering them in sun tan lotion at the Great Yorkshire Show to stop them burning in the sun - That tells you how long ago, how many July's can you remember being hot and sunny in the UK recently.
So my husbands great plan in March 2008, lets get a couple of pigs. So there we start trying to find someone here who can supply the little porkers. Surprisingly that was easy, as a local commercial pig fattening unit would be happy to supply a couple to us.
Now - how do you keep pigs here warm in winter and cool and shaded in summer - Time for the internet search engines to work overtime. If we use a traditional English pig ark the poor things will be roast pork here in the summer before we know it.
All commercial pigs in Spain are kept in air conditioned factory units, but we want ours to be free range and have the life intended for pigs. Rooting in the undergrowth, wallowing in mud and playing.
The answer a house made of straw - hope there are no foxes here who an huff, and puff and blow the house down. But straw will give them warmth in winter and coolness in summer - Perfect.
We choose the piece of land for the pigs to live on, away from the house, but visible from the house. Now to plan the fencing.
Unfortunately due to the economic downturn in the construction sector in Spain many small building firms have gone out of business and our local reclamation yard is full of surplus building equipment, including large 3 x 3 mt fencing panels which are used to fence off building sites here. Perfect pig fencing, at least while they are small.
The fencing duly bought and delivered together with the straw, construction of the pig palace begins in preparation for our new arrivals. An old metal bed base provides the perfect gate. Total cost approx 200 euros, including pig swill bins and pails. It might look like something the Dingles would use, but it serves the purpose for our first attempt at rearing pigs.
The pigs will have an area approx 25 sq mts to live an play in. Normally commercially produced pigs here live in about 2.5 sq mts each, always inside. Our 2 pigs are going to be so lucky.
We also have a number of the fencing panels left over - hmmm now what can we do with those? 'I know says the husband - lets get some chickens'.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
I will never go near goats - they eat everything!
Goats, love them or hate them - I am not into goats.
A friend runs a number of goats on his land, and they always seem to be escaping, eating his olive trees, furniture, farming equipment, washing in fact anything they can get their mouths around and more.
He very kindly moves into my house when I go back to the UK for short trips, this also includes looking after our six dogs. So in return if he goes back for a short visit I return the favour, and look after his goats, dogs, chickens, geese and ducks.
The goats need to be fed and milked. Hmmm - how many years since I hand milked cows, and they stand still for you. Goats move about, stand in the bucket, tip the bucket over and generally mis-behave. When will they realize that you are doing this for their good and not mine. But there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Friday is now cheese making in my house, lovely fresh soft goats cheese. It's so easy and so delicious. My recipe is as follows:-
1/2 gallon fresh goats milk
1 tablespoon of table salt
Juice of one lemon.
Only use stainless steel kitchen equipment.
Boil the milk until a rolling boil
Then add the salt and lemon juice
Turn off the heat, and stir while the whey separates from the curd
spoon the curd into a muslin cloth, and squeeze gently, and then hang the muslin cloth with the curd to drip until it is slightly firm, mould the cheese, place in the fridge and use as you wish.
So do I now like goats - possibly. Would I like goats on our land - possibly. I love their products, but they are still a liability around the place.
A friend runs a number of goats on his land, and they always seem to be escaping, eating his olive trees, furniture, farming equipment, washing in fact anything they can get their mouths around and more.
He very kindly moves into my house when I go back to the UK for short trips, this also includes looking after our six dogs. So in return if he goes back for a short visit I return the favour, and look after his goats, dogs, chickens, geese and ducks.
The goats need to be fed and milked. Hmmm - how many years since I hand milked cows, and they stand still for you. Goats move about, stand in the bucket, tip the bucket over and generally mis-behave. When will they realize that you are doing this for their good and not mine. But there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Friday is now cheese making in my house, lovely fresh soft goats cheese. It's so easy and so delicious. My recipe is as follows:-
1/2 gallon fresh goats milk
1 tablespoon of table salt
Juice of one lemon.
Only use stainless steel kitchen equipment.
Boil the milk until a rolling boil
Then add the salt and lemon juice
Turn off the heat, and stir while the whey separates from the curd
spoon the curd into a muslin cloth, and squeeze gently, and then hang the muslin cloth with the curd to drip until it is slightly firm, mould the cheese, place in the fridge and use as you wish.
So do I now like goats - possibly. Would I like goats on our land - possibly. I love their products, but they are still a liability around the place.
It all began with an Olive Grove
' I refuse to become an Olive Farmer if we go to live in Spain' I said to my husband. 'Never he replied'. So in December 2004 we packed our bags and children and moved to our summer house in Southern Catalonia for good.
Both my husband and I were involved in eduction in the UK, and both of us had become very disillusioned with the state of the system in the UK, as well as the education our three children were receiving.
So now we are here what to do; well plenty to get on with making the summer house into a full 365 day a year living space. Then the husband reads the local paper and finds an olive grove for sale in the local national park. 'Ideal he says for a small camping site' We view it and as you do fall in love with it and buy it.
Then we start with the bureaucrats, who still seem to be living in the inquisition still, we need this paper, that paper, this technico to do this, that technico to do that, and so on, and on and on.
Two years later do we have a small camping site - no. We have an olive grove. Do we know how to look after the trees - no. but we have the solution in a local man with all the knowledge and some spare time. So here we are today, 4 years on with our own virgin olive oil every year, and guess what I love it. We are still learning how to look after the trees though.
Some of our trees are over 1000 years old, and still crop heavily every year, but looking and working with these trees, do tend to put your own mortality in perspective.
Both my husband and I were involved in eduction in the UK, and both of us had become very disillusioned with the state of the system in the UK, as well as the education our three children were receiving.
So now we are here what to do; well plenty to get on with making the summer house into a full 365 day a year living space. Then the husband reads the local paper and finds an olive grove for sale in the local national park. 'Ideal he says for a small camping site' We view it and as you do fall in love with it and buy it.
Then we start with the bureaucrats, who still seem to be living in the inquisition still, we need this paper, that paper, this technico to do this, that technico to do that, and so on, and on and on.
Two years later do we have a small camping site - no. We have an olive grove. Do we know how to look after the trees - no. but we have the solution in a local man with all the knowledge and some spare time. So here we are today, 4 years on with our own virgin olive oil every year, and guess what I love it. We are still learning how to look after the trees though.
Some of our trees are over 1000 years old, and still crop heavily every year, but looking and working with these trees, do tend to put your own mortality in perspective.
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