Winter impressions 2012

We are experiencing a very unusually cold, wet and stormy winter. Almost every night of January we had frost, some nights with sever and prolonged temperatures below freezing point. There even was some snow.

snow covered mountains surrounding the farm

  However there were some nice days, too.

tall walnut trees with greenhouse in the background

Trees with juice oranges

Navel oranges

Bergamot fruit

Miniscule

On cold and windy winter days, when we have to stay inside all day by the fire it is sometimes good just to lay back and watch something nice, cute and heart warming. Perhaps something that reminds us of summer.
We found on the internet these really fantastic short french films called  Miniscule - the private life of insects.
They are about  dreams and adventures of little animated insects in a very gorgeous and natural setting combined with beautiful nature sounds.
This is one of our favourites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zFiSkiFaQg

Other favourites of ours are:
Wormies in Lovehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MleXPVxLGX0
Ants and walnuthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO7VCGTkBfQ

Refridgeration the natural way

Perishable food like vegetables can be quite easily kept cool  without using electricity. Extending the shelf live of food is  very important to ensure food security.
All these natural fridges that work without electricity make use of the cooling effect of evaporating water.

Here are a few examples of how this is done

1. The Coolgardie safe, developed in Australia




Picture source http://www.biggles.com.au/index.html
Read more about the Coolgardie safe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe

2. The Zeer pot in pot fridge, from Africa
Consisting of 2 clay pots, one inside the other, the space between the pots is filled with sand that has to be kept wet. Perishable food is put inside the smaller pot. The cooling effect is achieved by evaporation of water.