Kitchen Garden in France

A few Garden Birds

2012-02-08T15:30:00.001+01:00

My neighbour Michael has taken the opportunities presented by our recent snowfall to take yet more amazing photographs. This time he has compiled a set of the most amazing pictures of our garden birds. Please enjoy them, and, once again, a big thank you to Michael, for making them available to me for our enjoyment In this very cold weather, please remember to put out a little food and water for your local birds. I believe that they will reward you many times over during the coming year.

Cotton wool??

2012-02-06T20:51:00.001+01:00

My bedroom has a pair of French Windows hat exit directly out into the garden. Most mornings, I leap out of bed and spring to the French windows and, throw them open to allow me access to the closed shutters, in order to both let in the morning sun, as well as to survey the latest changes in my garden. Well, this may be a slight enhancement of reality,In fact, more often than not, I fall out of bed, stumble across the bedroom and try to focus enough to unlock the catches holding the windows closed!

This morning however, I looked out to find that overnight someone, or possibly something, had chosen to paint the whole of my garden white. Dazzlingly white!

It was so bright it shocked my senses awake and I realised that there was about 6 inches (150mm) of snow lying on the floor. The sun was up enough to be making the whole thing far too bright but, I resisted my urge to close the shutters again and return to a more sombre life, and picked up my camera.

Now, I know that to many of you 6” of snow is not even worth commenting on. Indeed, before I came here I regularly coped with much greater levels of snow, including one year when I actually couldn’t get my car down our lane as the snow was so deep it had completely covered the bridge carrying the railway over the lane.

But since I moved here to France, snow has not been a big feature of my life. Ignoring my winter holidays in New England, I’ve probably only seen snow on three of four days in the past seven years. So, as you can imagine, 6 inches of the stuff is notable

The snow got me to thinking.

One of the things I try and do is keep a note of the temperatures and rainfall here. I log a maximum and minimum temperature every day and I also log the rainfall each week.

On looking back, I see that exactly the same date, but last year, we had temperatures of 17 C (63F) high and –2 C (28F) low. The snow had arrived following a day when the high reached a staggering -3C (27F) and the low sagged down to –12C (10F).

I must say that my little collection of potted herbs, that live just outside the back door, are looking particularly forlorn.

Roll on Spring, it’s just around the corner I believe!

Sowing for 2012

2012-01-22T17:47:00.001+01:00

I sowed my first seeds of 2012 today. Just a few cauliflowers and some Antirrhinum's which I'm hoping to get to grow in a corner bed, I use for attracting insects into the "potager". I also planted up some pumpkin seeds I had germinated.... I know it's a bit early but hey!!

I found those pumpkin seeds recently and wrote a piece about the germination test I ran on them. Well, they weren't at all good, and only about 35% germinated, 7 out of 20, so I decided to trash the whole batch and dispatched them to the compost heap. However, those seven that germinated...

I had a good look and, as they all seemed healthy enough, I carefully potted them up. If I get some pumpkin plants, it will be a bonus.

Sowing the seeds got me to thinking about this time last year when I had such great hopes for the garden, hopes that, sadly in 2011 were to be dashed. I'm not going to say that I've bounced back, but, maybe I could say I've limped back and with some kind weather, not too many pests and lots of great luck, I'm hoping to get my garden back into shape this year.

I'll try and keep you all informed of how I get on.

Germination Testing

2012-01-12T14:30:00.001+01:00

Like so many gardeners, well, those of us in the northern hemisphere, I have decided to use the cold winter days to review my stash of seeds before the 2012 season truly arrives. As I'm sure many of you realise, I'm not the most organised and efficient gardener and so, my seed stash is also not particularly well organised or efficient. I have a large collection of seeds, many of which I have saved myself, in a huge catalogue of containers, ranging from rather dainty tiny plastic pill boxes to simple paper coffee filters, where, the seeds, once dried, have never actually been transferred to a better container.

This is one of the reasons I lose quite so much of my seed to mice! The labelling of this wealth of material is equally haphazard, some being very neat and tidy: I have in front of me a rather nice glass jar labelled "Pasteque de Laspissotes saved September 2009", so there's not much doubt there, but I equally have an open box of bean seeds with a note in it that simply says "Poletschka Sept 10" . Even that is ok, except I'm truly certain it should say September 2011, as I remember saving the seed before going away on holiday last year!!!

All this vagary has led me to decide to carry out a germination test to check whether any of these seeds are ok.

I'm using a simple method I've used very successfully before.

I spread about 10 to 20 seeds on a damp paper kitchen towel. I put them about 5cms (2") apart, so that there is no contamination if one or two start to rot. Then I place a second paper towel over the top of the seeds and carefully roll the whole thing into a tube. Once I have the damp tube of seeds I put it into a plastic bag and seal it, before placing it in a warm spot. I have just the place, as my central heating boiler has the luxury of it's own little room and, although well ventilated, it still keeps at a very pleasant temperature. I note when the seeds went in and check every day for signs of germination. I expect most seeds to germinate in about 5 to 10 days, but it varies from variety to variety. I let them carry on for a couple of days after the first shoots appear and then count the number of seeds that have successfully germinated. Something over 80% is what I look for, but if it's only 50% I make a note to sow twice as many seeds at each station to compensate. Remember to keep the paper damp or they won't germinate!

In the past, I have tried to plant on the germinated seeds and have had some success, but it's often a bit early for me to keep them going.

I'll let you know how I get on

Happy New Year, everyone

2012-01-10T18:58:00.001+01:00

I've decided to take a leaf out of my French neighbours book. It seems that you can wish "Happy New Year" throughout the month of January, so, I know I'm late, but it's still January!

The onset of 2012 has started me looking at plans for 2012 and the garden. 2011 was a terrible year for me and I am determined to do better in 2012. So, with that in mind I started today by doing a couple of things.

Firstly, I looked at my planting schedule and decided where everything would be grown. I'm operating a four year rotation and this is the fourth year, so the basics were already worked out. When I built the garden a few years ago I made beds of 1.2m (4ft) by 7.5m (23ft). The 1.2 m width has proved excellent as it gives ample room to reach right into the middle of the bed if needed. In between the beds I left paths, but they are just mowed continually, and the size of my mower, determined the 6--mm (2ft) width of the paths. I also left a double width path right through the middle so that, if needed, I can get my little tractor and trailer through. This years schedule originally called for 19 beds to be used, but I'm going to cut back. I'm intending to grow in 15 of the beds. This is actually the number of beds that are prepared at the moment, so that was also a consideration.

Three of the beds are permanently planted, one with asparagus, one with hazelnut bushes and the third with artichokes in one half and rhubarb in the other. This leaves just 12 beds to prepare, plant and grow. However, I'm also thinking of collecting all my strawberries into one permanent bed, so that will cut it down to 11.

Secondly, I started to prepare the beds. I ran the mower over everything cutting all the weeds down to size and then I started to spread a mulch over each bed. I started today and covered 1 bed. The mulch will suppress weeds and encourage worm activity to improve the soil. This is the same method I used to create the beds, simply covering the area with mulch and leaving it there for a month or two over winter. Today's mulch is leaves and grass, collected as I cut the garden.

I'm hoping to get access to some goat manure, but since changing my car, I don't have a hitch right now, for my trailer, so the manure will have to wait.

The third and last thing I did today was to start to look at my seeds collection. As I said previously, last year was a bit of a disaster for me. I did manage to save some seeds but not many. I lost all my tomato seeds, which makes me very sad. It wasn't so much a disaster as a series of unfortunate events. The drought severely reducing the amount of stock I had to save seeds from and then various losses over winter as the usual culprits, mice, freeloaded whilst I was gadding about in the UK and the USA. I have to dig a bit to see what I have from 2009 but at the moment, in Tomatoes, I think Ionly have Moneymaker and Marmande

So, if anyone is reading this and has any tomato seeds to spare, please email. I normally grow about 6 varieties but this year, I'll grow what ever I can get.

Happier news is that I did save quite a few beans, garlic and onions, so not everything is lost.

Back home again

2011-11-29T22:43:00.001+01:00

Hello again!

I'm back, at long last, from my extended holiday.

I spent a lot of time driving and another lot of time flying. Hardly green!!

This got me to thinking. The airline I flew across the Atlantic Ocean with offered to sell me some "carbon footprint reduction". Whilst I'm sure these schemes are good, I decided that it would be better to create my own "carbon neutralisation" scheme. After a bit of deliberation, I have decided to plant a tree, simply as an offset. The advantage to going down this route, rather than simply paying out some money, is, I believe, two fold: Firstly, I will know exactly what has been planted to cover my trip, and secondly, I will get to enjoy the tree as it grows and matures.

I haven't finally decided on the tree yet. There are various places in my garden where I could site another tree but first I have to decide on the tree.... and even before that, to decide whether it should be an ornamental tree or a fruit producing one. My first thought was to plant another fruit tree, but I'm wondering about planting an ornamental one. This year's drought has left it's mark in my garden and a rather fragile pine tree has succumbed. I was planning to dig it out and simply fill in the hole, but maybe I could find something attractive to replace it.

My holiday was a mix of both happiness and sadness. The trip to the USA was brought about by the recent death of a close relation following a year of battling with cancer. My brother in law was an amazing man and I am very happy to have known him so well. After a career in the military he retired to his beloved New England just a few short years ago. I was always certain that the abundance of Maine lobster figured heavily in this decision, and I have enjoyed many local lobsters with him since he moved there. The lobsters this year, whilst still stunningly delicious, seemed to be missing him too.

Today I've mostly been opening up my home after almost two months lockdown. It was dark when I got here so I've not even seen the garden yet. Tomorrow I shall take a look.

Away for a while

2011-10-30T21:07:00.003+01:00

I’ve left behind the sunny south west France and headed west for a holiday.

After a week or so in the UK I’ve arrived in the USA just in time to be greeted by the worst October snow storm on record. Just a couple of days after I got here, a huge storm swept through the USA closing all airports in New York, Connecticut and Boston. I am, however, pleased to say that here where I’m staying, in Mid Coast Maine, the storm only dumped about an inch of snow, although, just a few miles inland, over a foot was recorded.

The trip over here was interesting. I flew from the UK to Paris, then to Boston and finally to a small airport, known affectionately as Owl’s Head. I traveled on an Airbus, then a Boeing 747 before boarding a smaller plane for the last leg. When I say smaller, I’m talking SMALL!!! Cape Air carried me in an 8 seater Cessna for what was probably the most interesting one hour flight I have ever enjoyed. And yes, they did ask me my weight at check in!!

I’m here in New England until towards the end of November when I shall head back towards the Kitchen Garden in France.

The past year in the garden has been a disaster.

The severe drought caused a complete ban on any form of irrigation ensuring that virtually everything I had planted died. The only things that cropped were a few tomato plants, which produced fruit just before I left, although I did get quite a bit of fruit from the established trees inb the orchard.

When I get back, I shall be turning the ground over in preparation for the 2012 season.

In the mean time, I’m just enjoying the hospitality offered by family in the USA.

A Good Week

2011-08-23T22:07:00.001+02:00

You know how sometimes, you look back and say, "That was a good week"? Then, there are the rather more rare occasions when you look back and say "That was a GREAT week!" I have just had a GREAT week.

It was my birthday. Well, actually, that is not true. It will be my birthday in a few days. It will be one of those birthdays that are "momentous".

Some years ago now, I decided to give up trying to fight my way along in the rat race. I sold my house, collected all my belongings together, packed my car and drove off into the sunset.... or, at least, the cross channel night ferry. I had some small savings and the proceeds from the sale of my property. I guess, the crunch moment for making that decision came whilst I was on vacation. In an idle moment, whilst drinking coffee on a pavement somewhere, I suddenly realised that, even though I was working hard, I was neither enjoying myself, nor making enough money to put up with the grief. I also realised that, after selling my property and buying something in France, I would have more left over than I would earn between then and retirement.

For many years I had idly dreamed of buying a little place in the sun and living a long and happy retirement. My own psyche never seemed to quite come to terms with when that should be, so, at just 53 I upped and left. It's well known amongst my friends that I left the UK, and came to live in France, but only had a holiday cottage which I had rented for just two weeks. I guess it worked out, as I have now lived here for over 7 years.

To get back to my birthday, those of you with an eye for numbers, will by now have realised why it is a "momentous" birthday. If I had not taken that decision back then, this week is the week when I would have been given my carriage clock and sent off into bewilderment. As it is, I took the tent I was given back in 2004 and started to forge a new life here in the Kitchen Garden in France. Oh, I still have that tent, just in case!

But none of these ramblings explain why it has been a GREAT week.

About a month ago, I started to think about these things and decided I wanted to celebrate this "coming of age". This coming of a new era in my third age.

I guess I entered my third age back then when I moved here. But there is the third age and there is the seven year itch, so all in all, seven years after entering the third age seems a great excuse to throw a party. So that's what I decided to do.

For personal reasons I chose to celebrate it a week before my birthday and so it was, that I had about thirty of my friends here to celebrate with me. Their were some old friends of more than 20 years standing, and some new friends, met on the day for the first time. Their were friends I had met for the first time at the start of my adventure here, and friends and neighbours I have met along the way.

It was hard work, but fun, preparing food and drinks for my friends and I had great help from everyone. And then, as the thermometer edged into the upper 30's C (about 100F) I filled the newly imported garden fridges and waited for the guests, who turned up determined to give me the best birthday ever.

Well, They succeeded.

Erm, I'm sure none of you will be surprised when I mention that I didn't take a single photo.... Sorry!

A Lucky Morning

2011-07-15T19:20:00.001+02:00

My friend Michael has been out and about again, "shooting" wildlife.

In a country that takes any form of hunting very seriously and the quiet of a Sunday morning is peppered with the sounds of gunshots, Michael always enjoys telling people he's been out shooting wildlife, only to later clarify that the only shooting he ever does is with his camera.

He emailed these photos to me, this morning.

Apparently he was out at about 5:45am, just waiting, when three hares literally shot past him. They were moving far too fast to capture with his camera so he just watched them run. Seconds later, the cause of the flight came into view, they were being chased by a female deer.

Once the deer had cleared the hares off into the neighbouring sunflower field, she sauntered back, giving Michael the opportunity to take these magnificent photos.

He tells me he thinks it was a lucky morning. I think the skill and devotion that he puts into his photography takes it far beyond the realms of "lucky"

I hope you enjoy the images and, once again, thank Michael for sharing his magical photos with us.

First tomato

2011-06-23T15:04:00.001+02:00

With the severe drought and uncommonly high temperatures here this spring my work in the garden has almost collapsed to nil.

The drought has forced the local administration to impose severe water restrictions, and, whilst I fully understand the need to contain the supplies, I do find the practicalities bizarre to say the least.

At present I'm not allowed to wash my car at home. Well, that's ok. I'm not allowed to water my lawn. Again, that's sad but ok. I am allowed to drive to the local car wash and use it! Silly! I'm not allowed to water my vegetable plot. Which means I cannot grow my own vegetables but am therefore forced to buy farmed vegetable that have probably travelled thousands of miles to get to me. Where, exactly, is the sense in that?

Anyway, all that aside, I today found a lone tomato luxuriating in the sun. I got my tomatoes in the ground long before the water restrictions were imposed and I laid a mulch over them which is about 300mm (12 inches) thick. They are struggling but surviving.

I'm glad to have this particular tomato, as it was a plant from my friend the nurseryman, at Villereal market. It was not a variety I had ever heard of called Cobra. Searching on the internet, I could only find an F1 variety called that, but my man assures me it is not F1 and the seeds can be saved. In fact, when I asked him, he rather looked at me like I was stupid, and asked in return, "How do you think I get the plants? I just save the seed from one year to the next!" which, thinking about it, I know is true for everything else he sells!

So I now have a nice Cobra tomato, which at the moment I'm managing to resist the urge to eat, so that I will have seeds next year.

The only things I'm growing this year, apart from my permanent beds and the orchard, are tomatoes, beans and courgettes (zucchini).

