Monday, October 31, 2011

PORTUGAL – Postcard from Funchal – Madeira Island, Portugal to Braga, Portugal.

 
Postcard with stamp of 0.32€ from the 2010’s ‘Portuguese Cheese’ stamps issue posted on October, 21 2011.

(Special thanks to my Best friend Alberto Velez Grilo)

Portuguese Cheese (1st group)

Portuguese Cheese




Portugal – given its continental narrowness – cannot pride itself of having good pastures, especially for larger stock… However, in the areas where the high grass is scarce, the goats and the sheep reign. The Azores is quite another story. There, on the island of São Miguel, and on the other blessed island “Her Ladyship the Cow” is empress. That is, the true dairy cow, not the vacuum cleaner transvestite as «marcolina cow» in the paradigmatic translation of “vacum cleaner” done by some, touched by the American greatness of local emigration…

Therefore, and also due to the poverty of the soil, herd tending has always been present in the Lusian lands, as a very old livelihood, quite often supplementing in a sustainable manner, avant la letter, the tilling of the soil, while the payment for the “pasture” that fed the furry or woolly cattle that returned the natural manure to the earth was negotiated between farmers and shepherds.

It is quite obvious that in herd land the cheese is the king. Cheese is perhaps the oldest man made processed food. After that hunting, fishing and fruit and vegetable collecting times were by gone, and after man had learned to master the secret of fire, Cheese appeared. Historic documents place its genesis in the valley between two rivers and in Egypt, around 3 500 B.C. In Portugal, cheese has certainly been produced since Neolithic times.

Cheese making, whichever the cheese, is an art. At least that is the case with hand-made cheese, intuitively worked by experienced hands, where knowledge is passed down from the mother to the shepherd’s daughter who attentively follows every details: The temperature of the hand, the curdling time, the turning of the cheeses and the changing of the bands, the pastures of broom or other graminaceous plants of the higher lands which greatly influence the flavour of the final product.

As a tribute to the shepherds, to their wives and to all the people who still work in the traditional Portuguese cheese-dairies, we have made this commemorative stamp issue, made up of two series, portraying all the Lusitanian cheeses with POD and geographical indication (GI), leaving the description of the cheeses to Master José Quitério.



Azeitão Cheese

Made from the milk of the Bordaleira sheep race, sub-race Saloia (in present times from other imported races as well), raw, curdled with cardoon, three weeks normal aging time.

Shaped as small cylinders – 5 cm high, 8 cm in diameter – weighing in average between 250 to 300 g (smaller ones are now appearing on the market).

Pale-yellow or whitish paste, soft, creamy, with a stronger milky taste than the Serra da Estrela cheese (from which it descends).

The production area established by law stretches to the municipalities of Palmela, Sesimbra and Setúbal, in the Lisbon region.



Transmontano Goat’s Cheese

Made from raw goat’s milk of the Serrana race, curdled with animal rennet, aged during two months at least.

Cylindrical shape, 4 to 6 cm high and 12 to 15 cm in diameter, weighing between 600 and 900 g. Hard whitish “blind” paste that has the characteristic flavour of goat’s cheese and a light peppery touch.

Produced in the municipalities of Âlfandega da Fé, Carrazeda de Ansiães, Freixo de Espada à Cinta, Macedo de Cavaleiros, Mirandela, Mogadouro, Torre de Moncorvo and Vila Flor (Bragança district), as well as Murça and Valpaços (Vila Real district), located in the north-east of Portugal.



Rabaçal Cheese

Made from sheep’s and goat’s milk, in the ideal proportion of 75% of the first to 25% of the second, raw, curdled with animal rennet, it is aged for at least three weeks.

Cylindrical shape, about 5 cm high and 12 cm in diameter, it weighs between 300 and 500 g.

Whitish-unpolished paste, semi-hard, with little or no holes, it has a particular flavour.

The production area is mostly concentrated in the old village of Rabaçal (Penela municipality, Coimbra district) and a few neighbouring villages. The certificate that instituted the POD includes the municipalities of Alvaiázere, Ansião, Condeixa-a-Nova, Penela, Pombal and Soure, in the centre of Portugal.



