Unfortunately the hoy dry conditions carried on until the end of the

month with one or two damp days in between.  Almost the only so-

urce of moisture during those first days was from dewfall, although

even this moisture was soon dried by the hot dry wind, as can be

seen by these cobwebs.

We had midday high temperatures well into the 20`s and even upto

33.4ºC on the 12^th of September. That night the thermometer only

dropped to 19.4ºC. Perhaps one of the benefits has been that the

beans left for seed dried quickly and thoroughly!

Due to the damper days at the end of the month, we managed to collect

99 litres in the rain gauge.

Recipe of the month: Chickpea and cheese salad

450 g chickpeas

1 medium red onion

1 large carrot

1 small tin sweetcorn

4 salad tomatoes or about twenty cherry tomatoes

250 g cheese… not too strong but to taste

1 avocado

For the dressing

4 tablespoons olive oil

Juice 1 lemon

Salt and Pepper

Teaspoon ground coriander

Soak chickpeas over night in cold water

Drain and add to a saucepan with enough water to cover the

chickpeas. Bring to boil and cook slowly for about an hour or

until soft. Drain and leave to cool.

Finely chop the onion, carrot, avocado, tomatoes and cheese

and when the chickpeas are cold mix all these ingredients to-

gether in a large bowl adding the sweetcorn aswell. (As an

alternative the carrot could be steamed before chopping and

adding to chickpeas).

Place olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and ground coriander in a

small bowl and mix thoroughly.

Just before eating mix the dressing into the chickpea mix.

There are always jobs to be done on a farm... apart from the usual

milking, feeding the cows, etc. In september we managed to reroof

the heifers' barn

Flower of the month. Knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare)

This plant is very nondescript and has tiny white flowers. It has no

forage value but was used in porridge in some early European cultures

and in traditional medicine. It occurs mainly on waste ground areas

although will invade allotment if given the chance.

We apologize for the rather poor quality of this photo.

The animals grazed most days although as it hardly rained there

was very little pasturage, as in August. We also gave the milkers

dried forage, grass silage and a little feedstuff.

Two cows calved in September born but we only kept one of the

two heifer caves for the dairy herd as the other was a mixed beef-

milk calf.

Despite the drought we have actually gathered quite a lot of toma-

toes. Apart from preparing and bottling home made marrow, tomato

and onion soup, we have also made quite a lot of tomato juice which

was very refreshing in the hot weather.

Apart from going to the weekly farmers’ market in Bilbao we also went

to the organic fairs in Algorta on September 17th and Mungía on the

24th. These fairs and markets are vital to many small producers and

provide direct contacts with consumers.

This smooth snake (Coronela austriaca) made it´s appearance on the

last day of the month despite the lower temperatures.