Just Catching up

2011-06-08T12:56:00.001+02:00

The lack of recent posts on here, coupled with quite a few appearing on my food and recipe blog (Ian's French Kitchen) reflect that for a while I've been unable to carry out much gardening.

There have been a variety of reasons including some health problems (again!) and also the drought.

A hard drought has hit south west France for the past few months and slowly, gardening has got tougher and tougher. I've already written about the drought and until the last few days it has remained largely unbroken.

The ground has been drying out and I have huge cracks now right across the vegetable garden and orchard. The cherry crop was prolific but fairly small compared to previous years.

However, a mild storm brought some rain in on Friday, about 1.5mm, and then we got a further 10mm on Saturday. It has rained gently on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as well and I noticed this morning that more rain has come in overnight.

Don't get excited for us though. My rain gauge this morning is only showing 25mm since Sunday, which is a nice amount, but not nearly enough to turn the tide. I mentioned in a previous post that Biarritz, just down the coast from here, normally gets about 135mm of rain during January but this year only 18mm fell. On top of that shortfall, the rains that should have fallen in February, March, April and May have been virtually non-existent.

But at least some rain has now come and my water butts have been refilled as the grass turns green again.

Sadly, one of the restrictions imposed by the authorities in an attempt to contain the water shortage has been to impose a total ban on watering vegetable gardens. I understand the need to contain water and I agree that we must all do our bit. I find it sad though. I'm growing tomatoes and beans, both of which take considerably less water per kilo than say sweetcorn, a common crop here. What's more, the tomatoes grown in my garden, and used in my kitchen use substantially less water than the tomatoes I shall now be buying, which were grown in Spain and transported. Specifically targeting vegetable gardens seemed a very strange thing for a government to do and I am absolutely certain has no basis, whatsoever, in the desire to save water.

A farmer friend of mine, who runs a permaculture farm, tells me that he has had notice banning him for taking water from the river on his property, his normal source for all his irrigation.

Still, perhaps the rain now starting to fall will at least ease the situation and prevent the onset of the tougher restrictions being discussed where water will be cut off completely for a few days a week

I have been suffering from a problem with my leg and foot again and as a result have not been able to walk very far. This has led me to spend a lot of time in the kitchen making all sorts of things. My cooking blog has seen the benefit.

I'm hoping to get across to the vegetable patch this afternoon to check up on my beans and tomatoes, although, having had the total ban on watering for a couple of weeks now, I'm not sure what I'll find.

The latest e-coli situation rages on across Europe and further.

Day after day we hear new reports of what the supposed source of the bacteria might be, The German authorities leapt at the opportunity to blame Spanish cucumbers when the science was, apparently, very uncertain. Subsequently, they have had to do a U turn and accept that the source is likely within Germany. They then turned their attention to a bean sprout farmer within Germany and said, categorically, that was the source, until they again changed their minds.

The situation has been ongoing for so long now that it is likely the true source will never be found.

I believe that Germany made a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters and hide the failing of their own systems. I also find it hard to believe that, when here in Europe, we have such good food traceability, Germany, one of Europe's leading countries, cannot trace an e-coli outbreak..... Oh, unless of course, they don't want to.

Now, the farmers in Spain and the farmer in Germany are demanding compensation for their losses. I believe they are fully entitled to it. However, the EU has stepped in and said it will pay. This is NOT an EU problem, it is simply the result of an EU country, Germany, hiding the truth. I have no doubt saying that the German government should be made to pay all the compensation and not spread the load across all taxpayers in Europe. The taxpayers across Europe will have a big enough job salvaging the reputation of all our farmers around the world. A situation only existing because of the callous failings of one nation.

Tomatoes

2011-05-22T19:53:00.001+02:00

Today, I planted out the last of my tomato plants. I've cut back quite a lot this year and am growing just 31 plants. The ongoing drought is making me a bit nervous of having too much stuff in the ground that needs lots of water and also, the ground has had so little moisture that it is baked pretty hard making planting anything quite a challenge.

This year I have planted 2 Ananas, 4 Marmande, 6 Veeroma, 8 Moneymaker and 9 Ian's Red Cherry. These have all been raised from seed saved last year. I had some excitement with my seeds over the winter and lost most of the Ananas seeds and all my Golden Sunrise seeds to a passing mouse.

This year I'm also growing 2 Cobra for the first time. This variety was recommended to me by the seedling man at Villereal market. His produce is raised very close to here and his seedlings have always done well for me. I chatted to him about different varieties of tomato some weeks ago and he persuaded me to buy two of his Cobra. He claims they are quite an early tomato. Looking at the photo taken today, the fruit is certainly far in advance of any other tomato plant in my garden. As I said, I've never grown Cobra before so I'm waiting to see how it turns out. I like the seedling man. He sets up his small stall well off the main market where he can park his van and simply gets out whatever you want. He has a small table which looks very unprepossessing but I know his van to be a veritable Tardis, with far more coming out than it could possibly hold. Tjhe other thing is that he shares this bit of road with just one other trader. This trader doesn't even have a table, preferring to simply open the back doors of his van and allow you to peer in. If you want to buy then he will happily pull out the crates for you to select whichever live animal you have chosen. Yes, that's all he sells, live animals, chickens and pigs mainly, but often a goose or some ducks.

The drought continues unabated with no rainfall at all recorded by me for the past 12 days but the garden is fairing with mixed success. I had two olive trees that had been in the ground about 2 years. They are planted adjacent to one another... one is fairly happy with the drought and occasional drop of water I throw at it but the other seems to have dies, although I'm still watering it from time to time as it seems to be holding onto it's greenness. I had a great crop of cherries but they came and went much faster than usual this year. I guess that also is an effect of the drought. My walnut tress are laden with fruit. I've nowhere near finished eating the walnuts I collected last year yet and looking at the trees this should be another good year for walnuts Elsewhere, I have some of the best roses I have seen since I moved here about 7 years ago and a pot of Iris has flowered for the first time since we arrived. To be honest, I inherited the pot when we moved here and always meant to dig out the bulbs and do something with it.... but the best of intentions and all that,... but this year I needed to move the pot so I put it out in the sunlight a bit more, mainly to remind me that I needed to deal with it and, hey presto, beautiful Yellow Japanese Irises arrived.

Drought

2011-05-21T21:50:00.001+02:00

Another Saturday and another visit to the market at Villereal. Today however, I didn't take the kitchen table with me, mind you, I don't often take the kitchen table with me, it's just that my camera was still on it when I arrived at the market.

Today, the talk all around the market was of the "secheresse", the drought. This spring has been extremely dry here, In fact, it was dry last autumn, through the winter and now in spring. It's getting harder to believe that this area might be known as Aquitaine because the Romans thought it was a wet place.

Normally, in this part of the world, we have a very dry summer and a dryish autumn, then the winter and spring rains come and refill all the aquifers, reservoirs and even restore the rivers and lakes. Then the cycle starts again. However, this year the cycle has been sadly distorted.

I read today that Biarritz, a little way south of here, normally gets about 138mm of rain during the month of January. This January they had just 18mm. Apparently, in the ten weeks from the 1st March, the weather authorities have recorded about 60% less precipitation than normal, with my own garden records showing just a few millimetres of rain in the past three months.... that's February, March and April, which should be the wettest quarter....

Laurent, one of the greengrocers at the market told me that he was already seeing price rises on fruit and vegetables and that he expected the situation to get worse. Rene, a friend who runs a Permaculture farm just a few kilometres away was also telling me how the drought was affecting him. He has just finished planting a field of potatoes, right next to the river so he can pump the water easily for irrigation. Now, as a result of restrictions imposed because of the drought, he has been banned from extracting water from the river. We all recognise the need to leave what water there is, still flowing to support the wildlife, but it's astonishing that these measures are needed in May

Here in my own garden things are equally bleak. I've already taken the decision not to plant numerous beds this year as the drought really bites, and then, today at the market, I discovered that the "departement" to the north of us has now imposed restrictions banning the watering of gardens!

On the other hand, our vacationing guests are all enjoying the sunshine and hot dry weather! I even took a dip in the pool myself today to cool off a bit

At the moment I'm still able to water and I have cut right back on plantings. I'm hoping to get enough water to get beans and tomatoes but some of the other things won't go out unless we get a change in the weather. I'm glad that most of my orchard is well established and hoping that I'll get fruit crops to make up for the other losses. We got off to a good start with a great crop of cherries.

Broad Beans with ???

2011-05-15T13:59:00.001+02:00

I'm a bit behind picking my Broad Beans and didn't get them in until today. Most of them were fine, but quite a few had gone black and slimy inside .

I'm not sure what the cause is and would welcome any suggestions you all might have!

I've not had much problem with the beans. They were sown last november and have over wintered. This is the same way I grew them last year without problem. The winter this year was milder but not much with temperatures dropping to minus 10°C or about 15°F. This spring the weather has been unusually warm and dry with virtually no rain over the past two months until this week when we have had about 15mm (1/2 inch)

I had a slight problem with black fly which I treated by spraying with a white horticultural spray following a recipe given to me by Kate, mixing sunflower oil with a mild liquid detergent. The resulting solution was diluted before use by adding two tablespoons solution to 2 litres water (1/2 Gal US). I sprayed three times every third day

The photo isn't very clear but you can see the black slime inside the pod. Some beans had just one end affected whilst others had the entire bean affected. I guess about 10% of the crop was affected. The beans are planted in a different bed each year and have never yet returned to a previous site.

I look forward to reading your comments. Many Thanks

Beef Bourgignon with a few carrots

2011-04-28T19:56:00.001+02:00

FROM MY KITCHEN BLOG, Ian's French Kitchen

The French have a gorgeous traditional beef dish from Burgundy, Boeuf Bourgignon. I've put my own slant on it here to make it "Traditional English cooking in France". The wine really should be a bottle of Burgundy red..... but I tend to use any good full bodied red wine.

This recipe is so incredibly easy, and relies on a slow cooker to gently simmer everything for about 12 hours.

I hope you love it as much as I do

Beef Bourgignon

1 tbsp duck fat (use olive oil if you don't have duck fat)
600g beef shin, cut into large chunks
100g smoked streaky bacon, chopped (Lardon)
2 onions, peeled and chopped
3 carrots peeled and sliced
4 garlic cloves crushed, peeled and sliced
2 heaped tablespoons Herbes de Provence
1 small can tomato purée
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
750ml bottle red wine, Burgundy is good
A glass of water

200gms mushrooms, sliced into largish chinks

In the Slow Cooker
Heat the duck fat in a frying pan and brown the beef for about 3 minutes a side. (cook the beef in batches) Toss the browned beef in flour then add to slow cooker. After frying the beef, fry the bacon, onions and garlic in the same pan, adding a little more goose fat if needed. Add to slow cooker

Reserve out the Mushrooms and put the rest of the ingredients into the slow cooker. Give everything a good stir

Cook for 4 hours on the high setting and then a further 8 hours on low.

Add the mushrooms 2 or 3 hours before finishing. (after about 9 hours cooking)

From time to time check the mixture for liquid and give a stir

Garden and Kitchen

2011-04-20T23:07:00.001+02:00

This spring I've not been able to get out in my garden nearly as often as I would have liked. Some minor health problems, delayed building work and winter repairs to our holiday accommodation have all taken their toll.

However, today I felt I was starting to make a little progress. Over the past months I have managed to fit in sowing a few things like tomatoes, melons, cucumber, courgettes etc but I have been sadly behind with the ground preparation as I juggled time to try and fit everything in.

So, first thing this morning I was out in the garden starting to prepare my first three beds. When I laid out the garden, a few years ago now, I adopted a system of regular beds, all about 7.5m (25ft) by 1.2m (4ft). I find that the four ft width is great as it's easy to get to anywhere in any of the beds. I separated the beds with a 600mm (2ft) wide path. I pondered long and hard about how wide this path should be. The plan was to let the grass and weeds grow on the paths and simply cut it back with the lawn mower. So that is where the size of 600mm came from.... It's the width of my manual lawn mower. I do admit, however, that with almost an acre of lawn to mow, I do have a ride on mower. That mower also has a trailer attachment, so through the middle of the vegetable garden I put a wider 1200mm path so that, if needed, I could pull a trailer right into the middle of the garden.

Actually, I only prepared 2 and 1/2 beds. The other half was already planted with broad beans which are doing well. The beds I prepared will be populated with courgettes, pole beans and tomatoes.

As I was so far behind with ground preparation I decided to cut some corners and used my rotovator to break up the soil. As I have mentioned, it's been very dry here with no significant rainfall for over a month (20mm in the past two months and nothing for the past couple of weeks) and temperatures have also climbed as high as 30C (86F) on more than one occasion. Consequently the ground has baked quite hard so cutting through it seemed the best option.

To prepare a bed, I first set about rotovating to produce a better tilth. Once I was happy with the ground I added a bag of substrate that I'm using to help improve the soil and then a bag of well rotted farmyard manure. I used the rotovator as a great big mixer to blend all these elements together. before finally raking the surface.

Having prepared the soil, I then laid in a watering system. I use a kind of dripper hose system. It's homemade, but I think it works well. I seal one end of an old hose pipe and fit a connector the other end. I then use a special tool I have manufactured to pierce the hose wherever I want the drips to be. If you imagine a thin piece of wood with a small sharp nail pushed through, you'll have a very good impression of my " special tool"!

Once the watering system was in place and tested, I covered the whole lot with about 5 or 6 inches (150mm) of straw as a mulch.

That all took me right up to lunch time but, after lunch I was due to be away from the garden again.

Today was Hot Cross Bun Day. Well, I guess I should say, Hot Cross Bun Baking Day.

I like to make Hot Cross Buns a couple of days ahead and then freeze them. I think it helps all the flavours mellow and blend together.

I've not had much success with my Hot Cross Buns since I moved to France. I think it's been because of the differences in bread making here which calls for subtle changes to yeast etc. So, once again today, I decided to try out a new recipe. This recipe calls for the dough to be made in a bread machine and then the buns baked and glazed as usual. It was my best effort in France! although, I did make a silly mistake... My oven has a pre heat setting which brings it up to temperature much quicker. It adds in additional heat at the top of the oven. The problem is that whenever I use the pre-heat I seem always to forget to turn the oven back to normal once it's got up to temperature and, as I'm sure you can imagine, additional heat at the top of the oven really affects things like baking Hot Cross Buns. So, apart from being a bit dark, this year's buns are fabulously tasty. As ever, I took an online recipe and then adjusted it for my own tastes.

I'll probably post the recipe on my food blog Ian's French Kitchen tomorrow or the day after.

Tomorrow it's out in the garden again to get things growing in those beds!

Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday..

2011-03-08T20:28:00.001+01:00

I love Pancake Day, the local name for today.

Almost without fail, my evening meal is constructed to make provision for the main event... Beautiful pancakes doused in Maple syrup, or hiding sultanas.... or both!!

Here is my own Pancake Recipe, yried, tested and developed ove many years of celebrating this special day in this traditional way...

Basic Pancake Batter

(makes eight) except it only really made 5 or 6

75g/3oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

2 large fresh eggs

150ml/1/4pt milk

a dash of water

A little oil for frying

Mix the water and milk and beat in the eggs. Place the flour and salt in a large bowl, then add half the milk. Whisk until the mixture is lump-free. Add the remaining milk and whisk again until smooth. If you prefer place all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend until smooth, Pour the batter into a jug. The batter can be made in advance and chilled for up to eight hours before use. I think it improves if left to stand and usually leave it about 30 minutes or so

Heat a 20cm/8in diameter non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle a little oil over the centre and wipe it around with a piece of kitchen paper. Now pour a little of the batter into the pan and immediately tilt the pan to spread the batter thinly and evenly over the base. Cook for two minutes or until the top is set and the base golden. Turn the pancake over with a spatula or if you are feeling brave, flip the pancake!