Serra da Estrela Cheese

Made of pure, raw sheep’s milk, of the Bordaleira race, Serra da Estrela variety, curdled with cardoon, aged between 30 to 45 days (for the soft cheese).

Cylindrical shape, about 6 cm high and 15 in diameter and weighing between 300 and 1 500 g.

Ivory coloured paste, soft, creamy, “blind” or with a few small holes, exquisite flavour, slightly acidulated.

The legally defined area of production, which better opinions considered to be excessive, covers the municipalities of Carregal do Sal, Celorico da Beira, Fornos de Algodres, Gouveia, Mangualde, Manteigas, Nelas, Oliveira do Hospital, Penalva do Castelo and Seia, and a few administrative parishes in the municipalities of Aguiar da Beira, Arganil, Covilhã, Guarda, Tábua, Tondela, Trancoso and Viseu, in the centre-north of Portugal.



São Jorge Cheese

Made of raw cow’s milk curdled with animal rennet.

Shaped as a sort of wheel-type big cylinder between 10 to 15 cm high, its diameter varies between 25 and 35 cm and its weight between 8 to 12 kg.

Hard, straw-yellow paste with many tiny irregular holes, brittle, with an individual flavour and slightly spicy touch. Minimum aging three month.

The production area is that of the whole Island of São Jorge, Azores.



Technical Details

Date of Issue: 21 June 2010

Values: 0,32€, 0,32E, 0,47€, 0,68 and 0,80€

Designer: Comcept Advertising

Printer: INCM

Process: 4-colour offset lithography

Size: stamps 40 mm x 30.6 mm

Perforation: Cross of Christ 13 x 13

Paper: White TR CPST331 110g/m2

Watermark:

Sheet: sheets of 50 stamps

ISEP – Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto

Founded in 1852, from the rise of Portuguese liberalism, by the force of an idea of ​​progress: Portugal, a country with a predominantly rural structure and services needed to take a step forward. It was Fontes Pereira de Melo, Minister of Public Works, Trade and Industry, who launched the first public system of industrial education, based on the idea of ​​education for development, where our parent company, Industrial School of Porto was one of two first, in comparison with the Polytechnic Academy, whose reference model was the elitist rhetoric of the academy and the University of Coimbra who, unable to respond to emerging needs, had been contested by the most enlightened intellectuals.

In 1864, under the aegis of the Deputy Chief John Chrysostom de Abreu e Sousa, carried out a comprehensive reform and expansion of industrial education. Teaching "superior" industrial is then divided into two parts: the first, included training common to all arts, trades and industrial occupations, integrating two components: theoretical, taught at the school, teaching and practical training in workshops or the State, under agreement in private factories, and the second included the teaching expertise of certain arts and crafts, as well as various public services such as public works, mines and telegraph.

Under this reform is the Industrial School Industrial Institute of Porto, forming "masters", "drivers" and "factory managers".

In 1881, during a visit to Oporto of King Louis, the then Minister of the kingdom Tomás Ribeiro and the Minister of Public Works Rodrigues de Freitas, proposed merging the two top schools in the industrial education - the Polytechnic Academy of Oporto and the Industrial Institute of Oporto - a single, named Polytechnic Institute of Oporto.

The School Board, whereas this project was contrary to its historical course - refusing the proposed merger with the Polytechnic Academy, thus giving the body an institutional culture that continues today: to teach, not only learn the knowledge, but also know-how.

Throughout the period of the First Republic discussed whether Portugal should be essentially a country of industries or an agricultural country, this indecision by diluting the definition of an industrial policy that would be saying abroad. And the advent of the ‘New State’ does not significantly alter the status quo. It remains a situation of great uncertainty, which has to last until almost our time.

The structure of industrial education will reflect just that: only between 1947 and 1950 is redefining the role of the Industrial Institutes in a review of the industrial education, placing them at the apex of the structure of industrial education, calling his teaching of "the middle technical industrial sector”, with the aim of training of engineering technicians in all specialities classic, fitted with a profile that enables them to direct entry into the productive system in the performance of operational functions necessary for the top rising industrial development.

