We ran five visits on the farm. On August the 1st 9 people from a

local NGO ((Emaus Fundación Social) visited the farm and dairy,

on August 4th a group from Gexto (Bizkaia), on the 7th a family from

Madrid plus a group from different parts of Bizkaia, on the 9th 5 peo-

ple with roots in Karrantza

and on the 11th a family from El Escorial.

These are some of the variously coloured carrots we have gathered

after deliberately sowing different varieties.

The hot dry days in August meant the bean plants in the vegetable

patch dried enough to collect beans for food and as seed for sowing

next year.

Once again the weather was quite varied with hot, dry days mixed

with cooler, cloudy and damp days. Maximum temperatures reached

36,6 ºC, whilst dawn temperatures were often quite cool, for exam-

ple only 11.4 ºC on the 5th. However, we collected 97 litres  in the

rain gauge.

In August we topped more fields, cleared brambles and ferns from

some slopes and lopped branches of trees that were overgrowing

tracks. We also managed to make some hay, mainly due to a hot

dry spell during the second week of the month.

A neighbouring farmer who was also baling lost control of one of his

big bales which crashed through a hedge into one of our fields, rolled

down a field,

bounced over a fence and then flattened a second fence on which,

however, the netting around it snagged. Fortunately nobody was in

the path of the bale nor were any buildings damaged, but this sort

of incident help explain why civil liability insurance policies are taken

out by farmers.

^{Recipe of the month: Salad vegetables topped with cream of fresh}

^cheese

^{450 g fresh cream}

^{400 g fresh spinach}

^{Black pepper}

^{Anchovies in olive oil}

^{Two finely chopped cloves of garlic}

^{Two large salad tomatoes, not over ripe}

^{One small cucumber}

^{Leave the fresh cheese in a sieve for two hours to lose whey. Steam}

^{the Spanish and leave to cool.}

^{Put half the fresh cheese in a bowl and liquidize with a little black pepper}

^{and some anchovies until achieving a creamy texture. Taste the mixture}

^{and add more anchovies until the taste is as strong as wanted. A little}

^{of the olive oil from the anchovies can be used to increase creaminess. In}

^{a second bowl repeat the process with the rest of the fresh cheese, black}

^{pepper, garlic and spinach, again until achieving a firm paste.}

^{Slice the tomatoes and cucumber. Place the slices of tomato on a platter}

^{and place a slice of cucumber on the top of each. Then add a spoonful of}

^{the fresh cheese cream alternating each flavour.}

^{Serve cold immediately.}

Plant of the month. Polypody (Polypodium)

There are quite a few polypody species, this one could possibly be

Welsh or Southern polypody, polypodies being a sort of fern. As in

the case of the flowering plants we usually include in our website,

ferns have roots, stems and leaves. However, unlike flowering plants,

 ferns do not have flowers or seeds; instead, they usually reproduce

sexually by tiny spores. Polypody ferns are found on some of the

stone walls  bordering some fields on the farm.

What did the cows eat?

Due to the weather there was little grazing to be had. We gave the cows

dried alfalfa, some feedstuff and grass silage.