Cook for a further one to two minutes or until the base is golden. Transfer to a plate and interleave with greaseproof paper, keep warm. Use the batter and a little more oil to make a further seven pancakes in the same way. Serve simply with lemon and sugar or try them in the following recipe ideas.

French Mushroom, Ham & Goats Cheese Crepe

Fill the pancakes with sliced mushrooms sauteed in oil, a slice of ham, then top with thinly sliced goats cheese. Fold up to enclose the filling then pop under a hot grill until the cheese begins to melt. Serve scattered with flat parsley.

Redcurrant and apple

cook the basic pancake and just before serving add a mixture of stewed redcurrants and apple, then roll and serve immediately.

Or, simply add a handful of golden sultanas to the pan immediately before adding the batter. These are great served with Maple syrup.

St David's Day - Dydd Gŵyl Dewi

2011-02-28T02:16:00.001+01:00

March 1st is a big day in Wales. It's the Saint's day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales. As you can see from the title, in the Welsh language it's called Dydd Gŵyl Dewi. However, maybe I should also explain that this translates back to Saint David's Festival rather than day, which might give you a clue about it's perceived importance.

David was a cleric in the sixth century, born near the west coast of Wales, near to what is now the cathedral city of St. David's, the smallest cathedral city in the United Kingdom.

Many of you will know that before I came to live here in south west France a few years ago, I lived in Wales. In fact I lived there for over 30 years, more than half my life. I was born in Lancashire and apart from a few holidays didn't have much involvement with Wales until I took a job there. However, once I had started working there I quickly fell in love with the country and it's people. I very much enjoyed living and working there and learning about it's customs. During my time in Wales it gained devolution and it's own Welsh language tv channel. I even tried, very unsuccessfully, to learn it's language.

The Welsh language is one of the old Celtic languages of Britain, dating back to about the time of David and deriving from the ancient language of British.

The national flower of Wales is the daffodil. I am always pleased when I go out into the garden on St David's day and see those first blooms of spring waving hello. I love the synergy that brings the blooms of the national flower out on the day dedicated to the patron saint.

But 2011 has delivered another string to add to the celebrations. Rugby is the national sport of Wales , well, it may not be considered the national sport by every one in Wales any more, but it is still considered the national sport by the majority of Welsh people. so how very fitting that in the week that finds the daffodils blooming and St David celebrating his festival, the national rugby team also delivered another win in the prestigious RBS Six Nations tournament, defeating Italy by 24 points to 16 in Rome.

Wales also has it's own food. Welsh cakes are a delicious light fruit cake much like a drop scone. They are traditionally baked on a bakestone or griddle.

Another Welsh delicacy is Laverbread. If you ever find yourselves in Wales then you really must seek out this treat and try it for yourselves. But don't let the name confuse you. It's not a traditional bread. Indeed, you should pay more attention to the Laver part rather than the bread part. Laver is an edible seaweed.

My own favourite, although it's hard to choose, is cawl (pronounced cowl). Cawl is the traditional meal of St David's day, forming an important part of the festivities.

Cawl is a thin soup or broth. The number of recipes around is roughly equivalent to the number of people that speak Welsh! However, on the whole it's a thin broth containing meat and vegetables. The meat is, more often than not, lamb and the vegetables usually contain leeks. Of course, leeks are also a popular symbol of Wales..... I guess they could even be considered the national vegetable. If you have ever watched Wales' comedian/singer Max Boyce then you can't have failed to notice his enormous leek buttonhole!

Then there are the delicious Welsh Cheeses. Traditional Caerphilly has been made for almost 200 years. There are lots of others, Llanboidy, Y Fenni and Tintern to name a few.

Of course, entertainment is also virtually a national endeavour, from Tom Jones to Shirley Bassey, from Dylan Thomas to the Manic Street Preachers, from Anthony Hopkins to Catherine Zeta Jones... the list is almost endless

I think all that's left for me to say - Diwrnod Dewi Sant Mwynhau's. Enjoy St David's Day

Oh, in my own garden just small cluster of daffodils arrived to trumpet in St David's Day, but plenty more are just around the corner

Spring arrives with....

2011-02-20T16:32:00.001+01:00

I've always reckoned that my big Forsythia bush was the herald announcing spring in my garden and for several years, around this time, I've looked forwards to it's sudden outburst of deep yellow flowers. The Forsythia is one of a number of large shrubs that enclose my parking area. I have an area to the east side of the house that is big enough to get about three cars off the road and it is this area that is bounded by by some six or seven very well established shrubs.

As it's where I park my car, I get to enjoy it's blossom whenever I go out. As you can see from the photo, taken today, it won't be long now before those flowers are once again adorning the area

However....

This year a little upstart of a thing has decided to vie for the position. Indeed, not only has this delicate little plant decided to go for it, it has won.... Today there is a small cluster of these beautiful primroses already in flower in the garden.

I'm sad for my good old trusty Forsythia bush, getting knocked off it's "first to bloom" pedestal, but I'm just absolutely delighted that the signs of spring are now all around in the garden and things are once again waking up.

You may recall that last year, I suffered a twelve week drought, going well into October. By the time some rain returned it was too late for a few of my shrubs and things to really recover. Couple that with a pretty harsh winter and I'm looking at quite a few things that have simply not made it through. I'm particularly sad about a very pretty rose, given to me many years ago by an artist friend who, subsequently, died of cancer. The rose sat by the door and I was reminded of her throughout the summer by the delicate pink and yellow blooms.

Now the weather is turning warmer I have realised how much preparation work I have let slide. I need to spend a lot of time in the garden getting the beds ready. Those seedlings, and more still to come, will very soon be looking for a place of their own.

Last week, I started to sow new seeds in earnest and now have several trays of tiny seedlings clamouring for attention as they cling on to life trying to do no more than grow strong and healthy.

Over the past ten days or so, I have sown various tomatoes, basil, cauliflower, marigolds, malva, coriander and lettuce amongst others

Ian's Red Cherry Tomato

2011-02-16T11:27:00.001+01:00

Here's a photo of my Red Cherry Tomatoes at just 10 days after sowing. Yes, I found some batteries!!!! I'm really not sure I can use the term sowing for burying a piece of paper kitchen towel, but I don't know what other term to use!!

I always love the way the seedlings take their first tentative steps into the world with their heads bowed, and then, once up, stretch themselves. In fact, tentative steps and then a good stretch sounds a lot like my own routine in the mornings.

I hope I prove to be a worthy father and they reward me dutifully.

Good luck, little ones.

First Seedlings of 2011

2011-02-15T19:36:00.001+01:00

About 10 days ago I carefully unfolded a piece of my kitchen roll, placed it over a seed tray full of damp compost and scattered some more compost on top. Then I put a plastic cover over it and placed it on a shelf in the little room that houses our central heating boiler.

Today, I took out that tray to discover the first new seedlings pushing through. The kitchen paper was where I had dried my Cherry Tomato seeds during the autumn of last year.

I love seeing the first shoots appearing out of a tray of little more than dirt. The delicate stems pushing their way up as they unfold themselves from the very seed that gave them life are truly an inspiration. I often wonder that such tiny spindly things can bear such beautiful fruit.

There should be a photo here....but, as so often happens, there isn't!!! Tuesday is my "shopping day"" The Kitchen Garden in France is in a fairly rural part of France and, although there are a couple of small villages within a few kilometres, the nearest real town is about 20kms (15 miles)away. Because of this, I try to keep my trips to the shops to a weekly affair and, normally, that is Tuesday. Today was no exception and immediately after breakfast, I set off with my list of several businesses to visit. It was only when I got home again and started to think about this piece that I discovered the batteries in my camera were flat.... and yes, it could be next Tuesday before I replace them.... So that's the photo excuse! and I'm sure you can all imagine a tiny seedling in it's first few days of life!

As I said, I really love seeing the tiny shoots of a new plant appearing out of the compost. I guess it's a kind of pride, a bit like watching your own child taking their first tentative steps. I'm not really sure just how proud I should be though. True, these tomato plants are growing from seed I saved last year from my own tomatoes, also grown from seed I'd saved the year before. In fact, this year is now the fifth year of growing these plants. I have worked a little magic on them over the years and now, they are beautifully acclimatised to the climate in this part of the world. For the past couple of years I have also shared the seeds with friends and neighbours.

But, as I said, I'm not sure how proud I should be.

I guess what I'm getting at is this.... Have you ever thought about it from the point of view of the tomato? I wrote a piece about this a couple of years ago. Follow the link to Who'd Be a Tomato if you'd like to see what I said.

I must say, having reread it, maybe I was a little harsh on myself.... True, mostly those fabulous fruits are being torn away from the mother plant to be eaten, but now, at least, some of them will be saved and for those few, their mission will be accomplished and they will father the next generation of tiny seedlings

The Mistakes I Make

2011-02-09T16:58:00.001+01:00

I decided to sow tomatoes today.... Well, I actually decided to sow them on Monday but didn't get around to it, so, this morning, I decided to complete that task.

I grew tomatoes last year and saved the seeds. I have adopted a simple method for seed saving of tomato seeds. I get rid of as much pulp as possible and then spread the wet seeds onto several layers of paper kitchen towel and let the whole thing dry. Once dry I carefully fold the towel so that the seeds are safe inside and put it away in the dry. Then, when today comes,along and it's time to sow, I simply prepare my seed trays with moist compost, lay the kitchen towel over the top, bury it with a couple of mm more compost and leave them to germinate. If I have too many seeds, I tear the paper up, keeping the seeds buried in the middle. and use only part. As you can see, it's not very pretty, but it's easy and it works.

To be honest, I've been a bit ashamed of this lazy practice so have not mentioned it much, but I was heartened today when searching blogs for something else and came across The Cottage Smallholder's blog post "How to Save Tomato Seed Easily" and discovered that she also uses a similar "lazy" method. It works every time for me, although if the seeds are destined to be exchanged I treat them rather differently.

I mentioned earlier that I intended to sow tomatoes on Monday. Well, that was why I was reading Fiona's blog... I have a workshop where I do things like sowing and had got out my saved seeds. Sadly, at the end of the day, as time avoided me, I forgot to put the seeds away again.... and, as I was occupied all day yesterday, they had sat there for about 36 hours.

Although, in fact they hadn't. When I finally got around to doing the task, I discovered that my seeds for "Golden Sunrise" tomatoes had all been eaten.... Every last seed..... gone.

It's a pity, because, over the past three years I have acclimatised these seeds and was hoping that this year they would provide a good crop. On a side note, I noticed that Fiona lists this variety as pretty tasteless. I have to say, my own experience is contrary to that. Last year I truly enjoyed these medium sized golden tomatoes, but perhaps they need the longer summer get here as opposed to the UK?

Hopefully the experience will teach me to take more care of my precious seeds.

Oh, in the end. the only tomato seeds I sowed were Ian's Red Cherry, Veeroma, Marmande and some seeds which I think are Ananas. I was given the Ananas seed a couple of years ago by chaiselongue and have grown them since and the Veeroma were also given to me, this time by Miss Fuggle. I did also sow a pot of Marigolds and a pot of coriander though

Seed Exchange List

2011-02-07T21:27:00.000+01:00

The Seed Exchange is a network of people offering seed. My own seed is now all saved by myself here in France.

Please come back and visit this page again soon, I intend to update it regularly as I establish what seeds I have available.

Anyone can ask for seeds by emailing me at kitchengardeninfrance@gmail.com . If you have a blog then why not offer some of your own spare seed? To find out more about the Seed Exchange Network, why not take at look at Patrick's comments on

Bifurcated Carrots

Please note. This is only the second year I have offered seeds for exchange and I have tried to keep the seeds pure.

Seeds for 2011

Beans

Black Turtle Beans - These are a pole bean. The seeds were saved by myself.
Purple Podded Pole Bean. These beans are beautiful. They are a deep purple on the vine and change to green when cooked. The pods are long and full. Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Borlotto Bean - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Poletschka Bean - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Pumpkin, Courge and Melon etc

Monsieur Gary's Charentais Melon. M. Gary is a local farmer here at the Kitchen Garden in France and for years he has grown his own sweet Charentais melon, saving the seeds from one year to the next. I'm pleased to have grown a few of these myself and kept the seeds to offer here.
Courgette d'Italie - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Queensland Blue Pumpkin - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Butternut Pumpkin - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Bari Cucumber - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Tomatoes

Ian's Red Cherry Tomato. A delicious variety of cherry tomato which grows successfully here, giving truss after truss of delicious rich red cherry tomatoes. These are seeds I've saved myself after several years acclimatising the plant to the climate here.

Capsicums

Cath's Red Cornos Capsicum - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Yellow Cornos Capsicum - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Cabbage and Lettuce

Joy's Cos Lettuce - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Lollo Rosso Batavia Lettuce - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Reine des Glaces Batavia Lettuce - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Red Cabbage - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Herbs

Dill - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010
Chives - Seeds saved by myself at the end of the season 2010

Email me if you would like any of the above seed.

Seeds

2011-02-07T16:58:00.001+01:00

What do you do with your seeds?

When I started vegetable gardening a few years ago, I obviously, acquired a lot of seeds. To start with I just threw all the packets in a box, after all, most of the seeds had been bought at local stores. Then over time, the box became two boxes and soon a third was added. As I collected my own saved seeds jam jars, used carrier bags and coffee filter papers were all pressed into service. The boxes were joined by the kitchen Welsh Dresser, which proved a great place to keep coffee filters containing all manner of seeds as they dried.

I have found I have a couple of problems with this approach. The first is that, although I tend to remember what I've collected, I never remember what packets I have bought.

I'm not one of those people who meticulously spend their winter evenings poring over seed catalogues wondering what to buy this year. I'm the guy who sees a packet of radish seeds in a supermarket whilst picking up some toilet cleaner, and buys them because the picture is nice! I try to make my garden generally organic but I've never worried about my seeds. As long as they are good seed and not from hybrid stock I'm happy.

Well, all this discussion has come about because, this week, I sowed my first seeds of 2011, some of my Cherry Tomato seeds, saved last autumn. I found the seeds, still in a coffee filter, tucked behind a rather nice designer vase on the Welsh Dresser in the kitchen. This was after I'd looked in the four drawer plastic storage unit, an empty paint container and a couple of used carrier bags.....

You get the picture. Now, one of the consequences of the second problem..... is that I have loads of packets of seeds, some full, some half empty, and, quite often, I forget to sow them until a couple of months after the time.... causing either, a game of catch up, or more often, that plant to be abandoned for this year!

It was whilst reflecting on all this that I decided to make 2011 the year of seeds!

I have organised my seeds and, hopefully, as I go through the year, I can make decisions based on something more relevant than my memory.

I decided the first thing was to break the year down into segments. At first I thought about seasons but quickly discarded that idea in favour of months. Once I had made that decision, it was simply a case of putting some marker cards in for each month and then sorting the seed packets.

Firstly, I dealt with all the seeds in packets. If the packets were open, I simply folded the top over and fixed it with a paper clip. Then I filed each packet behind the month marker corresponding to the earliest sowing date. Of course, I'd only just got going when I came across the first packet that could be sown all year round. So I soon had a few packets filed before the year started in that interesting space created before the start of January, but which is not in the previous year!!!! Before long I had sorted all my seed packets and could see exactly what was due to be sown this month. This was quite a shock. I think of March as being the start of the sowing year. I know I sow a couple of things before then but I was quite surprised to find about 20 things in the February file! I'll need to get sowing underway if I'm to keep up.

This was a great start but I still had seeds in bags, seeds in coffee filters, seeds in jam jars, seeds in little plastic pots,, in fact, seeds in virtually anything that would contain them. In fact, all the seeds that I have either been given by other gardeners or seeds I have saved myself were stored like this and none of these fit neatly into my file!

What I ended up doing was making a card for each loose seed The card just names the seed and gives the month to sow it. It might in the future tell me where the seeds are stored!!!! and of course, I'd only written the first couple of cards before I thought, "Oh, I could make a note about that on the card!!". So now, as I look at my seed file, I can choose a month, look at all the seeds I need to sow and all my saved seeds are included in the same system.