In 1974, by Decree-Law 830/74 of 31 December the former Industrial Institutes became Institutes in Engineering.

In the preamble of this decree-law is recognized that "the Industrial Institutes are schools with a long history that shaped generations of professionals who, arguably, have a fundamental contribution to the development of Portuguese industry."

It is therefore within the scope of this recognition that the Institutes are inserted into the structure of higher education, independent schools as having legal personality and administrative autonomy, becoming the Industrial Institute of Oporto in the current Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), empowered to grant, among others, the degrees of bachelor and graduate in engineering, matching the professional qualifications of engineer and technical engineer.

In 1989 the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto is integrated into the Polytechnic subsystem, through its training model to integrate two different courses: the Bachelor, lasting three years, and the High Specialization Courses, with the duration of two years and access by tender document, which, together with a Bachelor consistent with it, conferred the bachelor's degree.

In 1998, under a new reform of the Polytechnic subsystem, the ISEP is to teach the current two-stage degrees, characterized by its structure in two cycles - a bachelor's degree with duration of three years - which allows the insertion in the labour market followed by a second cycle of two years - mainly frequented under post-employment - to obtain the degree.

In 2006, under Portugal's accession to the Bologna Declaration, the ISEP will provide a new curriculum, consisting of undergraduate and master's degrees in various areas of engineering, thus initiating a new cycle of its long history.

In 2008, Anibal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal, enhances the quality of work done in the ISEP for the Roadmap for Science. The passage through ISEP is the first official visit of a Portuguese head of state to a Polytechnic Institute. The ISEP assigns the first post-master's degree Bologna.
This would merely perpetuate the slogan "Know How".

Sent 31 of October 2011


Registered covers to friends in Denmark, Greece, India (2), Latvia and Singapore

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Welcome the 20000th Visitors


Aqui ficam as melhores saudações Filatélicas, para os visitantes de todo o mundo, que diariamente visitam o meu blog.

(English version)
Here are the best Philatelic greetings to visitors from all over the world who daily visit my blog.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Egas Moniz – First Portuguese Nobel Prize

Portugal - Europa 83 miniature sheet
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz (29 November 1874 – 13 December 1955), known as Egas Moniz, was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of modern psychosurgery, and developing the surgical procedure termed leucotomy, for which he became the first Portuguese national to receive a Nobel Prize in 1949 (shared with Walter Rudolf Hess).
He held academic positions, wrote many medical articles and also served in several legislative and diplomatic posts in the Portuguese government. In 1911 he became professor of neurology in Lisbon until his retirement in 1944. At the same time, he pursued a demanding political career.

Education and career
Moniz was born in Avanca, Estarreja, Portugal as António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz. He attended Escola do Padre José Ramos and Colégio de S. Fiel dos Jesuítas, studied medicine at the University of Coimbra, then trained in neurology in Bordeaux and Paris. In 1902, he became a professor in the Department of Neurology, but soon left that post on entering politics in 1903. He established the Partido Republicano Centrista and represented it in the Portuguese parliament from 1903 to 1917. Later he was Portugal's ambassador to Madrid (1917) and minister of foreign affairs (1918). Meanwhile he continued to practice medicine and teach physiology and anatomy, and in 1911 he became a professor of neurology at the newly-established University of Lisbon.

Technical Details:
Denomination: 37$50
Date of issue: 5 May 1983
Designer: José Luis Tinoco
Size of stamp: 27 * 38 mm
Perforation: 12 ¾
Paper: Emanel with fluorescent band
Sheet composition: 50
Printing process: offset lithography
Printer: Lito Maia, Porto

LATVIA – Cover from Riga, Latvia to Braga, Portugal

First Day Cover with commemorative stamp of the ‘Zanis Lipkes Memorials’ issue posted on July, 4 2011.
(Special thanks to my best friend Juris Tarvids)

Žanis (real name - Jānis) Lipke (1900-1987) is the most widely known Latvian rescuer of Jews during the Second World War. Together with his spouse Johanna (1904-1990) he saved at least 55 Jews in the Nazi-occupied Latvia, later receiving the honorific Righteous among the Nations, established in 1953 by the Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Center founded by the Knesset, and a medal with the inscription Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.