Farming settlements in the Picos de Europa

The majada or mountain pasture of Vega Ceñal in the Western Massif of the Picos de Europa

Much of the scenery, tracks and pathways within the Picos de Europa are due to the pastoral livelihoods of the local people - a way of life that still exists but is in decline. 

A farmer moves his cows from a lower valley settlement to the high mountain pasture near the majada de Juentes

Typically farming in the Picos de Europa involved  the local people moving their cattle, sheep, goats and horses from their low-altitude winter quarters in the valleys, to the mid-altitude pastures ("invernales"), then to the high mountain pastures ("majadas"), a practice which may have begun during Neolithic times, and can involve up to 1000m of altitude gain. 

Cows grazing in the high pastures way above the Lakes of Covadonga

Many people never left the majadas from spring through to winter, remaining high in the mountains with their animals for 6 or 7 months of the year, living in clusters of small stone huts. However today very few farmers spend the summer months in the mountain settlements, most just visit their animals a couple of times each week.

The stunning setting of the abadoned high pastures of the Beyugal where farners would have lived for up to six months of the year

A stone pig stye in the pastures of Mohandi

The evocative settlement of El Hascal about to be engulfed in mist

Many such evocative settlements dot the area, testament to a hard life, and some are still used, but most are falling into disrepair. It is the western massif of the Picos de Europa where there are most of these settlements and coming across them can be a highlight to a walk in the area.

Farmers hut near Vega Ario on one of the classic walks in the Westen Massif of the Picos de Europa

Goats in Los Bobias

It was in these majadas that the region's renowned cheeses came into being - Cabrales from the area around Sotres and Bulnes, Gamoneu from the northern slopes of the Western Massif, and Picón from Tresviso in the Eastern Massif, to name just three.

Traditional Gamoneu cheese making in the high mountains pasture of Vega Maor

Goats being milked for cheese in the early morning sun. Los Bobias

A difficult pass; Paso El Picayo originally used by farmers now used by brave walkers.

Networks of well-built routes join the majadas to the invernales, villages and homesteads, across cols and ridges and "sedus" (difficult passes), often achieving traverses which appear to be unlikely, verging on the impossible. It is feats such as these that remind us how wise and in tune with the nature of the mountains people have been, and can be. These routes and settlements, built with local natural materials and human hands, give a feeling of awe.

A farmers stone hut in El Hascal

Sheep grazing above Los Bobias

The people of the Picos de Europa co-evolved with the landscape during millennia, grazing their livestock, cutting wood for building and burning, coppicing chestnuts and hazels, harnessing the power of water to grind their grain, and leaving their mark on the landscape in many ways, as it left its mark on them. It is this symbiosis of people and landscape that lends the area its inspirational quality.

Man co-evolving with the landscape Vega La Piedra

Fruits on the farm

Physalis in the early morning sun

About ten years ago when we first started sourcing as much local and organic produce as possible for the hotel restaurant we realized there was a problem getting a selection of good fresh organic fruit.  So we started planting a variety of different fruit crops on the farm with the idea that some day we would be able to supply more fresh fruit for the hotel restaurant ourselves.

Here is a pictorial blog of the fruit on the farm and what we are harvesting at the moment.

Harvested physalis

We have been particularly successful with our soft fruit with huge harvests of raspberries. At the moment we are harvesting Polka an autumn raspberry

 We are normally cropping raspberries from late May to September and often have so many raspberries we  serve them for breakfast

Blackberries; we are just coming to the end of our blackberry harvest and last year planted two new varities with the idea of  extending the harvesting season

Strawberries; big harvests but we are in the process of planting new strawberry beds with a more  tastier variety Albion. The variety we have at the moment Selva has a disappointing flavour

About ten years ago we planted ten different cherry trees but there are also some old trees on the farm so we now have a good selection of both red and black cherries. All we need to do is harvest them before the birds do!

Summer deserts in the restaurante making the most of all our  home grown soft fruits

Blackcurrants; we have just finished cropping our blackcurrants but these we mostly freeze and use with meat dishes as well as in parfaits.

We are just about to harvest "Nashi" or Asiatic pears, our tree produces huge numbers of fruit, but they are rather small.

In the orchard as well as cider apples we planted a few pear trees and some eating apple trees, the fruits of which we will be harvesting from late august onwards.

This is how are persimons look at the moment, we always get an abundent harvest but they dont ripen till late November when the hotel is shut!

And finally here is our grape vine which adorns the hotel entrance. It produces masses of bunches of grapes but unfortunately they tend to split and rot before they ripen. This is due to mildew and we just havnt got to grips with organic control of mildew. You cant win them all!