Another side effect of this sudden burst of organisation, is that I have ended up with a coherent list of seed that I have saved and that I can offer through my participation in the Blogger's Seed Network. For details of what seeds I am offering take a look at my Seed Exchange List. Now I just need to update that list of the seeds I'm offering!!

Oh, at the end, here, there was supposed to be a photo of the newly organised seed boxes.... However, I got them out of the storage unit to photograph them but decided that I'd just file a couple of packets I had found since I finished.... As I put them down on the table I must have completely misplaced them and pushing the first seed packet in was sufficient to drop the whole lot on the floor. Of course, the boxes decide to animate them selves and turn upside down, before mixing all the packets in big mess!! The photo will be along soon!

Potato and Beans

2011-01-30T15:04:00.001+01:00

Yesterday's rain has passed over so this morning I was able to get back outside gardening.

My vegetable plot is about 25m (28 yds)square and is divided up into individual beds. The final plan is for 30 beds, but, at present, I have only created 21 of them. I add another bed as and when I need it. All the beds are about 7.5m x 1.2m (25ft x 4 ft). The ground is clay, sitting on chalk, which is beautiful for growing grapes... Maybe that's why there are far more vineyards than arable farms around here, and that is even taking into account the EU controls on wine production.

One of the crops I'm planning for 2011 is potatoes. I'm in the middle of selecting some potatoes and chitting them. I have about 40 at present and will try to get about 100 on the go.

I grow potatoes because they are so good for the soil. At least, everyone tells me they are. I can't make my mind up. Certainly, the soil in the bed is much better after I've grown potatoes. But I'm not sure how much of the improvement simply reflects the work put in to grow them. After all, you turn the bed over, dig deep trenches for the tubers, then earth up as the plants grow and finally ddig again to harvest the potatoes. I wonder what a bed of, say lettuce, would end up like if I put that much effort into it??

Be that as it may, it's a great crop because of all that and the heavy top growth does a good job of smothering weeds as well. So, this year, I'm turning over two of my beds to grow potatoes. All my beds are separated by a path wide enough to mow, so, in this case, I'm also incorporating the path giving me a bed of about 3m x 7.5m Plenty for 6 rows of about 16 tubers. Once I've turned the whole bed I'll plant the potatoes about 100mm (4") deep by scooping out the soil, sprinkling a bit of fertiliser in the bottom them carefully placing the chitted potatoes in the hole before back filling. Each hole is about 500mm (20") along the line.

Last Autumn I planted some broad beans and was happy to find a bed of strong healthy plants when I looked this morning. Last year I lost most of my Broad Beans because of several late frosts so, with this in mind, I decided to protect the young plants. I have some metal tubes about 15mm diametre which I casn join together and a box full of plastic couplers. It's an old garden gazebo frame I scrounged when the material was no longer any use. I've assembled a rectangle which sits about 300mm (12") above the ground and secured some old net curtains to it with clothes pegs. I really like net curtains for this job. They do a great job of keeping the frost out whilst letting the rain in. Plastic hoop tinnels keep both the frost and the rain out and garden fleece is both expensive and not very durable. My net curtains lived their first life screening a window and for a few years now, have lived a second life protecting my plants. Fixing them with pegs also works well. If it gets very stormy then the pegs give and the net flaps a bit but neither the frame nor the nets get torn apart.

This afternoon I'm going back outside in the hope of turning over more of that potato bed, if I can dig my shoes out the pile of clay they are encased in.

Rainy day

2011-01-30T12:20:00.001+01:00

A whole day of rain kept me out of the garden so I turned my attention to the kitchen.

A friend of mine had an operation to repair a hernia during the past week and I was planning to go and visit him to see how he was feeling. He's French, but after several holidays in Scotland he has developed a real love of Scottish Shortbread, so, I decided that making him some shortbread would be a good way to spend a wet Saturday.

I've posted the recipe on my kitchen blog Ian's French Kitchen .... Here's the link : Shortbread Biscuit

In the Garden, at last

2011-01-24T19:25:00.001+01:00

I spent today in the garden.

For a whole host of reasons, this was the first day I've been able to spend gardening for several months. The main reasons were weather and health. My health took a bit of a dive back in September and by the time I came out from underneath it, winter had very firmly set in.

This winter here in south west France has been both cold and wet. My own measure of how wet it has been is by looking at how dry the roads remain.... Normally, here, the roads dry out every day, but this winter, they have remained wet for days and indeed, weeks on end.

But back to my day in the garden......

One of the last things I did before collapsing in a heap last autumn was to take some cuttings.

The Forsythia cuttings are looking healthy enough and I'm hoping to get enough shrubs to make a short hedge to give some wind break to parts of the vegetable garden.

Some of the seedlings that have been overwintering are happily existing in the unheated cold frame.

One of the jobs I did today was to chit some potatoes.

I start my potatoes about 8 weeks before I'm intending to plant them in early April. An elderly gardener I knew many years ago always told me to plant potatoes on Good Friday. Of course, Good Friday is always at the same point of the moon cycle so I guess this was his version of moon planting. At the time I lived in Wales, in the UK, and now that I have moved to the warmer climate of south west France, I still follow the advice but have moved the planting date 28 days ahead.....so I intend to plant my potatoes on 25th March. I should be setting out the potatoes next Friday, but today is ok!!!!

Chitting potatoes is a method of promoting strong growth of shoots before planting. I set the potatoes in egg boxes with the eyes uppermost and place them on a shelf by a window in my unheated workshop. The window actually faces south, which is not ideal, but it is what I have. North facing(away from the sun) would be ideal. Remember I'm in the northern hemisphere so if you live down under, your ideal window will be south facing.

I will leave these potatoes in the window for a week or two and then inspect them, removing some sprouts to leave just the 4 or 5 strongest ones. You need to cut out the shoot and dig a bit of a hole to get the eye out so that it doesn't simply shoot again later.

Some people argue that this is a waste of effort but I believe that by choosing the strongest shoots and also, considering the position of them, you can give the plant the best chance to produce a nice healthy crop of potatoes.

As for the rest of my day.... well, pruning a large old linden tree took me a lot of time. I only got as far as cutting out all the shoots coming up from around the base of the tree.... but there's always tomorrow. I'm thinking of pollarding it. It looks like it was done a few years ago, but that must have been before I came here six years ago.

2011

2011-01-22T00:07:00.001+01:00

After a long hard winter I am, at last, thinking about creeping back into the garden again

Winter here has seen low temperatures of minus 10C (14F) and snow on the ground for a few days.

After the long hot simmer of last year I was very disappointed and struggled to get through... but now, I'm back and looking forward to what the new year of 2011 will bring.

I found a few potatoes shooting in my vegetable box yesterday, so I have started 2011 with half a dozen potato tubers chitting in my workshop. I also have few things which are just starting out life in the cold frame, although I'm not entuirely sure they will survive.

However, cuttings I took from some shrubs in the autumn seem to be doing ok and I'm hoping they will take. I might even have got a bamboo to take at last... but my history on that plant is not great.

Let me wish everyone a great 2011 and hope you'll join me as I wander along my gardening road.

Tomatoes

2010-09-16T17:16:00.001+02:00

On 14 June last I recorded 32mm of rainfall and the week prior to that 51mm. However since then, now more than three months ago, we've had no rain.

Actually, to say we've had no rain is a blatant lie. Of course we have had rain in the past three months... on one day I recorded 2mm of the stuff and on another just 1mm fell. But, apart from those two days, we've had no rain.

Now I know that to lots of people, this is perfectly normal.... after all, I am talking about the period of high summer... and this year it's been a very high summer....my unheated above ground swimming pool reached over 30 degrees for a few days and the temperature I record each day (air temperature with no reflective surfaces nearby) reached well into the upper 30's, fortunately staying just below 40C.

However, this week the drought has relented and we had 35mm fall and again today we have a light drizzle, soaking gently into the ground.

Many of you will know that before I came to live in south west France my home had always been in Britain and for the last 30 years or so it was in a particularly wet part of Britain, Wales. Indeed some family members who lived near Washington DC at the time used to claim that whenever they crossed the river Severn, which forms the boundary between England and South Wales it would always start raining. So, it's not really surprising that I have absolutely no idea how to deal with drought. Drought to me means it's stopped raining for a few hours!!!! The problem with gardening in Wales is keeping the land drained, not trying desperately to get enough water into it. And, of course, all that rain means a very damp atmosphere, I remember Kate coming to visit and happily ensuring that everything was carefully stored in plastic bags in the fridge, only to be horrified to discover that actually, putting things in plastic bags is a particularly bad idea in our climate when she removed a black soggy mass that had once been a tasty lettuce.

Consequently, I have lost most of the crops I tried to grow this year. Don't get me wrong, I have had some successes, and of course, the orchard has produced, but things like salad greens, cabbages, onions all dried up into shrivelled heaps. Even my garlic was looking distinctly dry by the time I got around to harvesting it, although it is delicious and I'm hoping to plant some of the cloves again next month.

I lost all my bush beans to this drought.. just simply not being used to the fact that they needed watering so frequently. Those who read my blog rather more frequently may remember that I had already lost much of my seed stock to mice over the winter so the two things combined together mean that I now have none of the Black Valentine bush beans that were so generously given to me by Miss Fuggle, or Patrick's delicious Dog bean that I have had quite a bit of trouble growing but had at last got enough to eat a few last year and keep a few beans to grow!!!! Or so I thought.

Melons are another crop that have suffered quite badly for me... I managed to harvest just six melons although I do have plenty of new seed from those.

One of the things that seems to have hung on despite the drought, helped with my kind addition of liberal amounts of water, is my tomato crop. I grew six varieties of tomato this year.... Ananas, grown from seed I saved last year, but originally given to me by Chaiselongue, Veeroma, a very tasty Italian plum tomato originally given to me by Miss Fuggle. A couple of new varieties that I bought seed for this year were Moneymaker and Marmande. I decided to grow Marmande as the town is no more than 30 kms from the Kitchen Garden in France. I also grew some Golden Sunrise. I brought these seeds with me when I came from the UK and have spent five years acclimatising them to the climate here. This year they have produced beautifully tasting fruit, and produced it copiously. The sixth variety for this year was my own Ian's Red Cherry. This is a variety I have developed here in France and again this year I have been rewarded by truss after truss of dozens of wonderfully sweet cherry tomatoes.

I'm intending to save seeds from all my varieties of tomato this year and offer them under the Blogger's Seed Network later this year. For more details of the seeds I'm offering take a look at http://kitchengardeninfrance.blogspot.com/2010/09/seed-exchange-list-2010.html. In the picture above you can see Ian's Red Cherry, Veeroma and Golden Sunrise.

The other day I went to collect water from the local spring. Yes, many of you will buy French Spring Water in plastic bottles but I'm lucky enough to be able to take my container and collect litres of it direct from the source. Indeed, the local town hall even tests it from time to time to make sure it remains drinkable. The location of the spring is such that I have to park the car and then walk a little way down an old track. The views when I get there are quite spectacular. However, I was walking back up to the car and arrived at the village square only to notice a vine of beautiful tomatoes growing just to the side of the road. They looked delicious but I couldn't believe they were wild so I left them for their owner to harvest.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

2010-07-12T00:07:00.001+02:00

The hot weather has rolled right in to the south west of France during the past few days and we have seen temperatures in the mid 30's C (mid 90's F) every single day.

I learned the other day, that this period of hot weather is known as the "canicule". Canicule gets it's name from the latin - canicula, which, as all you latin scholars will know gets it's stem from canis or dog, in English.

Apparently, canicula is the Latin name for the star Sirius, which in the skies above France , raises about mid July and disappears again about mid September.... and here, of course, that corresponds to the scorchingly hot period of summer.

One of the things I truly love to see as the hot weather arrives is the wonderful fields of sunflowers, all turning their heads to catch the sun. In French they are called tournesol, or turn to the sun. I planted some sunflowers in the vegetable garden recently in a bid to attract more insects and have a fun flower and they are looking quite good at about 150mm (6") high. However, on the drive to the market on Saturday, I passed field after field of sunflowers, all a good 4ft tall (1200mm) and all with bright yellow flower heads, obediently searching out the sun. I really hope mine will catch up, but I'm sure they will.

My time in the kitchen has taken a back seat too, during this hot weather, relying on cold salads rather than preparing food, but I did make a salad today using lots of fresh produce from the garden, including this year's first French beans.. which were so sweet, they could have been peas.

I didn't think to take my camera again on Saturday, which is a real shame, as the fields deserve a photo. As I mentioned field after field of sunflowers, interspersed with fields of hay, the big "wheels" of hay sitting in the sunshine, waiting to be collected. I even noticed that one or two of the farm lads had had a bit of fun, constructing a tractor out of bales of hay. It seems this is a part of haymaking in this part of the world, and happens every year. Even the local hay co-operative had a hay tractor outside it's store last year. The one I saw on Saturday was a particularly fine example and had been adorned with a plough. The first hay tractor I've seen this year and it has certainly set the bar quite high. Maybe I'll go back, and get you some photos.

Well, I've talked a lot about Latin, but I think it was the ancient Greeks who originally called this time of year "Dog Days". I gather it's something to do with what later became imortalised by Noel Coward "Only mad dogs and Englishmen" and this year, I'm really learning what they meant:

Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun"....maybe.

Market Day

2010-07-08T00:53:00.001+02:00

You may know that, for me, Saturday is market day. Almost every Saturday, I go to my favourite village market in Villereal, in the Lot et Garonne departement of France. It's a truly gorgeous market, which I love.

Well,, today is Tuesday, which is why I went to market this morning. Things have conspired against my weekly visit to Villereal for the past couple of weeks and although I managed missing the first trip, when I then missed the second, I decided that I really needed to supplement the fruits of the garden with some local purchased produce.

I'm lucky, where I live here, right on the border of the Dordogne and Lot et Garonne departements, there is a different market on every single day of the week. And they are all within a few minutes drive, the furthest away being only a 25 minute drive. Tuesday, it's the role of Castillonnes, to host it's local market, and, as Castillonnes is just 5 kms away, it was to there I rushed this morning.

I wouldn't say I was a regular visitor to Castillonnes market but I do go fairly often as it is also where the nearest branch of my bank is found, and that branch is only open on market day!!!! And so I found myself wandering through the market, nodding to the various traders I know. Rene and Sandrine were there from the permaculture farm at Lasspisottes. The "leek" lady from Villereal, who I have often written about, was also there, with her bicycle propped against the wall behind her st.... well, it can hardly be called a stall, just a basket of delicious fresh produce picked that very morning. Lauren, my long suffering green grocer at the market at Villereal, also has his stall in the main square at Castillonnes, and, indeed, it was to his stall that I first headed.

But as I arrived in the main square a rather nice seedling stall caught my eye. I have seen this man here from time to time and his seedlings always look so good. He sells a large variety of herbs, all potted up and costing just a few cents each. There was mint, and basil, and coriander, and tarragon, and a host of other truly aromatic herbs lining a stall about 20ft (6metres) long. All his herbs are sold in pots and he uses a thin plastic former to hold 12 pots. I like the formers as they are great disposable seed trays, and I often use them if I have any. Each "pot" is about the same size as an individual yogurt pot, which I also use extensively.

But then, right at the far end of the stall, something caught my eye. There was a pile of those plastic formers but I noticed that in the top one each cell had a live snail in it. I thought it was surprising to have that many snails on the plants he had brought to market, but wandered on my way. I suddenly stopped and turned back as the realisation hit me...

He had snails in every one of that pile of formers.... He had them, quite simply, because they were just another produce of his garden that could be sold as food.

1st Peaches

2010-07-02T22:23:00.001+02:00

Back last year I added a peach tree to those trees I already had in the orchard.

I didn't really expect any fruit for the first couple of years. Back in May, I wrote that there were a dozen or so tiny fruits developing. Well, the winds and dry weather have taken their toll on that number but you can imagine the delight as I have watched four tiny fruit hang on and develop over the past month or two.

