Hotel Posada del Valle

New Year in the Vegetable Garden

2012-01-06T04:03:00.000-08:00

Swede from a June sowing, we’ve been harvesting swedes from the June sowing since early November.

I thought it might be interesting to start the New Year by showing what’s in the vegetable garden at the moment with a selection of photographs taken yesterday afternoon. Some of the crops are for our own consumption over the winter months whilst the hotel is shut and others are in preparation for when the hotel opens on the 1^st of April.

I sow a winter spinach about once a month from August onwards and this is ready for eating now is from a late September sowing.

The first sowing of Mange Tout made 9/11 and should be ready for the first guests in April. We will make a total of 3 sowings the last sowing being made mid February.

Our first sowing of broad beans; sown late October should be ready early May. We’ve just planted out our second sowing which I sowed in pots in the greenhouse the 10^th of December.

Endive for our own consumption over the winter. It’s easier to produce than lettuce in the depth of winter though tastes slightly more bitter. This is from a late August sowing.

Apart from the vegetables there is the soft fruit; these are the blackcurrant bushes waiting to be pruned (soon) I finished pruning the raspberries yesterday.

Savoy cabbage from a June sowing. If the warm weather continues all our cabbages will need eating in the next couple of weeks, a rather daunting prospect!

Fennel sown mid June, harvested in late September and now reshooting ready for a second smaller harvest.

Elephant garlic (which did very well here last year) planted end of July and will be harvested in May

Oats sown late October which we use as a cover crop. As we harvest our crops in late summer and the beds become bare we prepare them and as soon as it rains sow them with oats as a cover crop. Then when we need the bed in spring we pull up the oats which we use for compost and are left with a beautiful friable soil.

The last of our Green Sprouting planted early June and has been harvested continually since early September.

Lettuce plants in the greenhouse sown the 10/11. I planted the first of these lettuce out yesterday under cloches and hopefully they will be ready for the first guests in April.

Strawberry plants from runners taken in November. They will be kept in the greenhouse till early March when they will be planted out. From last year’s experience these plants should start cropping in May.

Leeks for our own winter use sown mid April, with the use of different varieties we have been harvesting leeks from this sowing since early September.

Leaf beet a great hardy vegetable resisting both cold and drought. With two sowings a year we have production throughout the whole year. This crop was sown mid June.

Fertilizer and Philosophy

2011-12-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Looking at whole natural systems; lessons to be learnt for farming

I’ve just finished reading an excellent book by Michael Pollan entitled; The Omnivores Dilemma, the search for a perfect meal in a Fast Food World. In this book Pollan follows his next meal from land to table, tracing the origin of everything consumed and the implications for ourselves and our planet.

In one section he discusses the shortfalls of farming systems where plant nutrition is reduced to the application of simple artificial fertilizers as opposed to organic systems where soil fertility is increased using compost and manure like we do on the farm at Posada del Valle.

Turning compost in the winter and letting the soil biology work

It was the German chemist called Liebig who set agriculture on its industrial path when he broke down the quasi-mystical concept of fertility in soil into a straightforward inventory of the chemical elements plants require for growth. At a stroke, soil biology gave way to soil chemistry, and specifically to the three chemical nutrients Liebig highlighted as crucial to plant growth: Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium or to use these elements from the periodic table N-P-K. I studied horticulture at Bath University in the 70’s and we had plenty of classes on soil chemistry but never anything on soil biology, a reflection of this thinking.

The N-P-K mentality embraces a good deal more than fertilizer; it fosters the wholesale reimaging of soil (and with it agriculture) from a living system to a kind of machine. Apply inputs of NPK at one end and you get yields of crop at the other. Since treating the soil as a machine seemed to work well enough, at least in the short term, there no longer seemed to worry about such quaint things as earthworms and humus.

But as we have come to realize on the farm at Posada del Valle there is a huge biological process involved in plant nutrition a sin fin of symbiotic realtions between billions of big and small organisms that inhabit a spoonful of earth some of which can be seen when we turn the compost.

Leaves decomposing on the soil surface

Rather than reducing farming to the application of a few “essential” elements we should be imitating whole natural systems as seen in the forest and prairie. Leaves drop from the trees and decompose on the soil surface; hence we apply our compost on the soil surface and don’t dig it in. Bare soil is rarely found in nature so we avoid it by sowing a cover crop. As opposed to thinking in lineal systems like a machine which takes in resources and spews out goods we need to be thinking in loop systems. A simple example of this is crop waste which we don’t treat as waste but use it to make compost which produces more crops.

