Casalinho

Category: Preserving

  • Carqueja

    Carqueja (Genista tridentata) is a low growing plant which covers the hillside with it’s yellow blooms at this time of year. The flowers, harvested now and carefully dried, can be used throughout the year as a tea or an addition to rice. Our neighbours grant it incredible medicinal powers, from a cure for colds and more »

  • Optimist

    You know, one of the great things about growing a garden is that you can try again next year. Here’s this year’s carrot harvest. I’m looking for recipe suggestions 🥕🥕😆🤣🥕🥕

  • In the Kitchen: Bottling Elderflower Cordial

      One thing we’re not short of at Casalinho at this time of year are elderflowers. We love to dry them for making tea throughout the year, but I also make lots and lots of elderflower cordial whilst they’re in season. Recipes abound, but this is my tried and tested one – Elderflower Cordial recipe. more »

  • Rendering Lard

    I finally got around to jarring up the lard which we’d carefully rendered from our pig fat today. When processing the meat, any scraps of white fat were set aside. Heated very very gently with a scrap of water to set them off and prevent burning, these were melted down to make lard. Today I more »

  • Cactus Fire Break

    For several years now we’ve been planting cacti along the border of our land, between our camping spaces and our neighbour’s land in the forest. Mature cacti can slow the spread of a fire, so a useful plant to have on the edges of our land. This year I’ve also harvested the cactus fruit to more »

  • In the Kitchen: Broom Blossom Pickles

      The hillsides and road edges are vibrant yellow here at the moment with the blooms of the broom bushes (Cytisus scoparius – Scotch, or Common Broom). The flowers have an interesting flavour, and I like to pickle a few jars for use on salads through out the year. As with any wild food, don’t more »

  • Eat Up All Your Vegetables!

    I wrote this back in 2014. Spending some time away from home reliant on supermarket veggies brought it to mind again. If you’ve gone to all the time and trouble to grow something delicious and nutritious, you’ll want to make the most of it. Well, that’s the way we look at it anyway! We don’t more »

  • Seasonal decor?

    Seasonal decor, Casalinho style. Home made chorizo and morcela dry curing above the stove. It’s been a busy few weeks, with the killing and processing of our first home grown pig and the completion of the olive harvest keeping us busy. More on what we’ve been up to in due course, but in the meantime more »

  • Rain forecast

    Rain forecast, although you wouldn’t imagine it with that blue, blue sky. Harvesting the dried sunflower heads today for animal feed. I so love this multi headed variety.      

  • May Foraging Challenge

    Last month’s foraging challenge was great fun, and there just wasn’t time to experiment with all the ideas I was inspired to try. Which seemed like a great reason to extend it 🙂 The idea is just to try and use as many foraged / wild foods as possible in our day to day meals. more »