Today, on my walk around the garden I noticed that one of these precious fruit had fallen off,. It was lying on the floor, undamaged by it's sudden descent. So I picked it up and figured that as the flesh of peaches can so easily be damaged, the best thing would be to eat it there and then.

It was truly delicious and I immediately decided to pick the other three. They were all small but oh so juicy.

This was a taste first for me, never before having been in a position to eat peaches fresh from the tree. It's a memory created.

So there you have it, my first peaches. Truly succulent and, although very small this year, a sign of great things to come

Garlic Harvest

2010-06-29T23:20:00.001+02:00

I'm a bit late pulling my garlic this year.

A couple of years ago, Patrick at "Bifurcated Carrots" gave me an excellent selection of Garlic bulbs to plant. I grew them all very successfuly but due to a rather in ept error, I have lost strack of the variety I selected to grow on this past year. I know it was the strongest grower of the one's Patrick gave me and that it's a purple variety.... Sadly, I used a plastic label that completely disappeared whilst the stuff grew.

Anyway, all that aside, I have now harvested all the garlic I had growing and seem to have about 100 heads. A figure I'm truly happy with.

As many of you know, I'm not very knowledgeable on my gardening and am learning, very much, as I go. The garlic is no exception. Someone told me to let the leaves dry and then pull the plants out of the ground and store them by hanging in a dry place. I've done all this and am hoping it will turn out ok.

As you can see in the photo, though, I did leave them rather too long before pulling. Never mind. I'm looking forward to being able to use my own garlic for many months now.

So a big thank you to Patrick, for setting me on the road.

Selling the bear skin

2010-06-13T22:50:00.001+02:00

The French have a phrase which goes something like, "Don't sell the bear skin before killing the bear.".... I know the saying better as "Don't count your chickens before they hatch"

I seem to have inadvertently sold the bear skin before the eggs hatched!

A few weeks ago, I posted on here about my success at getting some bamboo to strike after nearly three years of trying.

Well, the other day, whilst checking my pots and things I discovered that the bamboo shoots had been completely vandalised! Something had eaten all of them. I wasn't aware that pandas were a problem in this part of France, but what else could be causing such a problem.

Whilst wondering to whom I should report this extraordinary panda presence, I received an email from my friend Michael with these lovely photo's which I think might signal the source of my problem. He took these photos of a deer and it's fawn in my neighbour's garden. I hope you enjoy the photos, just as much as the deer apparently enjoyed my bamboo. Many thanks to Michael for sharing them.

Cherries

2010-06-01T22:25:00.001+02:00

I said recently that my cherry tree had branches almost touching the floor, it was so laden with fruit. It's a big old cherry tree standing proud about 10 mtrs (35ft) high in the very heart of the orchard

Well, I have now had the pleasure of harvesting the first of those succulent fruits and I am not at all disappointed.

I picked the first basket full the other day, which weighed in at almost 5 kgs, (10 pounds) and, of course, that doesn't include all those fruits that disappeared during the picking process. A strange phenomenon, the way rich succulent cherries can get picked from the tree but no longer be in your hand after it has passed your mouth and arrived at the basket!

Still, this was the very first picking from the orchard this year, and there are still loads more where they came from and another two smaller trees of later varieties well on the way to being ready to pick. As always, I pick the fruit that is available to me standing on the ground and leave the rest for the birds.

I have about 30 fruit trees in the orchard and this year it really is looking like it will be a bumper fruit year. Cherry, pear, apple, plum and peach trees all have excellent fruit on them.

When I bought this property about 6 years ago I inherited some fruit trees which I have added to until I have the present orchard. Sadly, I have no information about the various varieties of things but maybe, from now on, I shall make more effort to identify things better.

I usually try to make some jam on the day I pick fruit but this week, I simply didn't have the time so, a lot of the cherries were piled into a fruit bowl to be eaten fresh but the rest were simply frozen for attention later.

Ornamental Shrubs?

2010-05-21T22:52:00.001+02:00

Back last September, Kitchen Garden in France hosted an international get-together for gardeners over a weekend. On the Sunday morning we visited some local gardens and one of the things I saw and really liked was a neighbour's "Physalis". A few days later, the same neighbour turned up at my door with a handful of the seed pods, exquisite things with tiny little orange fruit mounted in a papery husk.

I sowed the seeds and up came the shrub, well, about ten of them actually.

They are growing quite strongly and will be planted out in the garden just as soon as the soil temperature rises a little bit more.

I was originally going to plant them in the general garden as an ornamental shrub, but just recently, I discovered that the fruit is not only edible but, I believe, quite delicious. I'm therefore rethinking my plan and wondering whether to grow them as fruit somewhere in the Kitchen Garden. I might plant then as an extension to the orchard, or maybe in between the hazelnut bushes.

Out in the general garden, I've been waiting for the rhododendron to flower. I have to grow this bush in a pot as my soil, being a mix of clay and limestone, is far to alkaline for these acid loving plants. However, in a large pot, filled with an ericaceous compost they thrive in the sun here.

This week, my patience was rewarded as all the buds that have been sitting on the bush for weeks, slowly started to open up.

It makes a spectacular centrepiece to my terrace. What a pity that the flowers are so short lived as no sooner are they all open than they have started to fall.

Strawberries

2010-05-20T21:47:00.001+02:00

I have a small strawberry bed with just a dozen plants in it.

Of course, this was one of the beds in the garden that suffered badly from my absence for almost four months, with prolific weeds taking over and squashing out the little strawberry plants. The plants were only raised last year so they really haven't established themselves that well yet.

And that particular bed is still on my list of beds that urgently need weeding.

All that said, today, whilst giving some lettuce a badly needed drink, I noticed one or two bright red fruit in amongst all the "herbes" so here they are. This year's very first strawberries from the Kitchen Garden in France.

I'm always amused that the French word for weeds is "herbes", whereas the French word for herbs is... well, actually, that's "herbes" as well!

Now, tomorrow, I really must weed that strawberry patch.... unless.... I'm forced to eat....sorry, pick, the cherries which will be becoming ready.

First fruits

2010-05-16T22:36:00.001+02:00

For the past couple of years, here in south west France, we have not had very good fruit crops. Late frosts have descended on the region and prevented lots and lots of fruit from setting.

I'm pleased to say that this year, it's looking like once again it's going to be a bumper year in my orchard.

A walk around it today revealed that there were masses of fruit hanging on the apple, pear, plum, cherry and walnut trees. Even my new little peach tree, which was planted just at the start of last year, is helping out with a dozen or so peaches.

As I walked around I had to duck below branches being dragged low from the sheer weight of fruit they were carrying.... and most of that fruit is not yet fully grown!

The branches of the big old cherry tree were almost touching the floor, laden with fruit just waiting for a few drops of the promised rain to swell up to magnificence. I was even able to pick my first cherry of the year, which was delicious.... but there were only two or three ready. but in the next day or two, more will arrive. Tiny apples, pears and plums are quite evident on the trees as well, although, I must admit, I have difficulty telling the difference between plum and cherry at this time of year. I know the plum has shorter and fatter leaves and the cherry has more rounded fruit, but when I was walking I really had to study them to know which was which. I ended up making chart and identifying the trees and their positions on it!

I took photos for you but they are not very good, with the trees blending quite superbly into the green of the grass!!! I have posted the best two, my apple tree, and the tiny new peach tree. I counted at least a dozen peaches so I am now hoping that they will survive and grow and that later this summer, I will get to eat, for the first time, home grown peaches.

Leek Harvest

2010-05-13T18:01:00.001+02:00

Many of you will remember that I went to the UK at Christmas and was unexpectedly delayed, not getting back to the Kitchen Garden in France until early March.

I've now been back here more than two months but it seems that there is still not a day that passes without having to deal, in one way or another, with the fallout from that trip.

Today was just such a day.

One of the consequences of not being here, and one which I had given absolutely no consideration to at all, is the fact that when I wasn't here, I wasn't eating the produce. Now it's true, I did tell my neighbours that they were welcome to pick anything they wanted and I know they picked some winter brassicas and herbs and enjoyed them But I guess they didn't feel comfortable, picking the produce which would still be edible when I finally got back.

So it is that I find myself in the position where, quite suddenly, I have large crops of things which are just about to start to go to seed. Last week, when I wasn't looking, the Brussels Sprouts quite suddenly all went brown and the plants flowered

Walking around the garden yesterday I noticed that large amounts of leeks were just about to do the same and I decided that rather than lose the harvest I would gather them all in and preserve them. Apart from the obvious problem of the leeks going to seed, there was also the fact that, before very long, I shall be wanting the bed they are in to grow my melons.

There has been some discussion here at the garden during the course of the day but the consensus is that the best thing to do with them is to freeze them, so this evening, after putting this to bed, I'm off to the kitchen to prepare those leeks for freezing. I hope it works, I've never frozen leeks before. I have a feeling that one or two close friends may be hearing their Skype phones calling this evening

I am however, already, looking forward to having leeks from the garden from time to time, right through until the new crop is ready...

And they're not even sown yet!

Bamboo

2010-05-09T22:02:00.001+02:00

Bamboo is grown extensively in this part of the world as a screening hedge. A couple of years ago, I decided that it would make a good screen alongside the road, to hide the swimming pool from view.

So, I set about getting cuttings to grow. One or two neighbours very generously told me to take "as much as I needed" as, once it is established it can be a bit invasive

Some people have told me how easy bamboo is to propagate whilst others have told me how very difficult it is. Apparently, bamboo is very susceptible to shock.

I have tried cuttings where I have taken a piece of bamboo incliding two complete nodes and buried it up to the first node, then keeping the bamboo full of water, I've tried taking a bit of root and planting thatand I even had chaiselongue of Olives and Artichokes bring me one of her rooted cuttings last year. But it was all to no avail as one after another, all attempts at propagation failed.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to look over his empty house as he was away for a while and I immediately said that I would and that I would also take some cuttings from his bamboo. I did everything I was supposed to do but, almost as I expected, the nurtured bamboo cuttings remained simple bamboo stakes.

BUT.... at the same time, I just stuffed a few bits into a pot and kept it moist... and lo and behold, after three years of constant failure, I at last have several cuttings which appear to be growing on.

Now, I just hope I can keep them going long enough for the roots to establish so that, in the future, I'll have the problem of keeping this invasive plant at bay!!!!

Another red cherry tomato

2010-05-09T19:30:00.001+02:00

Once again this year, I'm growing a tomato that I have grown and saved for the past couple of years.

A few years ago, I bought a couple of nice looking tomato seedlings from some people who specialise in growing organic seedlings. The sellers just said they were red and cherry....

The first year I grew them, they produced a nice crop of cherry tomatoes which proved to be sweet and tasty.

At the end of the season I saved a few of the tomatoes.... but didn't do anything other than wash and dry the seeds. I cut the tomatoes open and washed the seeds out from the pulp. Then I dried them in a paper coffee filter. and put them away.

The following year I grew them again and again they produced a nice crop of bright red cherry tomatoes and again I saved seeds from the three plants I had.

Sadly, over that winter, something happened in my workshop and the envelope the seeds were stored in got wet. I discovered this in about late January/early February of this year, when I found the seeds all stuck, in a mass, to the envelope.

Eventually, I decide to sow the lot and see what happened. I simply scraped all the seeds off the paper onto a seed tray of sowing compound, watered it and left them to it.

To my astonishment I got what must have been a couple of hundred seedlings.

I thinned them down and nurtured them. I potted them on as they developed, pinching out a dozen tiny seedlings into a pot. Later I split those pots into individual plants. I gave away some of the pots of 12 and also the individual plants until,eventually, people were crossing the road when I approached for fear of being off loaded with another tomato seedling.

I called them Ian's Red Cherry Tomato as I felt they had survived unfair stress and I owed them some recognition.

Again, the one's I planted cropped heavily and I saved seeds at the end of the season. Last year they seemed to crop better than ever and I had great reports from those who had grown on the seedlings foisted upon them.

Now, I'm not the world's best seed saver and, as I have already written on here, again, over last winter I lost many of the seeds, this time by being eaten by mice. However, emergency action was taken and seeds were saved from some of the later crop and again, I have produced hundreds of seedlings.

I'm just about to put them out in the garden and am looking forward to another good crop of tasty cherry tomatoes.

I'm again intending to save seeds from these tomatoes and offer them under the Blogger's Seed Network.

If any one would like some seeds, please drop me a line at kitchengardeninfrance@gmail.com and I'll keep some for you.

Tomatoes

2010-05-05T23:17:00.001+02:00

I've started to plant out my tomato seedlings.

This year I have grown five varieties from seed, my Ian's Red Cherry, Veeroma and Golden Sunrise, all from seeds I saved last year, and Marmande and Moneymaker from seeds I bought.

I'm also hoping to get a couple of varieties from a neighbour who has promised to bail me out with a couple of the varieties that got eaten in my mouse invasion.

Last year, I was very pleased with my new spiral tomato stakes and have put them in the ground again this year

I've also laid in a sprinkler hose under the straw so that when I turn on the tap the ground gets soaked, but not much else.

Now, the beds are prepared and the little seedlings are big enough to plant out, so I put the first four varieties in the ground and was rewarded with two days of light rain.....

A Look Over the Bay

2010-05-05T22:09:00.001+02:00

My long absence from the garden earlier this year, I was away from the New Year until the beginning of March, left me with several casualties. Many of them were expected but some were quite surprising, succumbing to the particularly harsh winter that this part of France endured.

One such casualty was my Bay tree.

I planted this little tree during early summer in 2009 and had looked after it fairly well throughout the hot dry spell that followed.

When the time came to leave for the UK, I was happy to think that with the colder wet weather of winter, the tree would fare ok on it's own.

Imagine my sadness, when, after my return, I found the view opposite waiting for me. The cold had been accompanied by a very harsh dry spell, and without me tending it, it suffered from drought.

In desperation, and somewhat without hope, I dripped water around the roots for a whole day and then left it to tend for itself

Imagine my pleasure, the other day when a closer examination showed some new growth bursting forth.

I'll look after it better throughout this summer and hopefully, I won't be away for so long over the next winter.

Well done, little bay tree

Weeds and seeds....

2010-04-18T22:06:00.001+02:00

	My late return from the UK coupled with guests in the holiday accommodation has made a significant impact on my seed sowing and garden preparation for the 2010 season. The no fly zone over northern Europe has also resulted in some unexpected meals being served. However, I am at last getting down to some serious work in my garden. Well, when I say getting down to some serious work, I guess I really mean getting down to some serious thinking about the work I need to be doing.
	I sowed a few courgettes the other day and as you can see they are developing nicely. I have prepared a bed in the garden and shall be putting them out in the next few days. These are Courgette d'Italie and were very successful last year. I have grown these from seed I saved.
	I've had a great deal of success with this little red cherry tomato which last year I called Ian's Red Cherry. The seeds have survived the best attempts of all the mice in south west France to devour thyem and as you can see, rather a lot germinated. These were saved late in the season and I did nothing whatsoever to help them on their way. The seeds I originally saved were eaten so I took a few tomatoes I had left and scraped the seeds out onto paper kitchen towels. By this spring, they were such a mess that I simply put the whole towel in the seed tray, covered with potting compost and hoped.
	Last year I grew some Veeroma tomatoes from seed I was given by Miss Fuggles. They were big and juicy and beautifully elongated and made fabulous sauce. I enjoyed eating them fresh but I know the rather fleshy texture is not to everyone's taste. Well, I'm growing them again this year and am very seriously hoping to haveboth Ian's Red Cherry and Veeroma tomato seed to swap next year on the bloggers seed network. sadly, I lost all my Ananas tomato seed over the winter but I gave a few seeds away last year and am hoping to get a few plants back from that gardener. I saw them today and they are a bit slow starting but doing ok.
	I've also sown some Marmande Tomatoes and just a few Moneymaker Tomatoes. These will both be new varieties for me, although I love the taste of the Marmande Another success last year was some "Joy's Cos Letttuce" grown from seed given to me by Kate of Tasmania, originally from the Hills and Plains Seedsavers of South Australia. They grew well and I enjoyed eating the tasty cos lettuce. I'm hoping that this year I'll have enough plants to add significantly to my salad garden
	And finally, I thought you might like to see what I still have left to sort out. This bed is my winter salad and brassicas bed which had quite a rich variety of things including lettuce, cabbage, beetroot and chervil. By the time I got back from the extended stay in the UK, it had quite a rich variety of weeds as well....