Imitating natural systems may sound more like philosophy than science but mimicking natural process precedes the understanding of them. When working in the vegetable garden certain things just “feel” right and with time many of these feelings have been proved to be true: plants grown on composted soils are more nourishing than plants grown in synthetically fertilized soils and such plants are more resistant to disease and insect pests. We have so much to learn from nature!

Healthy and tasty food grown on vegetable garden and "fertilzed" with compost.

Inntravel Discovery Day 2011

2011-12-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

Our stand at the Inntravel Discovery Day

I got back from the UK yesterday where Sam Andres and myself had been to exhibit at the Inntravel Discovery day whilst Joe stayed in Spain and opened the hotel during the Spanish holiday week. Inntravel is the major travel agent with whom we work and specialise in independent holidays, with a bias towards people who are interested in walking, good food and authentic accommodation.

Every 3 to 4 years they organise a travel fair where all their suppliers (destinations and hotels) are invited to exhibit their products. This year they celebrated it at the Mercedes Benz World near Weybridge in Surrey on Saturday the 3rd.

It wasnt all work; the gala dinner in the evening

In total there were about 60 stands (including ourselves) and it was attended by over 1,400 people, not bad considering entrance is by invitation only. The hotels supply information about what they have to offer; the accommodation, destination, activities etc. and normally have some products for the people to sample. This year we took our own apple juice and some local cheese and home made apple jelly for people to try. We served over 400 glasses of Apple juice in less than 6 hours! Sebastian had prepared some very good posters and leaflets especially for the occasion which were much appreciated

Dancing after the dinner!

All in all I think it was a very successful event, with lots of interest being shown by people about Asturias and what we are doing. In the evening there was a gala dinner with dancing for the suppliers and all in all we had an enjoyable, if not tiring, time.

Mulching and living compost

2011-11-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

Broad bean plants in the process of being mulched

The weather has still been surprisingly mild and sunny for mid November and I’ve been out working in the vegetable garden (with the help of Mari Carmen) mulching some of the vegetable beds.

Peppers mulched in the summer

Mulches are an integral part of our no dig growing systems for the hotel vegetable garden. We usually apply the mulches at the beginning of the crops growing season, and the most common mulch we use is our compost. First we remove the smaller weeds from the vegetable bed and then apply 10 to 15cms of compost carefully spreading it around the plants.

Mulched cabbages coming to maturity

The mulch has a wide range of benefits including stabilizing soil, suppressing weeds, retaining moisture, and increasing the organic matter content of the soil.

Broad beans mulched last Saturday

We avoid mulching very small plants with our compost particularly if it is a bit“coarse”, but having said that, the effects on the crops we mulch with our compost can be quite spectacular. I often admire the plants a few weeks after they have been mulched and ask myself what is it that makes them respond so well?

Different types of healthy brassica enjoying their mulch!

Could it be the humus? This makes up a large portion of the dark material in compost and is very valuable for improving the chemical and physical quality of the soil. Humic substances are a large range of complex molecules, but you can actually buy soluble “humic acids” from the chemical companies, sold as wonder potions for intensive crop production. In my previous career as a crop productionist I used them, but never found them to work.

Wheel barrow load of beautiful compost full of life.

So often it’s not a single factor which constitutes to the health of a plant but it is the result of the many different components of a natural system working together. It’s not just the chemical components of a compost which are important to a plant but also all the different living organisms which it contains and their interaction with the soil and the plant. Mulching with “living compost” helps towards a healthy soil and thus healthy plants which in turn gives healthy food for us to eat.

Cooking With Pumpkins

2011-11-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

Steamy pumpkin and broccoli paella.

Having harvested over 120 kgs of pumpkin this year Joe, Samantha and Andres rose to the challenge of producing an exciting range of pumpkin dishes for our guests. This photo-blog tells the story.

We grew 2 types of pumpkin this year; the Potamarron type which weigh 2 to 3 kg each, as seen above, just before harvest

This is the Marina type which is very high yielding and produced various 15 kg pumpkins. Here Susie helped carry one from the vegetable garden to the kitchen.

And the dishes:

Pumpkin poached in white wine and served cold with a cream and black pepper dressing.

