Summer has been long, hot and wonderful

 Dearest friends, hasn't it been hot this summer. 

It certainly has been a weird summer in terms of heat and long lasting sun. 

I can feel a slight change now though, especially as the 100kilo of potatoes is almost out of the ground, and the mountain of tomatoes are yet to be processed. Rain is due tomorrow, 14th september, we'l see if the weather company get it right.

Today I harvested the black beans and the flageolet beans. I have also processed some of the tomatoes in salt water waiting to ferment. 

Fermenting is my new thing. 

I have been making fermented tomato salsa, fermented cabbage/sauerkraut, fermented whole tomatoes, anything I can get in a jar with salt I will try to ferment. 

Its so quick and easy, rather than cooking up the tomatoes, and then canning them. In my house canning requires lighting the fire oven all day, and in this heat, its like a sauna all through my home. 

Which i dont mind at all, but the other members of my family cant cope with it. 

They like to go for long walks while I can all my veg, which in effect is a nice quiet home for me to spend time catching up with my blog.

There is a big fire close to us today, not close enough to be dangerous or a risk, but we are upwind from it and we are experiencing dusty, smokey air, and ash falling from the sky. When the sun pierces through there is a lovely hue of orange colour against the stone walls of this traditional Xiste village. Sometimes i try to see these events as a positive.

I have been learning a lot about home plants and how they can clean the air inside buildings. I managed to get hold of a spider plant, and a peace flower plant, highly recommended by NASA apparently.

I have a few now dotted about the house, in areas most likely to have build up of toxins in the air.

I'll put up a recipe for the fermented tomatoes in my section to do with garden and food...

Wooding has also started and is almost stacked away and covered up with plastic covering. We still have to look  and see if it is enough to sustain us for winter, if not there is still some trees on top of the mountain ready to be cut. But, we'll leave them standing as its a good way to keep them from getting too wet, just incase we need extra in wet times. They say here, keep it in the bank, a form of expression.

This is only a quick update on current affairs from the farm. I will be able to post up more now that I'm free from all the heap of the work from the garden.

Thank you all for being patient with me, and keep sharing my blog to friends and family., I hope it is of some use, if not only for entertainment.