The snow starts to melt

This winter there has been a lot of snow in Asturias and according to the locals they haven’t had a winter with so much snow for many years. However we have had about three weeks of continual brilliant sun with temperatures reaching 27ºC and this has meant the snow has started to melt from the mountains. With the spring equinox starting today I thought it would be appropriate to show some photos of the snow melting and remind us of the cyclic way of nature.

Very often the snow doesn’t melt evenly on the mountain, not only does it depend on the altitude but also on the orientation as well as various other factors.

Snow remaining on the north facing slopes whilst it has thawed on the south facing slopes (On the boundary of the natural parks of Redes and Ponga)

Snow on the high mountain peaks and on the north facing lower slopes (Looking at the Picos de Europa from the Ponga Mountains)

The wind often blows the snow into wave like forms known as “cornisas”. This often happens on mountain edges forming larger depths of snow which take longer to melt.(The Purrupinta Forest close to Ponga)

Here the snow is melting, which along with the sun and the wind can produce quite spectacular metrological phenomenon. (Taken in the Urbina Park another recently declared natural park in Asturias)

Even in the higher peaks, here over 2000 meters, the snow has started to melt (Urbina natural park)

As the snow melts the mountain farm settlements are becoming accessible. (Ponga mountains)

The horses which have been left in the mountains over the winter are probably glad the snow is melting. (Lower Ponga Mountains with the Picos in the background)

And off course as the snow thaws so the rivers swell.

Spring is here!

Camino de Santiago, The Coastal Route

Its just over 2 weeks before we open the hotel and both Joe and I are working quite hard preparing for the opening. However this doesn’t mean we don’t have time to go walking and enjoy the lovely sunny weather we are experiencing at present. One of our favourite coastal walks is from Playa Arenal de Morris to Colunga which actually forms a part of the Camino de Santiago or The Way of Saint James.

The Camino de Santiago between Arenal de Morris and La Isla

The classic Camino de Santiago waymark

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There are probably 8 different Caminos de Santiago starting from different places but all finishing in Santiago de Compostella. The coastal version or Camino del Norte dates back to the 8th century and starts in Irun on the French Spanish border, goes all the way along the provence of Asturias and runs fairly close to the coast for much of the way.

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Sandy and pebbly beaches on route

In Asturias there are 275 kms of the path, but the section we particularly like because the path runs next to the sea most the way is from Playa Arenal de Morris to Huerres. You pass through the small resort of La Isla, but the rest of the walk is along very unspoilt rolling hills and farm land.

Rolling hills and dramatic beaches

We include this section in our self guided walking notes and the start of the walk is about 25 mins by car from the hotel. We certainly enjoy this walk and hope you will too.

Awards

Receiving the Organic Food and Biodiversity award one year ago in Madrid

Receiving an award is always very satisfying and this year we have been “distinguished by Karen Brown Readers as Spain’s property offering Greatest Value for 2009! If you don’t know Karen Brown, she publishes a series of accommodation guides, which are very popular in the United States. I like to think that our prices are competitive for what we offer, but to be considered Spain’s property offering greatest value for 2009 for me is rather over the top. Still I suppose we should be pleased to have got this recognition.

It was just over 1 year ago (before we had the blog operating) that we achieved the award Organic Food and Biodiversity for the hotel or restaurant which best uses organic food in their gastronomic offer. This was awarded by the Spanish Ministry for the Environment in association with the Biodiversity Foundation. Winning this national award was particularly satisfying as it symbolises our beliefs - and recognises our work - in organic farming and biodiversity.

The idea behind these awards was to stimulate and recognise the efforts made by people in different sectors of organic food in defence of the environment. There was a lot of publicity associated with the event in order to increase the public’s awareness of organic food, which in Spain is quite low. We went to Madrid to receive the award and were presented it by Cristina Narbona who was the Environmental Minister at the time

Group photo of all people from different sectors of organic food, who received the Organic Food and Biodiversity award in 2008

Unfortunately one year latter there is no longer an environmental ministry in Spain. It has been amalgamated with the ministry of agriculture and become; MARM the Ministry of the Environment, Rural Affairs and Fishing! Cristina Narbona is no longer the environmental minister and some of her work on how to stop the degradation of the Spanish coastline appears to be getting lost in the high courts!

Still let’s not get involved in politics, and just appreciate the awards we have received in the last year.

Wild Daffodils

Wild daffodils on the woodland path by the hotel.

Spring is on its way and with it early spring flowers including daffodils are starting to bloom. On the short walk starting from the Hotel to the Santa Marina chapel there are plenty of daffodils growing on the edge of the woodland path next to the stream, as seen in the photo above.

