The Market Garden of Portugal

Heading north of Porto the land use changed quite dramatically. No longer were there fields of sheep, goats and cattle. Poly tunnels were the main vista along with very neat rows of small plots of cultivated land. A bit like Kent but with much smaller plots, each growing a different crop.

The one thing that has amazed me throughout the whole journey north from the Algarve is how beautiful all the flowers are and how much the Portuguese enjoy their flowers also. Most gardens are very well kept with a variety of blooms which come in every colour of the rainbow.

We are now 30-40kms north of Porto and along all the roads are tractors with trailers filled with all sorts of very fresh vegetables. Next to each of these is a small wizened Portuguese woman wearing a typical black hat, usually sitting under an umbrella to protect her from the sun.

They say we are fussy about how our veg looks in the supermarkets at home, but if you could see how large and clean this veg is straight from the grower it would put our supermarket veg to shame. It also tastes fantastic.

Unfortunately the roads have been very busy as we’ve been driving along so we haven’t got a photo of the ‘tractor stalls’ but below are a couple of photos taken just along the road from our present site to give you an idea of the scale of the arable farming. (Small very well cared for plots with a poly tunnel and a family taking care of their land. The equipment they use is also very primitive compared to UK standards. Everything we’ve seen is planted and reaped by hand.

Another unusual thing about this area is the use of cobbles. We have got used to coming across cobbled streets in cities and towns, but here all the country lanes are paved with cobbles………it makes for interesting towing!! (Although on the plus side it does mean that there are very few pot-holes.)