Beautiful Alamedas - ORGANIC ALAMEDAS

¿CON QUÉ TE VAS A ENCONTRAR?

WHAT YOU WILL FIND AT "BEAUTIFUL ALAMEDAS"

"BA" is a house with a pure and clean atmosphere, and, of course, smoke free.
Cleaning is one of the many of our advantages, and I am talking about a very well cared type of cleaning by using micro-fibre cloths; ones for kitchens; others for bathrooms; white fabric cloths for windows, crockery and dishes; yellow for wooden furniture and metal. And we do not use bleach neither dangerous chemicals. All our cleaning products are organic.
Organic shower gel at bathrooms (you must ask for these ones and we charge 10€ extra.)
Magazines about organic life style like "The Ecologist" or "Integral", or organic vegetarian cook books.

ORGANIC FARM

The distance between the house and the agroturismo is one kilometre and a half.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ON SPRING AND SUMMER TIME?

On July and August, you can come to the vegetable garden and pick up by yourselves all type of vegetables: tomatoes; lettuces; egg plants; onions; peppers; zucchinis; plumbs; pears; and, by the end of August, Reinette apples. Butter texture red pears have ripened by the beginning of August;

You, please, sink your teeth into one of them and you will notice how your mouth fills up with water (from the spring!!!)

Since the middle of September, Gold apple variety begins to ripen and we can start to pick them up; so, get ready to bite into an apple just taken off and feel a pop and how water (from the spring!!!) appears; this way you will taste the fragance of a real apple :-)

Between the end of September and almost the end of October we are completely devoted to the apple harvest: the Gold apple and the Maiden´s Blush variety and, you also can come to pick them up so fresh. You must be very careful while taking them since apples are very delicate fruit: when they fall and hit by themselves, they get spoiled and the injury appears some days later. You will find also figs... Many of them!! :-)

At summer, the vegetable garden begins to decline with first winterfrosts, by November. There are still lefts some tomatoes, egg plants, and peppers, but they are not as bright as on July and August. By November and December you can take cabbage; red cabbage; broccoli; curly endive; and also some potatoes and leeks. It works this way until March.

A partir de marzo, recogemos los útimos puerros, brotes de brócoli, lombardas y repollos y lo abonamos con estiércol, lo aramos y lo dejamos listo para plantar lechugas y repollos. También preparamos los semilleros de lechugas y pimientos.

Since March, we take last leeks, broccolis, red cabbages and cabbages; after; we fertilize with manure; we plough it; and, then, we leave it ready to plant lettuces and cabbages. We also prepare lettuces and peppers seedbeds.

WHAT YOU CAN DO ON WINTER SEASON

You can learn to prune trees.
Also you can pick up some vegetables to cook or to carry to the house (leftovers must be given to the hens.)
You can pick up just put eggs and check the flavour of a fresh egg. Soft-boiled eggs eaten with a tea spoon (by breaking the top of the eggshell) keep just right their proteins and minerals, much better than totally boiled. And, after, you can decorate the eggshell :-)
Sometimes, I like to go round the garden with your kids to recognize vegetables; we can make both; in Spanish either in English.
You can pick up watercresses and cook a salad. Watercresses are rich in iron.

SPRING WATER

La utilizamos para regar el huerto y los árboles y para consumo propio.
We use it to water the vegetable garden and trees, and also for our own consumption.
Vosotros también podéis venir a beber y llevaros algunas botellas mientras estáis alojados en la casa rural.
You also can come and drink, and fill some bottles up while living at the house.

DO YOU ANT YOUR OWN WORKING AREA?

At your arrival, we can assign your own working area, which you will cultivate by following our instructions; water; put sticks for plants to be straight; remove weeds; you must be in charge of it. This experience will be very satisfactory, since what you will eat carries your own hallmark.

LOCAL PRODUCTS

There are in Castronuño two farmers who make bread with organic certification "Candeal" flour (Candeal is an autocthonous variety). They recovered a wheat variety; the "Candeal", on the verge to become extinct. This bread lasts aroun ten days, and taste it is a must to appreciate its texture. It is much better than conventional bread.
You can also visit the handcrafted cheese factory and shop which, although, it is not provided with the organic certification, the Toro and Medina del Campo organic shops sell it because if its purity. They received the "Cincho" Castilian award and they have the "Marca Natural".

BESIDES...

You always will find on our breakfast with fair trade coffee, usually Intermon Oxfam.

ORGANIC DISHES

In the same way we offer our cold suppers to welcome you and the delicious breakfasts, we offer you, home made dishes with seasonal products from the vegetable and fruit garden.

You only have to tell us about your preferences and we will desing a tasty and nourishing menu for you.

FINALLY...

Call us for any question or topic you may be interested in.
We offer special discounts for "The Ecologist" magazine subscribers.

HANDCRAFTED WINE

At the end of September and during October, we enjoy making our organic wine called "PALABRAS", which we elaborate with our grapes. It is a magic moment in which we invite you to take part and taste wine on its elaboration process.

Cold winters are witness of how we prune vineyards. These ones begin to sprout by the Spring; once it sprouts, we prune it again by getting rid of those left on winter pruning and only using sulphur powder. We do not use any chemical, so this way we reduce crop-dusting.

At the end of July, grapes, still green and with a firm texture, begin to ripen and their colour changes turning, suddenly, red. Since then, vineyards make the effort to accumulate sugar in their grapes to, by September, be filled with sugars and flavours. During September and October months we visit constantly the vineyard, where we taste grapes; firstly their fleshes, then, their skin and pips. All this gives us some information about how vines are making grow their grapes. Finally, we begin to harvest when we consider that sugar and acidity balance has already done.

We harvest in a slow way at the time that we enjoy the immense gift which means to inaugurate a new season. We let grapes ferment with their own autochthonous yeasts, which provide with character to the vineyard and season. Then, we will let it settle into barrels to check, some months later, that it has kept its bright fruity flavors and incorporated those nice oak notes.

And, from the barrel, whithout touching nor filtering, we bottle it. It is, at this moment, when our organic wine is giving bird, to "whom", we call "PALABRAS" ("Words", in English), to honor all words have been with us since the beginning with enthusiasm and passion.

We are waiting for you to be with us during PALABRAS´ elaboration!!