Our friend biologist Ricardo installed a camera with infrared sensors that enabled the automatic video capture our night visitors.
Shortly after piglets swim (that two years ago ate all our corn!), another a visitor inspects the farm!
Category Archives: Farming activities
Birds of prey and the windfarm towers
One of the jobs of our friend biologist Ricardo and his teammates is the identification and protection of juvenile raptors that, especially in the fall, during the first migration to south, populate the area of Sagres.
In case of danger the order of the windfarm control room is alerted and towers are stopped while the birds remain at risk.
Last September 13 we made him company for some time at one of the observation posts and we saw a booted eagle!
Our guests love to stay here because in the morning they can see through their rooms windows several birds and, a little later, when the thermal currents already guarantee a good support, birds of prey hover in the air : booted eagles, toed eagles, peregrine falcons, etc.
Sometimes times we see in the evening hunting scenes on the farm with chopped dives on prey!
Fig campaign in Quinta das Alagoas
Since middle of August that we have been busy picking the figs and so we have not had much time to give news.
During the harvesting we separate the figs by different containers according to their type: the more mature go to one side, the still green for another and we still separate the pecked by birds that are good for fig paste. Finally we pick the dried figs that aleardy fall from the fig trees but are still good for fig paste.
The figs were placed on fennel mats made in the farm. Although traditionally the mats were rolled up at night and unrolled in the morning, we chosed to cover the figs every night with cardboard and plastic to protect them from “branduras” (term used here to describe the night humidity), to reduce labour.
In the morning the mats were uncovered, and the figs turned over and also separated by different maturity states.
Since everyone was busy with figs if was our granddaughter what took care of the garden of flowers!
*Almeixar is the set of mats with figs drying.
Piazolla, Galliano e Fancelli interpreted by Francisco Monteiro, featuring Sérgio Timkiv
The last Summer concert, in Quinta das Alagoas, brought us the flavors of Argentine tango spiced by jazzy flavors in a superb interpretation full of youth of Francisco Monteiro and Sergio Timkiv.
Despite being only 16 years old, Francisco Monteiro revealed not only the skills and qualities already demonstrated and which led in particular to the final of the “Portugal Got Talent” contest, but also a great sensitivity, particularly in the extraordinary way “Revelation,” the final piece of the concert by composer Sergei Voytenko, was played.
At the end of the concert, as usual, we had the possibility of tasting several products of the farm, a selection of cheeses from Serpa region, accompanied by a young red wine “Duas Quintas” from Douro region and an aged white wine “Esporão Private Selection” from Alentejo region.
String explosion in Quinta das Alagoas
After having celebrated the beginning of summer on the night of St. John, with medieval and Mediterranean Music played by Ensemble Med, we feasted the first third of Summer with a string explosion!
No fewer than 20 students from the VIII International String Festival, with the support from Academia de Música de Lagos, to which we are thankful, showed his talent in 8 pieces for our delight.
The concerts began with a piece of Vivaldi by the younger students and proceeded with teacher Sunita Mamtani and her students interpreting J. Hetfield and Ulrich L. Bach was played by a viola duet with professor Paul Wakabayashi and Catherine Olaio played Bach, followed by five strings plus soloist Mariana Viegas. Then a veritable procession of cellos and double bass began, with professor Paulo Gaio Lima and soloists Marco Wood, Joan Rosa and Antonio Bento performing works of Vivaldi, Shostakovich and M. Falla. Our small stage had to be increased to accommodate 6 cellos but we were amply rewarded for all the musical production and the grand finale with the Ritual Fire Dance.
We want to thank all the teachers and in particular to professor João Pedro Cunha by the impeccable orchestration how the various ensembles took place on stage always under his tender and watchful eye.
We continued the promise of a monthly concert in Quinta das Alagoas, a concept of great closeness and communion between the musicians and the audience.
At the end of the show we tasted some Portuguese wines and gastronomic treats. We wanted to join to a youthful string festival, a festival of mature flavours.
We tasted a long-healing Serpa cheese (over 1 year), a hard cheese made with raw milk from the sheep and pastures belonging to the producer, thistle and salt. Such an exceptional cheese was accompanied by a special white, also from Alentejo, aged in wood, full-bodied, with volume and enough acidity to work the fat cheese.
For those who do not enjoy white wine or wanted to continue with another company for the smoked ham, figs and fruits, we proposed two choices of young reds from Douro, fruity, without wood aging, not too alcoholic and good acidity, which went also very well with Serpa cheese. One, “Papa-Figos”, the Orioles, we choose it for sentimental reasons, it reminds the bird that will soon leave the Douro wine region, where he arrived in spring, to stage in the Algarve for the late summer, before leaving for Africa.
Who knows? Perhaps the Orioles will join us here for a fig festival…
Cheese: Aged cured sheep cheese, made by Almocreva artisanal dairy cheese (limited edition), batch manufactured in 13 of May, 2014
White wine: Esporão Private Selection 2013, Esporão (Alentejo)
Red Wines: Quinta dos Arciprestes, Real Companhia Velha (Douro) and Papa Figos, Sogrape, (Douro); both from 2013
Garden adapted to people with reduced mobility
We are preparing our garden to people with reduced mobility!
We now have treadmills to facilitate wheelchair movement and build two elevated garden beds for easier access by people with reduced mobility. A new pergola gives protection from wind and shade from sun .