Poletschka Beans.

2010-04-05T19:33:00.001+02:00

I've not had a great success this year with my seed saving as two trips and two invasions by mice have seriously depleted what stocks I had. Following recent advice, my seeds have all now been moved to better storage jars or boxes of either heavy plastic or preferably, glass.

However, one of the things I was successful with last year was the Poletschka bean. A purple pole bean, which has a beautiful small variegated bean. I don't really know whether I can call a bean variegated... but I'm sure you'll all know what I mean. I originally got the beans from Miss Fuggles at A blog called Fuggles, and grew them here for the first time last year. They were very successful.

I'm just sowing these now and it's a little bit late but if anyone would like to try them then I have a few beans I could let you have. Sadly, the offer can only be made to those people resident in Europe as the problems of shipping seeds beyond our borders is simply too complicated.

If you're interested, please leave a comment here or better still, email me.

Hot Cross Bun Day

2010-04-02T16:24:00.001+02:00

It's Good Friday, a Christian festival which in many parts of the world is celebrated by a national holiday, although, as it happens, not here in France.

Traditionally, Hot Cross Buns are made and eaten on Good Friday. I'm not completely sure of the reasons, but think that, like Pancake Day, it's another food feast related to abstinence at Lent. In this case, those foods which were forbidden during Lent, eggs, butter, milk etc, are once again used to make a delicious dish, in this case a tasty bun.

I determined to make my Hot Cross Buns this morning but things were working against me and it wasn't long before I realised I was running out of time. Hot Cross Buns are delicious to eat, but take up a lot of time in preparation with bursts of activity interspersed with 20 or 30 minutes wait whilst the dough proves.

Admitting defeat, I turned to the internet for a simple recipe where I could throw everything in a pan and walk away... and yes, the pan turned out to be my bread maker. I use my bread maker a lot, but have only ever used it to make...well, bread! But the recipe seemed easy and gave me the time I needed for other things. I'll repeat the recipe here, but a big thanks to Bella Online for the original recipe. I have changed just a couple of small things in that I glazed the buns with warmed honey and omitted the cross!

Well, omitted, is a polite way to say "forgot". I made the buns, prepared the oven and popped them in before putting together a piping bag to add the cross.... it was only then that I remembered the cross has to go on the buns BEFORE they go in the oven.

The finished buns are not the most gorgeous buns I have ever made and they didn't rise very well. However, I want to say that I have no doubt that the problems reflect the state of my attention in the kitchen today and are no reflection on the recipe from Bella Online. They do, however, taste truly amazing.

My own buns

From Bella Online

dough

1/4 cup water - at room temperature or slightly above

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

pinch of allspice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup finely chopped, mixed candied fruit

glaze

2 Tablespoons of honey, gently warmed

Although it's not what is recommended in the original recipe, I always use a mixture of flour and water to make the cross, and pipe it on just before putting the buns in the oven.

Preparation -
Place all the dough ingredients, except the raisins and fruit, in the bread machine pan. Set on the dough only cycle. Add the raisins and candied fruit at the bread machine's signal for adding extra ingredients. Remove the dough from the bread machine at end of dough cycle. Place it in a bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Shape the pieces into balls and place them 3 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, about 45 minutes to an hour. Bake in a preheated oven at 375º for 15 to 18 minutes, or until light brown on top. Remove from the oven. Place the baking sheet full of buns on a wire rack to cool. Prepare the glaze, then spread it over the warm buns. Let the buns continue to cool on the baking sheet.

Oh, The top picture above is of my own attempt but the second picture is the "official" photo from Bella Online, which I thought looked better.

Lists....

2010-03-29T21:22:00.001+02:00

I'm a great believer in lists!

Lists for everything... shopping, birthdays, house work and of course gardening jobs. In my house, the lists tend to have a certain life of their own. For example, the shopping list, like everyone else's, is a simple list of things that need to be bought. Again, in my own case, this list is very simple, having two halves, the top half for things I need to buy at the weekly market and the bottom half for my weekly shopping trip. The bottom half gets torn off and taken with me shopping, leaving the top half to be forgotten on the day I go to market. And so it goes, on and on, week after week. This list lives on the door of the refrigerator in the kitchen, so that any item discovered to be missing or an item of which I am selecting the last one, can be added immediately. In fact, this list is always a source of mystery to me. I tear off the bottom half and head off to the shops and only when I get there do I even glance at the list... Which is always a mistake, because every week there is some urgent message not to forget... but I digress. After all, this is a gardening blog...(I think).... so shopping lists are not what it's about.

I have a list for my gardening jobs.

Jobs on the gardening list usually take about half an hour and I try to complete about ten a day... I must add, if I'm gardening, as, sadly I can't spend 5 hours a day, 7 days a week gardening! Things get added to the list as they crop up and in the evening, after I have eaten my meal I try and settle for a few moments and review "the list", crossing out those tasks that are completed and adding any that I think of that haven't already got added during the day. And there you have my problem.... Any that haven't already got added during the day.

Take today as an example. After breakfast I headed out into the garden with my list. In the case of the garden, the list sits on the table of my terrace with a pen so that whatever happens it's there when I stop for a break, lunch or the odd cup of tea...

So list in hand, I sat at the table, finishing my breakfast coffee and was happy to count just ten items for today. A very pleasant workload and one which wouldn't cause stress or problems. There were some bigger jobs, but they were balanced by a few smaller ones....

Moving stone was the biggest job on the list.... but that has been and will be on the list for several days yet. I live near a limestone quarry and so have access to limestone ballast which I use as a base for paths and parking areas. The lorries from the quarry drive along the road at the end of my garden and the other day one of them stopped and delivered the ten tonnes of stone that I had ordered. Sadly, the lorry driver just tipped the entire cargo in one spot and it was up to me to move it and spread it to do the job for which it was ordered. So each day I move a little bit more. Each day because by the time I have loaded about a quarter of a tonne into my little trailer by shovel, carted it off to where it needs to be.. then tipped it and spread it.. and then gone back and done it all a second time.... I've had enough for one day....

But, again I digress, after all, the title of this piece is "Lists" not "Stone from the quarry".

So, once I had finished my after-breakfast coffee, I headed out into the garden and the sunshine, happy with my list of ten things to do. I pottered about and before I knew it, it was time to stop for lunch.

Feeling somewhat satisfied with my morning's work, and truly enjoying the spring sunshine which has arrived here, I again sat at the table on the terrace and casually picked up my list, crossing off the six jobs I had completed. Feeling very happy, I counted down and found that 6 from 10 left.... just 8 jobs still to do!!!

Like I said, those lists have a life of their own....

Spring is here

2010-03-27T16:38:00.001+01:00

Spring has at last broken the hold of winter and is bursting forth here in the Kitchen Garden in France.

This winter has seen some harsh weather across France, particularly along the Atlantic coast, but, at long last, down here in the south west, we are seeing more bright skies and sunshine than we are seeing the cold days of winter. For the past few days my thermometer, set well into the shade on the north face of a pillar, has not dipped below 10°C (50°F). Around the garden the Forsythia is bringing a welcome splash of intense yellow and the plum trees are just breaking forth with blossom. However, the winter has been about a month longer than usual. This is a picture of one of my Forsythia and it could have been taken today. It was in fact taken on February 22 in 2008, a whole month ahead of this year.

In the vegetable garden things are beginning to stir as well with both the Rhubarb and Artichokes pushing their heads above ground for a look at the new year.

The winter vegetables are plodding on with lots of brassicas still in the ground and the autumn plantings of garlic and leeks are now showing their mettle.

I'm not sad to see winter going away this year and will set it firmly behind me when I change my clocks to summertime tonight. This winter has seen me spending far more time than I wished away from the garden as I recovered from some health issues in the UK. Then, just as I returned, Hurricane Xynthia hit the west coast and I drove the several hundred miles south through appalling weather. Although, the problems for me pale into insignificance when looked at against the devastation caused in the Vendee region and the plight of the families of the numerous people who lost their lives.

Even after arriving home my problems were not yet behind me as a freak electrical problem on the local supply network caused everything in the house that was plugged in to have almost double the normal voltage thrown across it. This caused the irreparable failure of the central heating, phones, internet connections, satellite tv receiver and even some light fittings. In fact, it seems the only thing that survived was an old tungsten lamp which has not yet been replaced by it's low energy cousin. So much for progress.

So yes, I'm pleased to be warm again as daytime temperatures raise to the very pleasant 20's°C (70's°F), pleased to be cheered by the vibrant colours of shrubs and trees returning to the landscape and pleased to see that those delicate little plants I introduced to the world last year have sensibly, hidden away from the harsh winter and can now raise their heads and enjoy the bright spring days.

And I'm right there with them, enjoying the bright spring days.

Another week??

2010-03-22T21:05:00.001+01:00

I can't believe that another week has passed.

Most of it has still been spent dealing wqith things domestic and also, our first guests of the 2010 holiday season. They arrived last Tuesday and, luckily, that was the day when the icy cold weather suddenly turned much milder.

I'm still having to resolve problems caused by an electrical fault which is also taking a lot of my time.

However, I have at last been able to start to get out into the garden and attack a few projects.

The bed where I had sown broad beans back in November, has now been turned over and all the dead beans worked back into the soil. I'm hoping to sow some new beans in a day or two.

I've also been taking cuttings of my Forsythia bush in the hope that they will produce some new young shrubs for me. I took cuttings last March and now have three healthy little spurs of Forsythia, all of which have flowered

I didn't do too well with my geraniums over this winter. I took them in as I always do but they mostly seem to have given up on the quest for life during this past hard winter. I have sown some marigold seeds in the hope they will grow. I've never managed to grow Marigolds but I am an eternal optimist, so, of course, I just know these two pots will thrive

Back at Last

2010-03-13T21:37:00.001+01:00

After several months away from the garden I'm pleased to be back on familiar terre.

However, I chose to return from the UK on a weekend when France was being battered by severe Atlantic storms causing extensive damage up and down the west coast. Before leaving the UK, I had seen mention of the storms on national TV news but it was only once I was in France and able to pick up the French TV news services that I realised the true extent of the damage with some parts of the west coast being completely flooded out. One of my favourite areas, and, I think, one of the most beautiful parts of France, the Vendee, was looking very sad as mile after mile was awash with the results of the storm.

However, closer to home, here in the Kitchen Garden in France, most things seem to have survived the awful weather and I was even able to pick some leaves to eat for dinner on my first day back

The plastic tunnel I had put over a few things for the winter was however blown to pieces and there was quite a bit of tree damage, particularly in the old walnut trees, which had shed some large old branches. But there again, that's what Walnut trees do in winter!

The storm had somehow managed to break the cold frame with one of the glass covers being shattered. This was quite an achievement as the cover was actually open and strapped back to the wall...

Broad beans usually over winter here but this year, the repeated swings in temperature have proved too much for the ones I planted back in November

I've had to spend the rest of the week, mostly, working in and around the house trying to bring back to life the property which has lain empty for just about four months. In particular, the local field mouse population seems to have found doors in to the property that I never knew existed and have been having quite a party.

Still, at least on this trip away, the mice seem to have been kept out of the few seeds I had left.

And finally, I'm pleased to see all the signs of spring bursting out around me. M. Gary, a local farmer, tends a small field I own, and he was out preparing the land for planting... The forsythia is in bud and I expect that by next week it will be a bright yellow splash of colour which is my true indicator that spring really has arrived.

Pancake Day

2010-02-18T17:24:00.001+01:00

I'm still in the UK, getting ready for my return to the Kitchen Garden in France and today is Pancake Day.

I love pancake day and it brings back many fond memories...

As a child, my mother always made pancakes on Pancake Day and it was a real treat. Not just for me, either, as my father loved them possibly a little more than I did. He certainly always got more!

Today also bring back memories of fun evenings with friends. I remember back probably 30 years ago. I was living in south Wales and one day I was telling one of my fiends that I'd be making pancakes that evening as it was pancake day. She looked at me incredulously and simply asked, "Do you know how to make pancakes?"

"Come and see!" I replied

The result was a tradition that we built up over the next 20 odd years where, every pancake day, she and her husband, came for dinner and to help make pancakes. Thinking back, I don't know how we ever managed to make a single pancake as there was so much giggling going on in the kitchen.

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras as it is otherwise called, is an old Christian festival dating back 1000 years where there is a feast on the last day before lent, in order to use up the foods that should not be eaten during that time.

In England, since the 15th century, the food has been used up by making pancakes, hence the name "Pancake Day". The biggest pancake ever made was made in Rochdale in 1994 and measured 15 metres, about 50 feet, in diameter and weighing in at 3 tonnes (6600 lbs). There is also a tradition in the Buckinghamshire town of Olney to hold a pancake race on Pancake day, where contestants, who must be housewives who have lived in the town for more than six months and wear an apron and scarf or hat, run a race whilst tossing a pancake.

It's quite hard taking a photo of yourself, tossing a pancake, using time delay to allow yourself to get back into the photo, pick up the pan and actually toss the pancake, only to find that it went higher than you hoped and was almost out of the frame!!!

My own recipe is very simple

Basic Pancake Batter

(makes eight)
100g plain flour
Pinch of salt
3 large eggs
200ml milk
A little oil for frying

Place the flour, salt and eggs in a large bowl with half the milk. Whisk until the mixture is lump-free. Add the remaining milk and whisk again until smooth. If you prefer place all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend until smooth, Pour the batter into a jug. The batter can be made in advance and chilled for up to eight hours before use.
Heat a 20cm/8in diameter non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle a little oil over the centre and wipe it around with a piece of kitchen paper. Now pour a little of the batter into the pan and immediately tilt the pan to spread the batter thinly and evenly over the base. Cook for two minutes or until the top is set and the base golden. Turn the pancake over with a spatula or if you are feeling brave, flip the pancake!
Cook for a further one to two minutes or until the base is golden. Transfer to a plate and interleave with greaseproof paper, keep warm. Use the batter and a little more oil to make a further seven pancakes in the same way.

Serve simply by dusting with sugar, adding a squeeze of lemon and rolling.
OR, as soon as you have titled the pan to spread the batter sprinkle in a few sultanas then cook as before.
I have a friend who insists on taking the pancake but adding golden syrup instead of sugar and lemon

or try them in the following recipe idea.

French Mushroom, Ham & Goats Cheese Crepe
Fill the pancakes with sliced mushrooms sauteed in oil, a slice of ham, then top with thinly sliced goats cheese. Fold up to enclose the filling then pop under a hot grill until the cheese begins to melt. Serve scattered with flat parsley.

OH, I used to make the batter in the traditional way adding the milk, beating, adding more milk, beating again etc. Now... I just throw everything into a food processor and let it do the work. I can't tell the difference.

Coming Home

2010-02-12T11:22:00.004+01:00

Mny of you will know that I have been away for about 3 months, surviving the harshest winter the UK has seen in decades. I have been wet and cold. I have been snowed in for 5 days and I have missed out on the daily exercise of gardening.

However, I have also had a wonderful time as I have roamed the United Kingdom, visiting old friends, making new friends and of course seeing my brother, my sister, my nieces and my great niece. I have had great walks to the beach and enjoyed the fresh wintry breeze along the shore

Now the time has come to plan to get back to the kitchen Garden in France. I wonder what I shall find when I return?

I've not writtten much on this blog whilst I've been away but once I get back now, I shall post some bits and pieces.

I have a small problem with my internet connection to resolve but once that is repaired I'll be back.

