Learning to grow our own fruit , herbs and vegetables wasn’t something we’d planned on getting too invloved with. There are a hundred-and-one renovation jobs to get stuck into and our priorities didn’t really involve any cultivation projects.

However, a few months into life here at Casa Grande and Julie is already getting excited and eager to plant, pot and grow. It’s strange, even without green fingers (certainly in my case), in rural Portugal you kind of have to get involved with your land, even if it’s only a small area you have.

So what have we got? We have a fig tree next to our barn (which seems to have sole squatters rights at the moment!) and a small, lonely apple tree at the end of the courtyard. By far the best performer though is our sole orange (laranga) tree, sitting to the side of the main house. It makes for a great view from what will become our master bedroom window.

Uncertain of the pruning, growing and picking seasons, I plundered a few oranges in mid November just to try them. Couldn’t resist. And I must say they were pretty good – though a bit young and sharpe to taste! Perhaps a little longer on the branches required at that time of year. Pure goodness though.

Update: Eating in April is on a different level!

I can easily see that we will get more involved with growing and the garden area in the future. Even though we have an enormouse house renovation project ahead of us, we are already finding ourselves in the jardim area most of these early spring days! Watch this space as we’ll post updates as we learn more and grow more.

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