Narcissus leonensis growing on the woodland path by the hotel.

In Asturias there are four species of daffodils or Narcissus. Narcissus pseudonarcissus known in this area as Narcissus leonensis is the larger species with leaves up to 35 cms long. It grows in a variety of habitats and there is quite some variation in the flowers with in the species. It’s the species growing by the stream and I also saw it yesterday on a rocky mountain at an altitude of about 950m.

Narcissus leonensis growing on a rocky mountain at an altitude of 950m.

A week ago we discovered a few plants of Narcissus bulbocodium flowering on the farm in the Castañarina meadow. (It is probably the sup species “cantabricus” an endomism of the Cordillera cantabrica, but I don’t want to get into a taxanomic minefield.) The leaves of this species are up to about 24 cms. This is a first on the farm and will be proudly added to our farm flora list bringing us up to 324 wild flora species identified on the farm to date.

Narcissus bulbocidium growing on the farm.

Narcissus bulbocodium on a mountain at 600m

For me one of the prettiest of daffodils is Narcissus asturiensis with leaves rarely reaching more than 12 cms. It is just starting to come into flower as the snow melts away high in the mountains and can be seen in quite large numbers. The photos of this species were taken on thursday at an altitude of 1,450m

Narcissus asturiensis

Narcissus asturiensis emerging as the snow thaws.

The dramatic asturian mountains with the snow just melting from the meadows where the photos of Narcissus asturiensis where taken on thursday.

I haven’t seen the fourth species of daffodil that grows in Asturias (Narcissus triandrus) this year, so you will have to wait for a photo of that one!

The wood land footpath from the hotel, happy walking and happy botanising!

Home made bread

At hotel Posada del Valle we are proud to say that we make and bake our own bread and have been doing so for the last three years. Before that we use to buy partly baked deep frozen bread, but we decided this wasn’t in keeping with our environmental principles and we wanted to serve organic bread. The reason we started baking our own bread was that our nearest organic bakery could not deliver bread to the hotel until a day and half after it had been baked. So we decided the solution was to bake it ourselves.

At first it seamed quite an awesome task to bake bread each day for both breakfasts and evening meals. But Joe with her characteristic cooking skills soon made light work of the bread making and we’ve been serving tasty home made bread ever since.

Other than time, the ingredients needed for home made “Slow Bread” are really very simple – just flour (preferably organic), water, yeast and salt. We use a very simple basic recipe and then add all sorts of different seeds, nuts, grains, fruit and even vegetables, to produce a wide range of tasty breads, some for breakfast and some for the evening meal. Walnut, poppy seed, multi grain, muesli, cheese and onion, garlic and parsley, beer, the range of bread is never ending. We use a mixture of white and brown flours and in the main our breads tend to be quite wholesome.

The bread we make at the hotel takes two to four hours depending on the room temperature and we have no special bread making machinery. The bread is kneaded by hand, there are living organisms (yeasts) involved in the process, and a need to match the fermentation period to the amount of gluten in the flour. Bread made slowly has no need of improvers, enzymes or other additives.

This home made slow bread is such a contrast to the refined bread you buy in the supermarkets which has its origin in the Chorleywood Bread-making Process (CBP) invented in 1961. This is based primarily upon a really fast dough mixer, but also involves more yeast and higher temperatures than conventional bread-making. This enabled the initial ‘bulk fermentation’ period to be cut from three hours to a few minutes and the process to be carried out in factories by semi-skilled operators.

Contrary to many peoples belief making bread at home really is very simple and easy. We thoroughly recommend you try it yourself. Find a good flour, try different recipes and methods and experiment until you find a bread that suits your taste. Then you can enjoy the taste of home baked bread

Good bread is one of the foundation stones of a healthy diet. When we talk about good bread we mean that it will taste good, be cleanly produced (better for you and the planet) and be fairly produced and rewarded. Good, clean and fair this is the ethos of slow food movement and home baked or slow bread symbolises so much of what slow food is about. Some people even go as far to say that making your own bread is the activism of every day. What is sure is that our home made bread tastes lovely and must be healthier for you. Slow bread is also more easily digestible as the yeast will have had time to feed and ripen the gluten.

What’s also nice for us is that by serving the slow bread we make and which symbolises many of our beliefs, we can share our philosophies with guests simply by letting them enjoy the bread we have cooked.

If you’re interested in bread making this will be one of the topics in the cookery courses Joe will be instructing this year.

