Hi there! I am Joseph.
I have been an immigrant, or expat, living in central Portugal along with my beautiful girlfriend Mariana for six years now.
Together Mariana, my father Clinton, my mother Julie and myself, would like to show you a bit of the daily goings on around our Portuguese farm / homestead / smallholding and all of the work we are doing whilst renovating, starting building projects, working with our livestock, DIY and trying to grow our little families own food!
In this episode we welcome you to join us in the very beginning of Spring time, one of my favourite seasons where we can see life really is amazing and all the plants and insects start to return from their winter slumber.
I start by introducing myself in the blossom filled orchards that surround my farm as I walk around with my little dog Lilly. We look at all the honeybees buzzing from flower to flower and see the hundreds of hectares of uniformed cherry trees that Fundao is famous for.
Whilst walking around I explain a little about the cherry season, what to expect in the coming weeks and a bit about the blossom itself also. My neighbour allows me to walk through his orchards with my dog and I love to take him up on that opportunity to see the great quantity of white trees that cover the mountainside, it looks almost snow covered.
As I turn round and make my way back to my own farm I see a large lizard sat, basking in the sun rays on a pile of granite boulders, I tried to snap a picture of him but of course he was well aware I was there and ran at lightning speed into the crevices. I see a section of the orchard which has been recently grafted and I explain a little about what grafting is exactly, why farmers might want to do this and how it would benefit them.
Once Lilly and I open the gate and walk back onto our own farm I enter the poultry pasture, there we see all the chickens and of course our gorgeous gaggle of geese. I enter the pen and show you all what the geese have been up to this week. They have started their laying season. Geese lay eggs only during the spring time, once the sun starts warming up and the daylight hours increase. The first goose egg is laid in an uncovered corner of the coop, not the best place for a goose nest but I will perhaps try to move this to the inside of the coop if they will let me.
After the poultry pasture we head up to the vineyard, where I show you that the sheep have now been removed from their winter pasture here, now they are on their summer pasture, a two hectare field at the very top of our farm. This is due to the vines now coming out of their dormant stage as the buds start to burst open and reveal the makings of tiny leaves and shoots. Should the sheep be left in here these would be stripped in an instant, so of course they need to be removed.
I make my way up to the very tip top of the farm, up the terraces, trying to hunt the sheep out from their hiding place. I finally find them, typically as far away as they could be. Call and whistle to them and they all come running to me. I tell you some of their names and show you how the little lambs are doing. It will sadden me this week as some of the lovely lambs have to go to new homes, of course I will miss them but I know they are going to lovely people and they will have fantastic lives.
Thank you so much for watching, have a marvellous week everyone!
See our journey to self sufficiency / permaculture / organic farming living in Portugal, trying to produce as much of our own food planting vegetables, growing fruit trees as well as looking after all our animals, such as our chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, quail, rabbits and sheep - Shortly pigs too!
- Growing vegetables, raising meat and foraging on our cherry farm in Portugal’s Beira baixa.
Follow us on Instagram @farmerforfun
IF YOU ARE PORTUGUESE OR TRYING TO LEARN PORTUGUESE PERHAPS CONSIDER TURNING ON SUBTITLES FOR THIS VIDEO, MARIANA & I HAVE CREATED SUBTITLES IN PORTUGUESE, MAYBE THEY MIGHT COME IN HANDY WITH LEARNING A WORD OR TWO! CLICK THE 'CLOSED CAPTIONS' BUTTON ON THE VIDEO AND THE SUBTITLE OPTIONS WILL APPEAR.
PLEASE HELP US TO CONTINUE CREATING THIS CONTENT BY CONTRIBUTING TO US ON PATREON
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