A Flavour of Spain: Iznajar Feria

Lots of colourful flamenco dresses

It’s amazing how the time goes around as here we are heading for the close of October

The weather has been gorgeous all month although we have decided to stop the courtyard cinemas as the evenings are a little chilly now. Time now for log fires and central heating in the evenings.

Lots to do here as I’ve just picked a load of quinces which I am going to preserve for next year, the olives have been partially picked and are already soaking in water to get rid of the bitterness. Also we've picked loads of pomegranates down at the Mill so that means I can get down to the hard work of shelling them all and making some pomegranate molasses for next year's courses. This is, of course in between Nick and ourselves working on some long sessions as he takes shots as we prepare platefuls of luscious food for the cookbook which is finally taking shape.

We really enjoyed the agricultural fair in Tapia this year. There had been heavy clouds just before the fair and everyone thought the worst, but the clouds rolled away and the sun stayed with us. So all the tents went up and we had a great display of local cheeses, dried fruits, mountain hams, olive oils, and some lovely goats, not to mention all the agricultural machinery on display. I’ll have some photos but at the moment they are too large and I have to process them down to jpgs.

Meantime here are some photos of the feria in Iznajar just recently, which we also enjoyed - lots of music and so many different flamenco dresses. The noise of everyone talking was quite unbelievable, and at times made the brass bands hard to hear!