Latest catch of veg

Growing vegetables here is too easy, we seem to have a constant glut of most things, our tomatoes were self seeded and are producing well, the physalis are the plants from last year which I had cut down and left just the stubs in, when I went to pull them up in March I found that they had new shoots so I just let them get on with it, the cucumbers are also self sown, I just transplanted them to another spot, we had grown salsify last year, that also has self seeded, and in fact looks though it might take over the vegetable garden, this of course appeared after we had planted scorzonera! We have for the first time got some pears, the trees had been neglected for years, so last year we attacked them and they have rewarded us with fruit, I must look up the correct way to care for them.

Our last helpers left last Friday, they were a great couple from Texas, they did a vast amount of weeding, chainsawing wood and lifted all our potatoes, so many thank guys.

Yesterday was the day of the Samos artisan fair, a month earlier than last year and with half the amount of crafts on show, as far as we could tell there was also no traditional dancing, we are guessing that this is probably due to the recession, although there was the local honey on sale there was no organic honey included this year, we are suspicious that this may be due to GMO contamination as there are many hectares of GM maize planted, if this is the case it will put many Organic farmers livelihoods at risk. Unfortunately we do not have a good enough command of the Spanish language to ask the question. It was however a nice afternoon out and gave us all a time to relax, and for our helpers to see a little more of Galicia and the surrounding country side.

The courgettes have now won, and taken over, you can only eat so many of them before you get sick of the sight of them especial as now the runner beans and calabrese are ready two weeks earlier than last year.

Today one of our neighbours has turned up to cut our field for the winter hay, so the goats and ever increasing family of rabbits should be well fed. The litter that was born last week appears to have eleven kittens, but we may have miscounted, it might be twelve!

We have a great selection of amphibians that have moved onto our land, frogs, toads, lizards and newts, and we are very grateful for the help they give us with the slugs

The soft fruit has done very well, we have been picking strawberries since March and the suckers which we transplanted are now in flower. We also have blackcurrant bushes, rhubarb and raspberries, it's a shame that the garlic has not done better.

Just about every thing grows well in Galicia, our main failure is garlic which might have been planted too deep.

Sunday we found where one of the hens had been for the last three weeks, sitting on eggs! so we now have an extra seven chicks, we just hope they survive our dogs cats and the various birds of prey, plus the pine martens, so far so good, but she has taken them into the field which is not a good idea. Zoe, the rabbit also gave birth last night, but we dont know how many she has yet.

Thing seem to be two weeks ahead of last year, this includes the weather, which is not as hot and we have had more rain, this does mean we dont have to water the garden so often, which is good, it also makes weeding easier. Already we have a glut of courgetts, and it looks as though we will have a mass of runner beans, the first ones are ready for picking.