Pumpkin and cauliflower crumble

Roast pumpkin and roast garlic pate served as a small appetizer

Pumpkin and rosemary quiche

Pumpkin pie done with muscavodo sugar (outstanding)

Roast pumpkin and courgette salad.

Over 100 kilos of pumpkins still waiting to be cooked, so more recipes needed!

Pumpkin croquettes

Roast pumpkin and roast garlic soup

Pumpkin and cardamom jam (thanks Helen for the recipe)

Pumpkin muffins

Despite such creativity and serving many different scrumptious pumpkin dishes each night, we’ve ended up putting quite a lot of pumpkins into storage as well as giving some to friends.

Lesson; hope they store well or plant less pumpkins next year!

Another lost pasture

2011-10-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Asturian mountain scenery with ruined stone cabins; Entigue in Ponga.

The mountains of Asturias fascinate me not only because of their outstanding natural beauty but also because of the way its inhabitants have managed to make a livelihood farming out of such a challenging environment. With so much good weather over the last couple of months I've managed to do lots of walking in the mountains, visiting areas that I hadn’t been to for the last two or three years. What struck me most is how many of the high mountain pastures are being lost (overgrown) and with them a way of life and a valuable resource.

The huge mountain pasture of Arcenorio in Ponga. The edges of the pasture are being taken over by gorse, heather and bracken.

Poor communications and isolation in this mountainous region has meant that the people have had to be very self sufficient, living from and respecting the natural resources that surround them. The woods were managed in a sustainable way for the production of timber and so were the pastures which would be covered with snow in the winter months but provide a huge source of food for animals which grazed them in the summer months.

In the spring the snow starts to melt from the winter pastures, near Peña Crespa Caso.

Whole families would move to these high pastures “majadas” in late spring living in specially built stone huts “cabañas” staying there for six months to tend to their animals. With them they would take their chickens to provide eggs, pigs for making sausages latter in the year, as well as sheep, goats, and cows. When the cattle had excess milk they would make cheese ready for the winter and the whey from the cheese would be used to feed the pigs. This was permaculture at its best.

There used to be whole communities living in these mountain pastures caring for a large number of different farm animals. As the winter months approached these communities would return to their villages lower down the hills and with them they would take their fattened animals and cheeses either to sell or for use over the winter.

La Beyuga, one of the many summer pasture settlements now abandoned in the Picos de Europa

Sadly times are changing and now there are very few families who spend the summer months in the mountain pastures. These days most farmers live all the year round in the lower villages and visit their cattle on a day to day basis or in many cases less frequently. With less vigilance of their flocks there are more attacks by predators namely wolves. Sheep and goats are the most vulnerable so very few farmers now have these animals roaming free in the mountains and tend to exclusively farm cows.

One of the few farmers who still farms sheep in the Picos de Europa (for meat not for milk) near Belbin

When there are a variety of different animals grazing the pastures very few “weeds” get uneaten, what the cows don’t eat the goats will and the pastures remain “healthy” rich in species but with few woody specimens. When there are a reasonable number of animals grazing the pastures the bracken gets knocked about and has a harder time to survive and the few undesirable species that get left by the animals are easily removed by the farmer.

A stone hut in the pastures of Daon (Ponga) now totaly overgrown with bracken due to lack of grazing.

Now when there are only cows grazing the pastures more weeds get left behind, particularly gorse and brambles and the pastures start to deteriorate. This means more time is needed by the farmers to keep the pastures clean and there is the temptation to use uncontrolled fires to “clean” the pastures. In some cases (particularly in the national park of The Picos de Euros) it can be the park wardens which periodically clear the gorse in specific areas. But sadly in general there is a continual loss of these pastures.

The pastures of Belbin near the Lakes of Covadonga where the national park has helped maintained the pastures clean and set up a cheese producing facility.

If we loose these pastures and they slowly revert back to natural woodland many people will think this is good from a conservationist point of view. I see it in a different way; these pastures have evolved over many hundreds and probably thousands of years and have become an integral part of the mountain landscape. To me what is even more important is they are the epitome of sustainable meat production. Normally no food concentrates are used to fatten the animal’s, just fresh pasture and may be some hay in the winter. This is the food system we need to support as opposed to industrial agriculture.

