Day 11, Horse Farm visit

The horse farm has 1000 acres of land.

Cows grazing on the farm.

Lunch was set up inside this hall for us.  

Several helpers had already been busy preparing our lunch when we arrived.

Hearty vegetable soup with beans.

Portuguese stewed chicken, rice mixed with vegetable, salad, and red wine.

Two horses in a barn.

Before the horse show, Maria explained her farm's horse breeding business to us
in Portuguese, then Eduardo interpreted into English.

Maria's older son showed us a couple of horses. This was a young horse.

A 14-year old horse that has a sentimental relationship with the family.

The house on the ranch where Maria's family members stay when they come to the ranch.
The family normally lives in Lisbon, one-hour's drive away.

The interior of the house on the ranch.

On leaving the ranch, Eduardo saw Iberian pigs in the field, so he ran out of the bus
to fetch some acorns, to show us these were the acorns the pigs ate.
These acorns were oval and bigger than the acorns found in New England.

We stopped the bus to see the cork harvested from cork oak trees.
Eduardo told us the practice of harvesting corks from trees in order to ensure
the trees will remain healthy.
The tree that was marked with an "8" had part of its cork harvested (in year 2008?)
Once harvested, the same trunk cannot be harvested again for at least 8 to 10 years.

On the ground was a pile of cork harvested from trees .