Erica and Vavaldo HelpX Goat farm

We walked about a km down the dirt road then up a short steep driveway. In the courtyard was Erica. We went on HelpX looking for goat farms and self-sufficient set-ups. We found Erica and Vavaldo in Bensafrim and wanted to come and help out and learn to make cheese and learn about the Portuguese culture and self-sufficiency. Erica was originally from Germany but moved to Portugal 20 years ago with her two kids and met Vavaldo while he was building her house of rammed earth and clay. The goats were slightly wild and not friendly petting goats. They also didn’t get in kid so Erica wasn’t making cheese. We were happy to stay in our camper by the stream.

We arrived on 10th Dec and Erica said we could stay in the nearest village-Barao de Sao Joao. We were next to the dump and there were lots of stray dogs. Anneke and Thomas walked into the village and discovered little grocery stores, local bars, a post office and antique/second-hand shop and got some oranges that were probably from the tree in his garden.

The next day we went and parked below the driveway in the valley. Vavaldo was making concrete for his courtyard and William and Thomas helped and didn’t say much just lot’s of sign language. The rest rebuilt the compost pit. Erica’s Mum made us some spiced apple pancakes and some soaked salted beans to eat like peanuts, we put them in soup. There were quite a few people around. There was a French boy playing with Johanna. We didn’t want to go back to the car park/rubbish dump so we parked in the mud by the pigs. We were on the greatest lean we’ve ever had to sleep. We spent the morning in bed talking about ideas for our farm at home and possibly building the house we were going to build before we left but powered by the wind and solar like here. Erica came down and suggested some jobs for us to do. We started cutting large sticks with hatchets and a French lady in the caravan neighbouring us showed us how the Portuguese used to cut their wood. They put the saw up-right between their legs and moved the wood up and down the blade. She also gave us a chainsaw which we didn’t use. She also told us a story about how Portugal is changing especially since joining the EU government. After lunch we went into town to fill up with water and had hot showers while Mum went shopping. We went up to the house for dinner and brought an Apple crumble which Erica had never had. We had simple/organic/Portuguese food-a huge pot of bean flavoured with herbs and things. We moved our camper to a flatter spot further away from the house.

On the 13th William and Dad rebuilt a stone retaining wall washed away from all the rain. The rest of us went up into the hill to bundle sticks for firewood and make a firebreak. Thomas helped Valvado rebuild the barricade the dog was jumping over into more like a fence you’d see in NZ. We discovered more of the surroundings and the farm. There’s a huge vegetable garden by the creek and some small fields for crops. There are lot’s of tobacco plants for Vavaldo. There’s a pond full of frogs and Salamanders and cork oak trees. As well as a normal bathroom there’s a composting toilet and outdoors shower for summer. We had dinner by candle light because the camper is out of power because we haven’t driven much. Maddy and Anneke had been trying to look after a sick goat but discovered it had died in the stable. The stable has hay in the loft and pigeons in one side. There’s chickens everywhere and a pregnant donkey. Erica asked us if we wanted to stay longer and learn how they kill a pig and make sausage.

The next day we watched Vavaldo sacrifice two 6 month old pigs and drain the blood for Black pudding and Blood sausage. He then burned the hair and prepared it. He kept all the meat and hear, lungs, liver. The longer we stayed the more we liked it and it became more of an exchange. Mum would wash clothes by the creek and we’d bundle sticks. We started herding the goats down the road to eat grass in neighbouring paddocks. Thomas stayed in the camper and wrapped presents and did some ‘housework’ while the rest of us prepared the meat for sausage. We were invited to lunch-liver and white wine, heart and rice and spinach and olive oil soup. Mum and Dad drank homemade wine Erica had traded a pig for.

The 17th was Anneke’s 13th Birthday. We had pancakes, bacon and eggs. And did other things to make it a special day. We had ‘After eight mints’ and a candle as a cake. There were quite a few mosquitoes and we got lots of bites, we still have to use candles. Mum and Anneke stuffed meat and spices into casings for the sausages and Valvado smoked them on the veranda.

It was raining on the 18th when we left Erica and Vavaldo. We had an interesting experience and learnt about the Portuguese culture and self-sufficiency. We were a little sad to leave. We drove to Lagos-a completely different world only 30km away.