So, as already foreseen, the harvest from my modestly significant outdoor veggie garden in Central Portugal was disappointing…

The soil in my field, it turns out, is bad for cultivating, being too sandy and dry. Even in the ringed squash beds I planted around four of the eight olive trees out back, where rich loam had been left to form untouched for several years, the results were disappointing. In part, nothing did really well because this was an exceptionally dry year. All the neighbors around me are involved in agriculture and are having the same experience: smaller yields, with less quality in the fruits and vegetables produced, although what’s coming out of my garden, even if little, is delicious (and quickly eaten!). And the same is true for everything all my generous neighbors offer me in goodwill gestures from their harvests.

Then, this last week, just before mid-September, finally, the rain came, often heavy, at last turning everything green again, but too late to save the veggies on the vines and the fruit still on the trees. Maybe some of what remains will dry out, but for the moment the delicious figs on the two trees, one black figs, one green, have become waterlogged and are rotting on the branches, as well as where they fall on the ground beneath… I was thinking, what a waste, I only had time to put up a small batch of fig jam… Then, I realized that all those figs that didn’t get gathered up are nature’s fertilizer for the tree, for next year’s yield. And I thought of the fruit of the two peach trees on the property that were not delicious enough to actually eat, because there were so many other choices (the figs and grapes and blackberries, as well as store-bought fruit), but there again, maybe next year… who knows what this winter will bring, for all of us… Maybe next year we’ll be glad to have those peaches, considering the looming food shortages that threaten us now.

I still have a few squashes growing (SO slowly! And out of so many seeds planted that only produced vines and flowers and nothing else), a few green beans that might still mature, and sweet potatoes (planted late, in mid-June) but that’s it. I don’t plan to plant as much outside next year, just maybe some sweet potatoes, depending on how this year’s crop will do, and spinach. The seeds I have are taken from the plentiful fresh branches I get twice weekly from a lady in the village, along with the rest of the selection that comes from her garden (both her children are grown and now living elsewhere, so she has a surplus that she gladly sells to me, along with oil locally-pressed from her olives). I would like to try growing buckwheat, but I’m still looking for a supplier for seeds. I do have one grow bed installed, and a compost heap that will be ready to enrich it by next summer. And, as mentioned, my other neighbors, as time brings us into contact and relations are formed, also offer me some of their produce. We all have a bit of extra this and that that we happily gift to neighbors, extended family and friends, and the new family in the community (mine!). I try to reply in kind, and so far, despite the vast difference in quantity, I have been able to succeed in at least symbolic gestures. But I consider those important. We don’t want to be constantly taking, without a return…

As for the indoor veggies, despite Life getting in the way (a whole myriad of things following the move out of town, getting unpacked and installed, which is at present an ongoing project that needs more attention!), my indoor, year-round project IS slowly advancing. This week, the indoor, container-grown (Bountiful Buckets system, in closed containers with a layered water reserve at the bottom), wonderful organic sweet peas made their first appearance on our table, with those gathered young, when the pods are still new and tender, being eaten like snow-peas, raw in our salads. And rocket and parsley are now available to complement our raw spinach greens (I’ll plant more lettuce later, in the indoor grow beds, once they’re set up). And a final couple of cucumbers from the lady in the village at last got fermented into pickles, along with slices of green bell peppers and a few stray green beans, to see what those are like when pickled. The cucumber slices were ready yesterday– so good! So easy to ferment! And I’m so glad to have that delicious probiotic to eat for a few days, contributing to maintaining good digestion… You find instructions for pickling, and for making your own apple cider vinegar (also very easy to do) in the Helpful Tips section. And the fruit of the one apple tree out back that produces sour apples, not suitable for eating, are now chopped up and fermenting in sugar water (again, great for digestion), a batch that may be enough to keep us going all winter…

The weather in Central Portugal (an Atlantic Ocean climate) is still nice enough (although temperatures are declining, except at midday) to have my potato containers outside. I’ll soon be filling a few extra containers with the last of the sweet potato slips I started growing last June, and I’ll be harvesting those I planted along with the squash seeds that didn’t do well… Hopefully, the hearty sweet potatoes will have thrived. Then, they will need to be cured and stored for winter, while more are growing, in staggered batches, inside, in containers, and despite the winter cold… How nice that will be, once the indoor system is really up and running, to not care about the effects of the weather on my veggie production!

I promised to say a few words on the all-important subject of detox, which will likely become an issue for many people during the disruptions to our lives that we are led to expect in the coming months. That very important question will be the object of my next post, coming soon…