Troebia's Diary

[Mental Fairy]

Troebia thank you for posting about how good it feels to post on the forum.

When a day becomes difficult or a night becomes long and confronting I now automatically think of everyone on here. It’s a reminder there is kind understanding and humble people such as yourself on her.

We grown lots of olives on our little bit of land, mandarin, pears, avocado and apples. Some nuts and feijoas also. The seasons are not like they used to be so soil is changing and crops are frustratingly low. The winds have never ever been as harsh in the past as they are now, so we have lost a lot of trees in the last 12months. Water is soon to be put on a council water rate so we will be charged for water use on top of our rates for water supplies. Who knows what the future holds.

I find coming onto the forum I always have something to bitch about, yet feel bad for bitching in the first place.

I am glad your here, you bring great value to the mental team!!!!

[oak]

Troebia, hi.

I have a genuine question for you:

In a recent thread you mentioned that, no matter how carefully you water your peppers and tomatoes, they are not thriving.

Setting aside climatic considerations (called hardiness zones in America), do New World plants struggle in Spain?

I’m sure that can’t be, but I keep considering that surely many native Spanish plants thrive without intentional watering, yet your New World plants are having a more difficult time.

I am genuinely puzzled.

[troebia]

Thank you too Mentalfairy, for being there and since you also have fruit trees you have a special understanding. My wife will ask me: "So why even keep trying to grow stuff if it only causes you suffering?" I always reply that getting something out of the ground feels so good when it happens, in spite of all the disappointments and "bitching"

Oak, I don't think it's an old/new world thing. A plant will grow and thrive anywhere as long as its needs are met. Just as fungi/bacteria/virus, seeds can be taken to the other side of the planet and under the right conditions they will do what they are programmed to do. Their basic needs are nutrients from the soil, water and sunlight (with the heat) in the proportions that their organism needs. Just like with people, a plant that doesn't have what it needs will not grow as it is supposed to, and often catch sicknesses that healthy plants can resist.

What's happening now here where I live is more extreme weather, which either confuses the plants to think they're in another season, or gives them an excess of heat, too little or too much water, or even wind. During the summer there have been localized thunderstorms with hail the size of golf balls, and there have also been reports of small tornados forming. But on the whole, the problem here is that it doesn't rain. No water. If the well dries up, we're finished. That's the reason I'm cutting down other fruit trees and planning on planting more olive trees. I'll stumble on olive trees out in the mountains that have been surviving for maybe hundreds of years, just biding their time, surviving without any irrigation or artificial fertilizer.

[Mental Fairy]

Gosh you post reminds me of the book The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Beautiful book, good author.

The extreme weather events here are becoming biblical! We haven’t had such terrible weather like we are having now in many many many years. The winds are coming from different directions, the seasons seem to all blend into one. Our olive trees have taken a hit and lost so many. One side of the main tree is bare from the winds. We have fruit but very small. However the lemons are massive!

I fear what is to come with the weather

[snoringdog]

On a lighter side tangent -

Do either of you know how to cure olives?
I understand that it's a several-step process...

[troebia]

Do either of you know how to cure olives?

Well, every year we'll follow different YouTube recipes and it's always been hit-and-miss.

Green olives that are picked before they turn black are the easiest. You basically let them sit in water which is changed every couple of days until the bitterness goes away. Then put them in jars with water, a little oil and a mix of herbs to add flavor.

Black matured olives can also be cured by putting them in salt and mixing them around every day. It's difficult to get right and sometimes they'll dry out before the bitterness goes away. They are stored without water, only with some herbs and oil.

Maybe Mentalfairy has the olive situation more under control and wants to share?

[Mental Fairy]

Olives, Yum!

Making me hungry

Ok, what i do is make a brine. I also do this with most meat that i cook.

I prick my olives with a tip of a sharp knife
I use a metal container and submerge them in water for a month, changing the water every day.

I then get my jars sorted and transfer the good olives into the jars.

I have a large pot on the stove which has cooled down brine made up of about 20 cups of water and 9 tablespoons of non-iodised salt. At this point you can put in garlic, chilli, cumin, fennel seeds or peppercorns and herbs into the jars and pour over the olives, i leave about 2cm gap to the rim.

Pop in olive oil onto the top of the brine and fill to the top. I then let them sit for a month.

Presto....olives from the garden.

[troebia]

Today has been the hottest day of the year so far, 41C in the shade. I am dreaming of living near a wide river, in a climate where it rains every week. Any physical work is impossible.

People seem to think it's just a blip, that we'll get long periods of rain again like in spring last year and the wells will replenish. I'm not so sure.

Longing for fall and winter now. Even if it won't rain, the cicadas will shut up and there won't be insects everywhere trying to get at us and our food.

[Mental Fairy]

Wow that’s hot, we are in minus temp currently. It hot weather we put water into a spray bottle and leave it in fridge with ice cubes, pull it out and spray ourselves with it! When we were kids but would still do now.

[troebia]

It hot weather we put water into a spray bottle and leave it in fridge with ice cubes, pull it out and spray ourselves with it!

The small solutions. I'm dreaming of radically downsizing, living in a van and following the weather north or south depending on the temperature. Many retired folks from North Europe will come down South in winter, in enormous camper vans with even a tiny car in tow. I'm thinking more a small but tall stealth van with solar panels, and a couple of e-bikes. Daughter says I'm crazy. Maybe one doesn't age well in a van, always in a temporary location without a fixed place to call home. Or maybe it's a feeling of freedom and a chance to get to know interesting people. I'm not sentimentality bound to any place. Though it's also nice to harvest broccoli you've planted yourself.