Traditional hay stacks being prepared ready for feeding the cows in the winter when they come down from the moutain pastures, near Casiellas in Ponga

What we do at the hotel is to buy meat raised on these mountain pastures. In Asturias the cows which graze the mountain pastures are the “Casin” breed or Asturian mountain cow as these are most adapted to the terrain. We are lucky in that we can buy direct from the farmer and know the breed of cow and where and how they have been raised. If you are in Asturias and buy from a butcher and don’t know the exact source or are in a restaurant ask for “Casin” beef as there is a very good chance it is coming from mountain pastures.

A heard of Casin cows being moved from one summer pasture to another near Vega Ario Picos de Europa.

Unfortunately the dairy and cheese industry has practically been lost from these mountains. There are now only 4 cheese (Gamonedo) producers who use milk from animals which graze the mountains. Of the 700,000kgs of Cabrales cheese which is produced in the area and is so famous for, none of the milk which is used to make it comes from mountain cattle; the vast majority comes from cows kept in stables most of their life and fed on feed concentrates. The 4 producers of Gamonedo cheese which use milk from cows grazed on mountain pastures now sell it under the label of “Gamonedo del Puerto” It’s a real delicacy; a smoked blue cheese, quite expensive at 35,00 Euros a kg but reflects the true price of artisan cheese production with no externalised costs.

The inside of a farmers hut in Vega Maor where he made Gamonedo cheese using the milk from cows grazing the mountain pastures. Sadly he retires this year.

For me it would be lovely to get mixed grazing back to these mountain pastures and not loose the pastures or the wealth of knowledge the traditional farmers possessed. I realise I am asking a lot and many things will need to change before people realise the value of this sustainable system of food production, but if you spent a few days walking in the mountains looking at these pastures and the cows which graze them and then compared it to other systems of meat production you might just agree.

Autumn Cooking Workshops

2011-10-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

Over the last two weeks we have imparted three different cookery workshops, which I am pleased to say have been a big success. Originally we had only planned one course for this autumn but due to popular demand we ended up organising three courses. These were informal hands-on course taught by Joe and Samantha with a maximum of six participants where they enjoyed and learnt about the organic and vegetarian food that we serve at Hotel Posada del Valle. Due to the success of these courses we will be organising some more courses for the spring of next year.

And now a note from Joe:

First and foremost thanks to all my pupils for making the courses enjoyable.

I am still shaking; I always go into the kitchen frightened of the questions someone might ask that I can’t answer. My love of cooking comes from getting in the kitchen and seeing what I can make, to me there is only so much you can do with food, certain combinations are better than others, and the secret is not to be afraid, get in and cook. But please don’t get too technical.

As always we started with breads, starting with a basic recipe and then elaborating different textures and flavour; using a bowl and knife, everyone has this equipment in their home, no need for fancy machines. I must say we had some very nice breads too.

A selction of breads made by the participants of one of the courses.

From here we made cakes and roulades, apple cake is a favourite at this time of year with all the apples on the farm, a taste of autumn. As always chocolate and hazelnut, and raspberry and hazelnut are also popular, don’t turn your back while preparing the roulade or suddenly the extra hazelnuts are gone. Thanks Teresa for the extra hazelnut roulade……………..

We made soups and pates, with the option of using pates for further creativity, hopefully no-one will buy hummus again, having seen how easy it is to make and the fact you can make it to your own taste. Guess sales for hummus in Marks and Tesco will go down.

Tasting the wares.

I hope everyone enjoyed the courses and that they will practise what we have done, extending the basic recipes to their own personal creations. Lunch was also an added bonus, tasting our wares, and getting to know each other, all in all a very nice experience, the shaking has stopped.

Thanks again.

Joe

More information on last Aprils cookery workshop .

Hazelnuts

2011-10-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

Hazlenuts are said to be a symbol of concentrated wisdom, their canes are the best wood for making wands and deterring snakes, finding water and even finding those guilty of theft! I never knew that hazelnuts canes had so many uses and were so imbedded in Asturian and Celtic mythology. I did however know they form an important part of the Asturian landscape and particularly here in Eastern Asturias where every year on the first Sunday of October a special fiesta is held in the neighbouring town of Infiesto in honour of the Hazelnut.

Weaved hazelnut canes used in traditional farm buildings.

