An Update On Our “Huerta”, The Progress Of The Fruit Trees And Planting A Baby Fig Tree.

Sorry for the delay between my normally twice-a-week ramblings. We’ve been incredibly busy these last few days and I haven’t had much chance to sit down, let alone write a new post. It’s on my mind all the time but it’s been unfeasible to even contemplate sitting for a couple of hours or more in front of the computer.

It’s scorching outside at this precise moment and I’m so pooped from knocking down walls and loading a skip full of rubble, that I’ve made myself sit down, put fingertips to keyboard and write a few lines. My shoulders and back will appreciate it, I’m sure.

In between being demolition labourers these last few days, obviously we’ve had a few jobs to do in our “huerta”. Although I must admit, it has been abandoned slightly. If only there were a few more hours in the day. I’d probably use them for sleeping though!

Anyway, back to the “huerta”. The tomatoes are slowly becoming less and less and, because Pep hasn’t had chance to spray them with “jabón potásico” lately, they are becoming more and more damaged by insects. As long as you cut the bad bit out though the tomatoes are very edible.

We’re still making vast amounts of “gazpacho” (recipe here) and “salmorejo” (recipe here). We also freeze “salmorejo” for use later on in the year. Our last bottling session (method here) was a few days ago now though and, by the looks of it, was our last one. With just over 90 jars I think we can safely say we’ll have enough to keep us going for quite a while.

As I mentioned in a previous post not too long ago, the melons have been a bit of a disaster this year which is a great shame considering all the work and water that goes into growing them. For some reason they didn’t ripen, the plants started dying off before they got chance to. Hence we have lots of melons that taste like cucumbers. The chickens like them so at least they don’t get chucked.

The watermelons are better, thank goodness, at least it hasn’t all been in vain. Even though some haven’t grown to be that large in size, they’re still nice and sweet. Pep has managed to save seeds from his favourites, some are local varieties that would be a shame to lose as you can’t buy them in the shops. Watermelons need to be used up pretty quickly though, if you don’t they start to hollow out and go a bit mushy. Thankfully Pep’s brother-in-law loves them and helps us consume quite a few before that happens.

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The cucumber plants that we had to plant later on in the year (due to the fact that we murdered the first ones through lack of water!) have now started producing fruit. When the weather is so hot, even though they’re on the watering system, we still need to remember to give them extra water every couple of days otherwise we’d end up with more dead plants or, at the very least, spongey, bitter cucumbers. Certainly not my idea of a tasty morsel and definitely no good for making gazpacho.

The aubergines and peppers are doing pretty well. We also have to make sure that these plants get sufficient water, if they don’t it seems they too get incredibly bitter. In the past I’ve made “Espencat” (how to make it here) and have had to throw it all in the bin ’cause the aubergines were inedible. Not good and a terrible waste of olive oil. It could also be a lack of nutrients from not using enough manure.

Having a wander around our land the other evening I had chance to get a proper look at the fruit trees we planted at the beginning of June (post here). Most, apart from the cherry trees (cerezos), are doing very well. We should have really waited until the autumn to plant the cherry trees, they like the cold and it would have given them a better start. Still, they seem to be slowly coming on and no doubt it will start to cool down soon.

Pep bought two eco fertilisers (abonos ecológicos) not too long ago, one for tropical fruit trees (árboles frutales tropicales), the other for citrus fruit trees (árboles frutales cítricos). All our trees got a dose of one or the other, whether they were these varieties of trees or not, we thought it wouldn’t do them much harm. Since then, they’ve come on leaps and bounds.

The mango trees have grown upwards and seem to be rather happy (we’re new to mango planting so we’re learning as we go) as well as the avocado trees. The walnut tree has also grown tremendously and is pretty content, along with the peach tree, the lime tree, the grapefruit tree and the orange tree. Even the “caqui” tree we planted last year has grown extremely tall after a dose of this eco medicine.

One tree I’ve always wanted here is a fig tree (higuera). Pep planted one for me at my house in Orbeta and I was most upset when I sold and had to leave it behind. The problem with fig trees is they can become rather large and need a lot of room to grow. Their roots can be quite invasive, especially if there is water near (like a septic tank) and it’s best to plant them away from other trees.

For this reason Pep has often tried to put me off planting one at our casita. He has two in Pinos that normally supply us with plenty (not this year, mind you, it’s a funny year!), so when he came home the other day with a little tiny, baby fig tree (baby to one of his trees in Pinos) it was a pleasant surprise. Trouble was, he’d forgotten he’d got it and had left it in his car for a couple of hours in the hot sun. Not a good start.

Still, he seems to think that it might be alright (ever the optimist). We put it in a glass of water until we were ready to plant it and went outside to try and find a good spot for it’s new home. Not an easy task with so many different fruit and almond trees.

Seeing as there are a couple of almond trees that have been planted where two magnetic fields cross (consequently they aren’t doing too well) Pep’s idea is to remove the trees after we’ve collected the almonds this weekend. This gives us a bit more room to play with.

We found a nice little spot where there are no magnetic fields crossing and the wee little fellow got planted in the ground. Three tiles were placed over him for protection from the sun’s rays and he got a nice watering. I personally think he doesn’t look too happy but Pep says that, as long as the trunk (if you can call it that now, it’s rather weeny) doesn’t dry out, that’s all that matters. We’ll have to wait and see and hope he survives.

It’s not the right time of year to transplant baby fig trees, normally it’s best to do it when the leaves have fallen off the big tree. But seeing as this one had sprouted small roots, Pep thinks it’s worth a try. Watch this space!!

Right, I’m off now to go and knock down what’s left of the wall. I’ll be glad when it’s all finished. This Saturday (tomorrow) I’ll be back on Valley FM, no doubt between 1pm and 2pm. You can listen live on 94.5FM or 102.6FM if you live locally or online here. If you missed last week’s, here’s the link if you fancy a listen.

Take care. As always, any questions or suggestions please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. See you soon (as long as I don’t get buried under a pile of rubble). Love Georgie and Pep xxx