Valle Moro

The abandoned village of Valle Moro

Valle Moro or “Valley of the Moors” is a small abandoned village in the Ponga Mountains, not so far from the hotel. A couple of weeks ago I did a very magical walk visiting this rather remote village and thought it would be interesting to write about it.

Houses in Valle Moro

The last permanent inhabitants of Valle Moro abandoned the village almost 30 years ago, although until recently, a couple of farmers still used some of the buildings in the village during the summer whilst caring for their animals on the surrounding pastures, woods and mountains. Legend has it that the origin of the village comes from a settlement of Moors who hid in this remote place when they were being pursued by King Pelayo in the 8th century. This doesn’t appear to be true though and the village wasn’t always that isolated. Over a hundred years ago it used to be on an important route from Oviedo to Covadonga, but as easier alternative roads were built and the traditional farming passes became less used so Valle Moro slipped into isolation.

The walled cemetery just above the village.

Inside the cemetery

Looking out of the cemetery door.

Surrounded by mountains woods and river gorges, the positioning of Valle Moro is very spectacular. There are various ways to get to the village and I approached the village from the slopes and pastures of the Maoño Mountain, passing by a coppiced beach forest and traditional pastures. Great care is needed when walking in the area of Valle Moro as it is extremely easy to get lost .The easiest way to reach Valle Moro is from Taranes along a cemented agricultural track although the bridge over the river at the end of the track is broken.

Descending from the Maoño Mountain towards the Valle Moro

There is an old stone road leading to the village from the broken bridge and just to the south of the village are the best and most productive pastures. The inhabitants of this village must have had a wealth of knowledge on how to survive in such a difficult terrain and how to live and work with nature in such a sustainable way.

But there are new ideas for Valle Moro and the town hall of Ponga is looking for private capital to develop an “ecotourism project” in this abandoned village. A new road has been marked out zigzagging up through the most productive pastures, making easier access but with no respect to what was important to the former inhabitants of this village. It’s difficult to know what’s best for abandoned villages like this, but I’ve got an awful feeling that if the project goes ahead Valle Moro is more likely to become a “theme park” rather than eco tourism.

Inside an abandoned house

Restoring and developing the traditions of these mountain villages is very important and the local inhabitants and particularly the farmers need to be able to make a respectful livelihood in the process. These are the people who maintain the village, the customs and manage the surroundings. But may be where that’s not been possible, it’s best to let the village die a natural death and let the land return to its former state even though this means a loss of rural patrimony, because the alternative may mean creating something totally false in such a natural habitat.

The peaceful setting of Valle Moro

A Gathering of Like Minds

Each year in the hotel we have a gathering of like minded friends where we eat, talk, try to put the world right and then normally go for a short walk. We celebrated this gathering last Sunday and as always it was a very enjoyable event.

Drinking cider and waiting for all the people to arrive

The first such gathering we organised 5 years ago with the idea of strengthening the relationship between some of the people who we work with and know, but don’t always have the time to relax and talk with in a way we would like.

Most of the people who come are involved with organic farming and some of them with tourism. They all have an interest in maintaining a strong rural base to Asturias and are keen for other people to learn about the culture and customs of this area.

Manolo and Javier are two brothers who both graduated in geography and organise a guided tour; “The Cider and Cheese Route.” They take groups of people on a 2 hour walk through the mountain village of Asiego and explain about the traditions of the area, talking about farming, cheese making, cider making etc. They then finish the tour with a meal, where the people can try a lot of the local produce. They also grow cider apples, produce cider and have xalda sheep.

Antonio and Paula also grow apples and small fruits, they produce jam, apple juice and cider as well as run a small guest house in Peñamellera Baja.

Aquilino and Loude have an organic small holding in Sariego, producing vegetables and small fruits to sell in the local market. They also grow apples and produce cider and honey.

Luis and Conche have a bio constructed guest house just outside Infiesto, they also have Asturcon Ponies.

Severino and Daniela were pioneers in rural tourism opening a small guest house 16 years ago in Arguero near Villaviciosa. They breed xalda sheep, Asturcon Ponies, run a small eco museum on indigenous breeds and produce traditional ceramic pottery.

Aquilino "pouring" traditional cider

Manolo sampling "table" cider

Antonio with a slightly "sparkling" cider

We talk about many different topics; this year discussing the new types of cider which are now available particularly “table cider” the pros and cons of veering away from the traditional ciders and entering into new markets. We also talked about the rural development of abandoned villages in Asturias, whether these villages should just be left to die and become overgrown with brambles or what can be done to prevent this happening.



As you can imagine a lot of interesting discussion, particularly after all that food, wine and cider!