And I'm now ready for the new growing year, refreshed from my travels.

2010

2009-12-31T15:40:00.001+01:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

A Boxing Day Swim

2009-12-31T15:29:00.001+01:00

I know that a lot of my readers on this blog, live in the southern hemisphere, particularly coastal Australia and to all of you, I apologise for writing an article on such an everyday thing.

As I have previously mentioned, I have left the Kitchen Garden in France to fend for itself whilst I visit friends and family in the United Kingdom.

Over the Christmas period I have been staying with my family in a beautiful, Victorian coastal resort on the Isle of Wight, on the south coast of England

There is an old tradition here where people go for a swim in the sea at noon on Boxing Day. This year was no exception and with temperatures around 5°C and the sea temp about the same there was a surprising number of volunteers, all prepared to swim for charity.

Prior to the swim it had been raining quite heavily but for the few minutes of the event, the sun broke through and temperatures raised ...ooooooh....probably to 6&176;C!!!!!

I spoke to one middle-aged lady who explained that she had swum in a full penguin costume and that once she was in the sea, she had to ask her sister to pull her out as the costume was so heavy.

My congratulations and support go out to all those who took part and also to those foreshore cafes who opened up specifically for the event offering hot drinks to those elders amongst us who felt the cold rather more than the copious numbers of ladies in their teens and early twenties who were sporting their best bikinis.

It was a great day. Thanks Ventnor.

A Kitchen Garden in ....

2009-12-10T14:09:00.001+01:00

The kitchen garden in France has been left to more or less look after itself for a few weeks whilst I visit friends and family in the UK.

Recent events made it necessary for me to to visit a property I own in the UK and I decided to turn the trip into a longer vacation and visit both family and friends, at the same time. I shall be here until into the new year when I shall return to the garden in France and try to make a more concerted effort to write on here again.

I arrived in the UK recently and was greeted by some pretty awful weather. Those that follow the UK news will have heard of the devastating floods that came to Cumbria during November and my thoughts are with all the displaced people that live in that region. My own family hail from a neighbouring county and I have an uncle who currently lives in Cumbria and has been affected by the flooding, although not to the terrible extent that so many people have suffered. Apart from the obvious suffering of people losing their possessions during the floods, my heart also goes out to them as they lose a much less newsworthy but equally important thing....their gardens, many of which will have been under several feet of water for many days.

The property in France is some two and a half hours drive from the coast and one of the joys of being here is the ability to walk down to the beach on a regular basis. During some of the recent storms, when winds in excess of 100mph (160kph) lashed the coast in this part of England , I was truly impressed by the raw energy of the waves crashing along the coastal defences and throwing spray high, high into the air. One day I walked to the cliff, intent to take a path down it to the foreshore but the winds were so strong I was unable to stand as I neared the edge of the cliff and decided that I would be more than foolish to attempt the path in such conditions.

During this sudden, unplanned, vacation, my own garden is being looked after by a good friend who is also keeping me abreast of developments by email.

Whilst I'm in the UK, I'm trying to find time to help out in the gardens of my family and perhaps even some of my friends will be brave enough to let me loose!!!!!!

I know it's a bit early, but my access to the Internet is quite limited whilst I'm here, so I'm going to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas, great New Year celebrations and a wonderful 2010. Many thanks for reading this blog during 2009 and I am looking forward to seeing you and hearing your comments during 2010

A Wet Autumn Day

2009-10-21T13:31:00.001+02:00

Today is the first day for many weeks when it has been raining here in the south west of France so it was time to attend to all those indoor domestic jobs that inevitably need doing before the onset of winter. You know, things like fitting a new light in the kitchen and rehanging a door that had fallen off a cupboard, things like adjusting the time clocks on the central heating the more pressing needs of the cooler wintry air, (we had minus 2C(28F) overnight this week). Actually, there was quite a list of such jobs which was quite daunting.... so I decided to sort my saved seeds!

Over the year I have saved from numerous fruits and vegetables. I tend to collect the seeds and then store them in a paper coffee filter in the kitchen whilst they dry. This seems to work well, as the filter paper absorbs any moisture that is still in the seeds and also provides a medium to write the identification information on. You know, things like "Seeds from that delicious melon which we bought from the lady that sells leeks at the market at Villereal". So today I have been moving the seeds into better storage jars for their winter rest.

Actually, this whole operation has been precipitated by a recent holiday.

Last week we suddenly decided to go away for a few days and take advantage of the autumn sunshine that this part of France was enjoying. A couple of hours here on the Internet and I had found a secured a beachside apartment just a couple of hours drive away. It was in a resort which is far busier than I like in the middle of summer but which I felt would be interesting again, now the crowds have thinned. So we upped and went and enjoyed a whole week of doing very little, swimming in the Atlantic, lazing on the beach and drinking good French coffee and eating good french patisseries.

Before we went, we moved all the seeds from our kitchen into our utility room for the sake of tidiness!

Sadly, on the day we left, a mouse, or maybe a whole horde of mice moved in. Maybe in this instance I should use an alternate collective noun for the mice.... a mischief of mice!!!!

Anyway, the result was that the mice feasted for a whole week and I have now learned that mice prefer melon seeds to pumpkin seeds, are particularly partial to tomato seeds, especially those varieties where I only had a few seeds saved and generally can make a great deal of mess.... indeed mischief... when confronted with rows of paper coffee filters full of tasty seeds.

We Are All One

2009-07-07T22:36:00.001+02:00

Once again I need to thank Kate of Hills and Plains Seedsavers for bringing this video to my attention.

It is self explanatory.....

Take just ten minutes out of your day, grab a coffee, and settle down and watch the video

I'm sure you will be moved.

Ian's Red Cherry Tomato,

2009-07-06T23:22:00.001+02:00

I will be saving seeds this year from a cherry tomato plant that I have grown for the past couple of years.

I bought a few nice looking small red cherry tomato seedlings from some people who specialise in organic growing here about three years ago. The sellers just said they were red and cherry....

I grew them on and they produced a nice crop of cherry tomatoes which proved to be sweet and tasty.

Last year I grew them again and again they produced a nice crop of bright red cherry tomatoes and again I saved seeds from the three plants I had.

Sadly, over last winter, something happened in my workshop and the envelope the seeds were stored in got wet. I discovered this in about late January/early February of this year, when I found the seeds all stuck, in a mass, to the envelope.

Eventually, I decide to sow the lot and see what happened. I simply scraped all the seeds off the paper onto a seed tray of sowing compound, watered it and left them to it.

To my astonishment I got what must have been a couple of hundred seedlings.

I thinned them down and nurtured them. I potted them on as they developed, pinching out a dozen tiny seedlings into a pot. Later I split those pots into individual plants. I gave some of the pots of 12 away, I also gave away individual plants until,eventually, people were crossing the road when I approached for fear of being off loaded with another tomato seedling.

I called them Ian's Red Cherry Tomato as I felt they had survived unfair stress and I owed them some recognition.

Now, some 6 months later I have about 20 plants fully grown in the garden, and today, I picked the first Ian's Red Cherry Tomato this year. It was delicious. They seem to be cropping better than ever this year.

I'm going to save seeds from these tomatoes and offer them under the Blogger's Seed Network.

If any one would like some seeds, please drop me a line at kitchengardeninfrance@gmail.com and I'll keep some for you. I will be asking for a small contribution towards the postage costs.

We all need to help our friends across the world

2009-07-05T00:01:00.001+02:00

India

Monsanto is trying to introduce genetically modified eggplant seed into India. Here is a letter I received recently. Please read it and do what you can. This is NOT someone else's problem, it is the responsibility of every human on this planet, including you and me.

Dear friends and colleagues,

This letter is to request you to sign a petition to the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, seeking to ban the entry of GM foods and seeds into the country.

The Anti-GM Food campaign (www.indiagminfo.org) has been active for a couple of years, and has thousands of farmers and urban consumers backing it in India. The protest recently got a reprieve when the newly appointed Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, made a statement saying he would not allow the entry of GM foods into India. We now need international support to make sure that there is enough pressure on the goverment to take sane decisions regarding the future of our nation.

Many of you may be aware that Monsanto is ready for the release and commercial sale of Bt Brinjal (eggplant) seeds in India. Eggplant is an an ironic choice of vegetable, since it is a well known fact that India has hundreds of local, native eggplant varieties, that continue to be cultivated even today, in fields and home gardens.

Earlier, the Indian government allowed large scale field trials of Bt Brinjal without biosafety protocol being cleared. Some of you may also have seen Monsanto's advertisements in leading newspapers and magazines in the US, about biotechnology saving the world, using Climate Change as a platform for their argument.

All you need to do is go to www.iamnolabrat.com and sign the petition. It will go directly to the Prime Minister's office (PMO). Every voice counts. This is a global concern we are talking about here, not just India.

I would like to mention here that India and the US Bush administration had signed an agreement - the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA) with a great emphasis on and large plans for transgenics, using state of the art infrastructure in India as tools for multi-national seed companies. It is interesting to note that Monsanto is one of the members of the KIA board, along with WalMart!

The Indian government had also come up with a Biotechnology Development Strategy (a policy framework) for the country with huge financial outlays for modern biotechnology, despite great opposition from hundreds of civil society groups at each stage - right from the draft to the regional consultations.

I am sending this mail out to all of you whom I have met, or been in touch with on email or phone during my time in the US over the last four months. I have mentioned the Bt Brinjal campaign to many of you, and I feel confident that you will respond to this alert. Please also take a few minutes to send it out to your network so this gets wider publicity.

The campaign may also request you for future help, in case things reach a stage where phone-ins on designated dates are needed. We would deeply appreciate it if those of you who can do so, respond to this request as well. What seemed like a lost case then, has reached this stage with public pressure and participation, and with our collective effort, we may be able to get the government to take an appropriate decision.

Many, many thanks in advance and all good luck with your own work.

Warm regards,

Sunita Rao

--
Sunita Rao
Adjunct Fellow, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, India (www.atree.org)
Member, Kalpavriksh, Pune, India (www.kalpavriksh.org)
Founder Trustee, VANASTREE, Sirsi, India (www.vanastree.org)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sunito Rao is a board member of Kitchen Gardeners International. I thank Kate at Hills and Plains Seedsavers for bringing this to my attention.

A Wander in the Orchard

2009-07-04T22:33:00.001+02:00

	Last year the fruit harvest of my orchard was bad. When I say bad, that is probably an understatement... FIG There was a late frost, a very late, very hard frost and I, along with almost everybody else in the vicinity, lost ALL my fruit
	With this in my mind, and aware that it was now July and we had not suffered a late bad frost again this year, I decided to go and take a look how things were WALNUT panning out. It looks like it's going to be a bumper crop for some of the orchard standards.
	The Walnut trees are all laden with healthy looking fruit and I am looking forward to the usual battle I LEMON wage with my red squirrel, where, every time a walnut cascades to the floor, Squirrel and I run to see who can bag it first. Sadly Squirrel usually wins. The top picture is of the fig tree. I have a few
	figs. I'm pleased because the fig tree is in the middle of a kind of restoration project and I did not expect any fruit at all. PLUM The lemon tree grows in a pot as it gets too cold in mid winter for it. I was delighted to note a tiny fruit on it the other day as I wandered.
	The fruits on the pear tree look the healthiest they have looked in the five years we have been here. PEAR Maybe, the new tree I planted earlier this year has provided some extra stimulus and I'll get some usable fruit once again.
	Apples are one of my favourite orchard fruit and for many years, as a youngster living in England, I believed that orchards only grew apples. APPLE Now, out of thirty trees in the orchard I only have 4 apple trees. but my favourite is showing a very heavy crop again this year. I inherited most of the fruit trees
	when I moved here and I really must put some effort into identifying the various varieties. MIRABELLE And finally my mirabelle. I only have the one tree producing this delicious small yellow plum. It is a rather late ripening variety and in my garden, it is usually ready to harvest in late August.

As well as the above , my orchard has cherry, peach and nectarine trees. The cherries fruited well, and we ate substantial amounts before succumbing to the glut and freezing bagfuls. The peach is new this year and is establishing itself but the current drought is not helping it. I think the drought has also taken it's toll on the nectarine....a new tree last year but, I fear, neglected through oversight as my attention focused on all the new vegetable beds. I shall give it some tlc and see if it recovers.

Of course, I have other fruit in the garden, grapes, melons, rhubarb, hazelnut, raspberry and redcurrant to name a few. but many of them are new and all are suffering from a lack of water. Don't they know this part of the world is called AQUA taine......

Another couple of firsts

2009-06-22T23:11:00.001+02:00

	My First COURGETTE (Zucchini) I am growing Courgettes for the first time ever this year. I have just two plants and they have now started to produce fruit. So here they are... The very first courgettes I have ever grown.. I tasted the one that is cut and it was delicious.
	And my first SEEDS to SAVE I have also done quite well with Broad Beans this year, again my first time ever. They are over now and I have eaten lots and frozen some. I left these few (about 500gms {1 lb}) until the pods were quite black and then harvested them for seed for next year.
	And a little RESCUE A couple of years ago I went away in late November for a few days and didn't return until late April.. NO, I wasn't thrown in prison but it is a long story.... Anyway, when I got back, one of my lemon trees had suffered severe damage from the winter chills. To be honest, I quickly decided that it was a gonner and threw it under the bench in the workshop where I forgot about it. Imagine my surprise the other day, when I suddenly noticed a glimmer of hope. I think it's on the road to recovery.

And a big thank you to all those people who have offered advice and support. You know who you are.

Failed Fennel

2009-06-15T20:31:00.001+02:00

I've had a problem with my fennel.....

The plants have grown but have not formed the bulb at the base. This is the first time I have grown fennel and I'm not sure what the problem is, or more likely, has been..

Maybe someone out there can help me.....

I hope so as I am intending to grow some more....

Fun in September

2009-06-12T18:50:00.000+02:00

Kitchen Garden in France is hosting a weekend of gardening fun in September.

The weekend is in support of Kitchen Gardeners International's commitment to encouraging vegetable gardening across all the nations of the world.

The fun will start on Friday evening and go through to Sunday evening with visits to local gardens and markets etc. There will be ample opportunity to sample some of Perigord's exquisite cuisine and, after all, Perigord is one of France's gastronomic delights.

On top of all this, an opportunity to chat with fellow gardeners from around the world make this a weekend not to miss.

For a fuller explanation, take a look at A French Kitchen Garden Weekend

Anyone interested in attending can email me at kitchengardeninfrance@gmail.com

Another Pech Bessou Gourmet Evening

2009-06-09T23:12:00.001+02:00

Saturday night was the date for another gourmet evening at one of our local vineyards. I wrote about this annual event last year and you can read that post here

For these evenings, which are very popular in this part of France, you wander along, taking your plate, knife and fork with you, and of course, the all important wine glass and then you sit at one of the communal tables and eat what ever produce has caught your eye and you have bought. The local farmers bring their produce, transformed into delicious dishes....

This year, our local pork farmer brought his mobile barbecue set up and produced delicious escalope of pork, pork chipolatas and Saucisse de Toulouse, a beautiful thick sausage, very similar in texture to a Cumberland Sausage. Sauscisse de Toulouse is my favourite so that part of the decision making was easy. The meat, which was cooked simply in its own juices was soooo good and was accompanied by a fried potato and onion dish, pomme sarlataise.

Next came the question of a starter and as many of you will know, when I spied "foie gras de canard", I was sunk. On this occasion the foie gras was served on a simple slice of bread and accompanied by the most exquisite apple segments, which had been delicately sautéed in white wine. Another tour of the stalls revealed a cheese producer from the Pyrenees with a superb creamy Brebis.

Brebis is the name given to a cheese made from sheep's milk and the Pyrenees are famous in France for this particular type of cheese.

Just desert left to choose and with two excellent choices what could I do but opt for both, sharing them around the other guests at our table.