Hazelnuts grow well in Asturias and you can still see many fine old hazelnut hedges dividing fields particularly on the mountain farms where modernization and “farm plot plans” haven’t destroyed all the traditional boundaries. Hazelnut canes lend themselves well to weaving and many a traditional fence is made from layered and cut hazelnut canes. The weaved canes were also used quite frequently as “walls” in farm buildings. On our farm we started planting hazelnuts along some of the boundaries with the idea of making these traditional fences, hopefully it won’t be too long before the bushes are big enough for us to start cutting, layering and weaving their canes and we can try our skills at this traditional craft.

This area used to be an important producer and exporter of hazelnuts producing more than 2 million kilos a year at the end of the 19^th century with boat loads of hazelnuts leaving the port of Gijon for the UK. Sadly the production went into a steep decline due to export restrictions in favour of Cataluña and Tarragona became the major producer of Spanish hazelnuts.

Hazelnut fruits on the farm in July

Hazelnut bush next to a stone boundry

There are various initiatives to try and recuperate the old hazelnut plantations as well start new plantations. The hazelnut “fair” in Infiesto is seen as a way of helping the local people sell their crops and encourage them to look after their bushes, there are also some subsidies for new plantations. Last winter we planted a few hazelnut bushes on the farm in the form of a plantation (as opposed to a hedgerow) so as to help diversify the crops we grow and do our little bit in helping to recuperate this traditional Asturian crop.

Hazelnut and chocolate cake served in the Hotel restaurant

New blog on walking

2011-09-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

www.walkingasturias.com

We’ve started a new blog and web page on walking in Asturias with lots of information on the area and walking. There are different posts on walking with a personal account of the walk followed by technical information including; maps and contour profiles. GPS tracks for these walks are now available at the hotel along with our self guided walking notes. Here is the personal account of the latest walk posted on the blog.

Ascent of Pico Zorru from Les Bedules

Views from the Pico Zorru towards the Cordal de Ponga

Being surrounded by so many lovely mountains it’s too difficult to decide which is my favorite walk, there can’t just be one but various and the ascent of Pico Zorro from Les Bedules is certainly one of them.

When I walked it this time we were still experiencing an Indian summer so I wanted to get to the summit before the heat set in and started walking from Les Bedules at 8,0 clock in the morning. The first 3 kilometers take you along tracks, slightly wooded in parts but with good views and then you arrive at the large summer pasture of Les Llampes. There was a farmers car parked in the meadow but no sign of the farmer just plenty of cows grazing peacefully and the continual melody of their bells.

The Llampes meadow (taken last October)

The sun was rising over the Picos but the meadow was still in the shadow of the “Rasu” mountain and this made it a nice temperature for walking. I could still see mist over the coast and became aware it was slowly rolling inland. When there is good visibility it’s difficult to believe just how hard it can be to find your way across these pathless meadows when there is mist.

Another hot day with the early morning sun on the mountains but the LLampes meadow still in shade

Once past the meadow the walk takes you for a short distance through an old beech forest covered in lichens and then you arrive at the Pumarin Col with the Picos in front of you and the massive Peloño beach forest below you. There is such a variety of habitats; jagged limestone peaks rising in the background, a massive extent of natural beach forest and the occasional clearing where cows graze on abandoned pastures dotted with ruined shepherds huts. I often dream of a resurgence of mountain farming with people paying fair prices for sustainably produced meat and farmers once again nurturing these mountain pastures and the traditions that go with them. I dream a little more!

Around the limestone outcrop before climbng up the spur and on to the final ascent of Pico Zorru

Now it’s a short distance along a flattish track and I just want to admire the views but its getting much hotter and I reckon I should get a move on and wonder if I should have started walking an hour earlier! It’s across a small limestone outcrop and then round the bottom of a steep grassy valley before climbing up a gentle spur and on to the final grassy ridge before reaching the summit. It’s so stunning here that whenever I reach this point I just want to stay, and absorb the beauty of these “puertos” or high mountain pastures for as long as possible. The Pico Zorru is not the highest point in this small chain of mountains but gives it its name; “El Cordal del Zorru” may be because of its beauty!

The cross on the summit of Pico Zorru with the cloud covering the mountains in the background

I am on the summit and the mist is rising fast and the peaks to the north (seaward side of me) have all been covered by another stunning sea of cloud waiting to engulf me. Reluctantly I start me descent and with in 20 minutes my views and hot sweat have both gone and a cold damp mist accompanies me on my return journey back to the car.

Click here for the complete entrance with technical information.