Another day at the hotel

The hotel Vegetable garden

Whilst picking the vegetables this morning our son Seb said to me “we must try and get a responsible travel award next year” I replied “yes… but they give so much importance to quantative data” and after a little thought he replied “but just look what’s going on today,” and that inspired me to write a short blog on what's happened at the hotel today

It was Joe’s breakfast this morning so she was in the hotel before eight o clock preparing breakfast. Our home made bread and cakes have to be cut and put out on the buffet along with local and organic cheeses, yoghurts and marmalades. Then there is the final check to see if every thing is in place; cold apple juice made from our apples, organic and fair trade coffee and teas, cereals, nuts, fruit etc

During breakfast its time to check if our guests need any help planning their day, handing out information on our self guided walks, maps, train time tables etc. Today a couple of guests went for one of our local walks leaving their car at the hotel whilst others went further a field in to the mountains and some went for a swim in the sea.

Meanwhile I was out on the farm with Sebastian and Andres, we had cut a Eucalyptus tree and were splitting the wood and then had the hard job of wheel barrowing it down to the house and hotel. This wood will keep us warm in the winter. Towards the end of the morning we picked the fruit and vegetables that needed picking; beans, courgettes, raspberries, beetroot, letuce and then I started lifting our bumper onion crop to let it finish drying ready for winter storage.

Bumper onion crop this year

Actually this isn’t just another day at the hotel as Lidia a local ecologically sensitive artist was preparing her exhibition at mid day in the hotel ready for the inauguration this evening. We always try and buy our decorative elements from local artists and it was great for us to be hosting an exhibition from a local artist.

Lidia preparing her art exhibition in the hotel

Mid afternoon and I took a box of our potatoes down from the cold store to the kitchen where Samantha and Joe were planning how to use the fruit and vegetables we had picked for the evening meal. With most of our fruit and vegetables being grown less than 100m from the kitchen and picked only one hour before being used I think this sets a new standard for the meaning of fresh and local food!

Oh and today is Tuesday so like every Tuesday at about six o clock three small local organic farmers will be bringing their produce to our old house by the hotel where members of the consumer group will prepare vegetable boxes for 24 local families who form part of this Community Supported Agriculture. This is another initiative we are very proud to be part of.

 

Back at the hotel

Back in the hotel the smell of the freshly baked bread is filling the air and guests are mixing with some of the locals who have come to see Lidias art (and I am writing the blog)

Then it will be time to serve dinners, relax, have a glass of organic wine and think about another day. And even if we don’t get any more environmental wards its just nice to do what we do and see so many people enjoying it.

Hay 2013

The traditional hay stack or "palanca" we finished last friday

Spring this year had been wetter than normal and with all the moisture in the soil when the temperatures started to rise our meadows exploded with an array of different grasses and wild flowers. With the panorama of so much grass I wanted to cut our meadows as soon as possible, so when a week of dry weather was forecasted for the last week in June we got cutting.

Starting to cut four acres of meadows with a strimmer!

In previous years we had cut our meadows using a friend’s alum scythe but we knew this year this machine would not be available. We had tried to buy a second-hand alum scythe with out success so we had the daunting prospects of cutting all the meadows by hand using our strimmer fitted out with a special blade for hay.

The plan was to cut four acres of meadows in two days and have the stimmer working non stop each day! We divided the work between three of us; myself, Sebastian our son and Andres who normally works in the kitchen. We took it in turns with each person cutting for an hour; the strimmer didn’t stop working during nine hot hours each day and we didn’t get too tired.
 

Five days latter with the hay dried and almost ready for baling

The tractor baling the hay

Once the cutting was finished, the grass had to be turned twice to help with its drying and then moved by hand from the high rocky areas of the farm to the lower flatter area where a tractor could enter to bale the hay.

96 bales of beautiful hay!

We started cutting on the Monday and by Saturday morning all the hay was dried and placed in lines ready for the tractor to bale it. By mid day we had 96 bales of beautiful hay! On Monday morning our neighbour Juanra came with his tractor and took the bales to the stable ready for the sheep to eat during the winter months.

"Heaping" the grass ready to make our hay stack

But the grass kept growing and it was obvious that this year the sheep and horses were not going to be able to eat all the grass before it started to lodge and spoil. So a week latter we decided to cut another meadow and this time make a traditional hay stack. By now we were experiencing a heat wave and the grass dried within two days of cutting.

Compressing the grass in the stack by standing on it.

Combing the grass to help make the stack with stand the rain

So last Friday we finished our hay stack which is now proudly standing in the meadow close to the entrance of the hotel.

The sheep last winter enjoying the previous season's hay.

Rather busy!

It’s been a strange year this year. At the beginning of the season our bookings were considerably down compared to last year. So to help reduce costs we decided it was necessary to employ less staff which meant Joe and I would be covering some of their jobs.

We are now half way through our season and to date our occupancy has actually been up on last year. That’s obviously good but as a consequence Joe and I have been incredibly busy and I just hadn’t found the time to keep the blog entries up to date. We’ve now employed our staff for longer hours so hopefully we will now have time for some of those “other” jobs which need doing, including keeping you up to date with the blog.