Some of the tastiest strawberries I have yet eaten this year, and yes, that includes those I pulled from my own garden, had been grown within a few miles of the event and were being sold by the grower, and a tourtiere. A kind of Apple tart......with attitude.... it's covered in layer after layer of the thinnest crispiest pastry flakes....

Of course, to wash this all down, the hosting vineyard were selling their own wines, by the glass or by the bottle... I opted for a bottle of Red and a bottle of Rosé to share at the table.

And finally, the entertainment. My favourite local band. Les Tourist's provided their own brand of music, humour, excellence and just occasionally, total anarchism. Their rendition of classic French and English songs was wonderful and to hear three French lads playing and singing classic Beatles tracks, to visitors who had just arrived from Liverpool, was something never to be forgotten.... Up on the stage they continued with a fabulous version of the Blues Brothers Everybody needs Somebody. If ever you are in this part of France. make sure to catch this band.

What an evening, thanks go to Sylvie and Pascal of "Clos du Pech Bessou". Their web site says that they are concentrating on production of high quality wines.... I believe they have achieved the production of high quality evenings as well.

Local Wildlife

2009-06-09T21:03:00.001+02:00

	My friend Michael has been out and about again taking more stunning wild life photos
	I am very pleased that he allows me to share them all here. These three photos all happened whilst he was walking in his garden looking for evidence of a fox that he wants to photograph.
	He tells me that there was plenty of evidence of the fox being in the area but that he has missed it time after time. I applaud his patience, knowing that photos like these only come after an immense number of waits, delays and frustrations

Cherries are here

2009-05-20T13:59:00.001+02:00

We've had a few really nice days now since it last rained, so today was cutting the grass day....

We have quite a lot of grass in our "parc" and it usually takes me about 4 hours to do the basic cut and then another couple of hours to do all the fiddly bits where I can't get with my big lawnmower. I rarely do it all in one day, usually cutting the bulk of the grass one day and then taking the hand mower round the next That's my plan for tomorrow as usual.

Imagine my delight as I discovered that as the journey around the garden took me under the cherry tree, I was able to pick a few cherries, without even stopping.

That's the cherry tree on the right of the photo...it's a big old affair and stands about 10 metres (30 feet) high. I usually harvest the lower half for myself and leave any fruit on the upper half, which is pretty inaccessible, to be collected by the birds and other animals.

After I finished the grass cutting I went and collected a basket of fruit...just collecting the ones that were in easy reach, and leaving a good quantity of those very low ones for a neighbour's young daughter to pick tomorrow...(no school as it's a holiday here in France)

I find that fresh cherries freeze really well, and can be eaten, simply defrosted with no further attention needed....

I also still have a large bag in the freezer, which I intend to turn into jam... I better get a move on....

although, I'm not sure how many of these will make it to the freezer.....

If the weather holds, I think tomorrow will be spent cutting the grass with the hand mower before getting the steps and ladder out and seriously picking cherries.

Now, lunch....cherries and chips anyone???

Nest-building Wren

2009-05-15T15:45:00.001+02:00

Spring has arrived here in south west France and it has brought with it an opportunity for my friend Michael to get out again photographing the local wildlife. He sent me these 4 pictures which he took the other day. The French call the bird a "troglodyte", but we English speakers know it as a wren. Michael has been trying to capture photos of this bird for several years. It is the second smallest European bird weighing in at only 9 grams (about 1/3 of an ounce) and is very shy.

The fourth picture is difficult to see but is of a spider.... I still continue to be amazed at how Michael even finds these photo opportunities, let alone captures them.

Once again, thanks to Michael for sharing these photos with us.

A Week of Firsts

2009-05-13T22:26:00.001+02:00

I found a lamb joint buried deep in the recesses of my freezer the other day and decided to make a roast lamb dinner for Sunday Lunch. I had a look around for things to accompany my meal and found quite a nice selection. Then I took a look in my garden and decided that I could pick enough broad beans to accompany the lamb.... My first broad beans of the year.....

Actually, this is not strictly true as I have been picking young broad beans for a while now and slicing them into my salads...but these were the first broad beans I intended to shell and cook....and they were delicious...

The following day a friend dropped in just to see how I was getting on with the new garden and as we walked around I showed him some young new rhubarb plants. These plants had been given to me by a friend in Wales back in October of last year and she had grown them from seed. I had never come across rhubarb grown from seed before so I took them with interest. I'm hoping to get a little rhubarb this year but probably won't really get a harvest until next spring. All the talk of rhubarb led me to take him round to where my established rhubarb crown has been flourishing for a few years and is coming up to time to divide... I found several stalks were ready to be collected so I cut them, removing the leaves for the compost, before sending him on his way with my first rhubarb of 2009.

And then today, Wednesday, the first strawberries were ready to pick...So I was able to enjoy strawberries and cream with my afternoon tea. When I started the garden last year, strawberries were one of the first plants I bought. I bought 12 each of 2 varieties and carefully alternated them as I planted....Now I do not have a clue which plant is which...but both are delicious

Suddenly the garden is flourishing and I'm really enjoying all this fresh produce, knowing that just over a year ago I made my first tentative steps into the world of vegetable gardening.... Is rhubarb a vegetable??

A big thank you goes out to everyone out there who has helped me along the way.

About my tomatoes???????

2009-05-12T18:44:00.001+02:00

I'm looking for some advice, and where better to pose a question than right here... It's about planting my tomatoes....

I have a bed which faces, roughly, south west, probably more south south west. In this bed I am going to plant two rows of tomatoes, each row containing 10 plants. I want to plant 10 plants each of two varieties.

I can't decide whether I'm better off planting 2 rows of 5 for each variety, or whether each variety should have a single row of ten plants.

What do you think? Please leave a comment with your suggestions and reasoning. It will be a great help to me.

Thanks

Fish in a kind of Provencal sauce

2009-05-08T14:36:00.002+02:00

It was Friday and I was running out of food.... Well it would be an exaggeration to say running out of food.... My garden is loaded with salad stuff, I had the few last leaves of cabbage growing and the new crop of Broad Beans was ready for it's first picking..... but....

So, it was Friday and I was running out of food and I had to prepare lunch. The solution in my mind was take a look at what I actually had and then create something...which would hopefully be tasty.

There were the last couple of pieces of coley, which I quite like. I had Courgettes (zucchini), lots, I found a fennel in the vegetable rack and as I dug into the freezer, I found the last few tomatoes from last year, 3 large Marmande, a tomato I find very tasty and which freezes and keeps well.

I could create a fish in a kind of Provencal sauce.

I got down my big old heavy frying pan from the rack and set it on a medium heat

Provence is olive country so a good tablespoon of olive oil was the first thing in the pan, quickly followed by a generous dose of "Herbes de Provence"....(what else??)

Next I peeled and sliced 4 cloves of garlic and chopped a medium onion, throwing them in the pan as I went.

The pan had now warmed sufficiently to turn down to a low heat.

I chopped the onion and tomatoes and added those. I really needed more tomatoes but I didn't have any so I opened a tin of Italian plum tomatoes and chopped them before adding them, along with all the liquid

I chopped half the fennel and added that.

When I found the tomatoes, I also found a small aubergine (egg plant) from last year...although, I didn't actually grow aubergine last year!!! so that got chopped and added

A few dates, pitted and chopped and the sauce was beginning to come together although it lacked something... I added a teaspoon of sea salt and a generous cupful of a sweet white wine I have.

The wine is a home made wine made by a local farmer.... It is made in the same way that Monbazillac is made. Sadly, he lives a few kilometres outside the Monbazillac Vignoble limits and as he isn't a registered wine producer it remains as a home made wine which he can't sell. This particular bottle was 25 years old and beautifully mellow and smooth.

The fennel was added next and then the sauce left to simmer gently until the liquid had reduced quite a bit.

In the meantime, I lay the fish fillets in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and scattered a good handful of peeled prawns (shrimp) over them.

Once the sauce was ready I covered the fish with it and then baked in a medium oven for about 20 minutes (180C).

I started off calling this a "kind of Provencal sauce" but I'm not sure anyone from Provence would give it a seal of approval....

Spring Water in Spring

2009-05-03T00:35:00.001+02:00

Saturday morning brought another visit to Villereal market, and this week, the first Saturday in May, brought a big increase in the numbers of people there. It seems to me, that this year, the arrival of the normal summer crowds has been somewhat delayed.... Last week, the weather was awful and the market was all but deserted, with a few hardy traders trying to make a living from even fewer shoppers. But today, the sunshine was back, the crowds were back and the market had a great buzz.

On the way home from market I often stop at my local "source" to fill a couple of bottles. A "source" is a natural spring and there is one in our little community. The water bubbles out of the rock at the back of a small cave and can be collected at the entrance to the cave, as people have done for many hundreds of years

The water is so crystal clear and tastes wonderful. This photograph shows just how clear the water is, although it really doesn't do justice to the place as it is difficult to even see the water is present although, here, it is actually about 500mm (18") deep.

It is in a beautiful spot, overlooking the valley and I usually park in the village square and then walk past the 12th century church and down the track towards the "source" enjoying some fabulous scenery on the way.

Once there, I can fill a couple of containers and then sit for a moment, under the shade of a big old chestnut tree and drink in, not the refreshing water, but the peace and tranquility of this idyllic spot.

Sitting in the sunshine, I often think of times gone bye and imagine people, hundreds of years ago, in this same spot, resting their horses and filling their water carriers.

An Ill Wind....

2009-04-28T13:00:00.001+02:00

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good....

Back on the 23rd January a storm hit this part of France. It came in overnight and lasted for about 24 hours. There had already been a lot of torrential rain and some flooding, and then, when winds of almost 200kph (125mph) hit, the whole area was devastated.

Several million homes lost power and the house at the Kitchen Garden in France didn't escape. We lost power for almost 6 days!!!! No electricity in the immediate vicinity also meant no phones...no mobiles... no ATM's..the list goes on.

This is a photo of our small "pool house" where we keep the pool filtration equipment and chemicals, and yes, that is a concrete base that it was torn away from....

Now, you are all probably saying that now, at the end of April, this is hardly news any longer, and that is true....

But a sequence of events has brought the memory back to me and I thought I'd share it with you.

As I said, we lost power for nearly 6 days and that prompted me to decide to buy a generator.... In the 4 years I have lived here, we have lost power for 4 days on one occasion and then 6 days this time...

So after the storm had abated I went off to select and buy a generator, and as luck would have it my local "Brico" had an offer on a suitable model with 15 % discount, off a reasonable price.

I ordered the machine and eventually, some weeks later took delivery and, as is so often the way in France, the 15% discount was credited to my loyalty card and I took my generator away to await the next time power disappears....

All this happened back in January/February and to be honest I had forgotten all about it until the other day when I popped into the local "Brico" again to buy some tomato stakes....

Spiral stakes for tomatoes are all the rage in this part of France this year and as I tend to grow indeterminate tomatoes and take out all the interstices, just leaving the main stem to fruit, they seemed to be a good option. and I needed stakes as I don't yet have any bamboo growing...

I picked up 20 of the steel stakes and when I came to pay, I suddenly remembered the credit and sure enough, there was enough on the card to pay for all the stakes with still some left over.... Nice to get something I had been wondering whether to buy or not for free.....

I'll be planting out the tomatoes just as soon as I get some dry weather and I'll let you all know whether these things work.

I started with the quote "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good" and it appears that the winter storm in January that devastated more than 300,000 hectares (750,000 acres) of forest, taking out between 60 and 70% of timber, and in France alone causing an estimated 1 billion euros worth of damage, excluding forestry losses, was not an ill wind....

Vegetable Soup

2009-04-27T16:16:00.001+02:00

I usually buy all my fruit and vegetables at the market on a Saturday morning. Mostly I buy from a local producer or I buy from Laurent, a greengrocer who buys off small local farmers to save them having to invest the time in attending market with maybe one product. He also brings in things from Spain, like oranges and strawberries and very occasionally from further afield.... By buying like this, I get to pick the freshest produce available each week. Don't forget, of course, that the Spanish border is nearer to me than Paris.

Some weeks, I find that my plans have changed and I have a wide selection of vegetables left over when Saturday morning comes round again.

Since I moved to France nearly 5 years ago I have developed my own "Potage" which solves this problem perfectly. "Potage" is the name given to a soup made from vegetables grown in the "Potager" or vegetable garden.

I make the soup in a slow cooker which allows all the tastes to develop and blend.

The problem of left over vegetables occured last week and by yesterday I had a lot left.... So, I made the soup today, using....cauliflower, celery, celeriac, pumpkin, onion, carrot, Swiss chard, courgette, lemon, fennel seeds, sunflower seeds......

I think that was all... I added a big dose of herbes de provence , a good teaspoonful of Marmite (yeast extract) and about 500ml (US Pint) of salted water and the same of a light lager type beer. It then cooked for about 7 hours on the high setting, with just an occasional stir....

Today, I also went through the fridge and emptied all the odd sauce bottle ends into the pot.... but I didn't put any garlic in as I was running low... That is the beauty of this soup....anything that you have goes in and if you don't have it, it doesn't matter.

At the end of cooking I assess what the soup looks like and what I feel like..... sometimes I will blend the whole lot down to produce a rich thick soup....others I will serve it as it is, with juicy bits of vegetables in a glorious liquid stock. Then, I will serve what I need and pot the rest, ready to cool and freeze.

However, a word of warning to those of you who are used to following recipes..... This way of cooking, simply using what is available and, perhaps, even including things because they "need using up", can produce some truly superb results. Your family may well ravenously finish the pot and demand you make it again very soon.... And there, my friends, is the problem....because of the very nature of the way the ingredients are chosen, you will never make another one which is exactly the same!

Frittata

2009-04-26T21:20:00.001+02:00

This is a frittata made with Courgette(Zucchini), Pumpkin, Celeriac and Feta cheese

I made it the other day, guided by a recipe I had not tried before, but adapting the ingredients to use up some leftover vegetables.

I used a metal frying pan that I could put under the grill at the end.

Ingredients:

300gms (12ozs) of pumpkin cut into 1 cm cubes
100gms (4ozs)of pumpkin grated
200gms (8 ozs)celeriac grated
200ml (1 cup) Apple Juice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 green courgette cut into 1cm cubes
2 salad onions sliced
4 eggs
200ml (1 cup) liquid cream
200gms (8ozs) feta cheese, crumbled
1/4cup chopped fresh basil leaves
3 tbs olive oil to fry

Method:

Turn the grill on high. Heat the oil in a large 25cms(10"~) frying pan, over a high heat.
Add the garlic and onion and cook until you can smell the garlic/onion mix.
Add the pumpkin cubes and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the grated pumpkin and celeriac.
Add the Apple Juice and bring to the boil and cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the courgette(zucchini) and then carry on cooking on high heat until the liquid has gone again.

Whilst this is happening beat the cream and four eggs together and then add the crumbled feta and chopped basil leaves and stir it all together. Once the liquid has gone, turn the heat down and evenly distribute this mixture in the pan. Cook for a few minutes(6 or 7) until the edges are just set but the middle is still quite runny.

Remove pan from heat and place under grill for about 5 minutes. The frittata should be set and lightly grilled on the top.

Serve immediately accompanied by fresh salad leaves.

I opened a young Bergerac Red to drink with this meal and it went very well, the lightness of the young wine nicely complementing the lightness of the omelette.

Rainy Day Sunday,

2009-04-26T17:06:00.001+02:00

We have had a lot of rain here. This seems to be in keeping with the entire world right now, but no, we have not had the 92mm that Kate in Adelaide is reporting... But still, 30 mm yesterday is a lot for South West France, and it has kept on raining all morning.

This has led me to do some much needed work inside. After the usual round of chasing bits of paper I moved to my workshop and started to sort out a few things.

First, I had some herbs to sow into pots. I have sown Sweet Basil, Sage, Dill and Sweet Marjoram. I already have a pot of Basil but it is looking very sad so I decided to get ahead and sow a new lot.

I have also sown a pot of Aster this morning in the hope that the fragrant flowers would attract lots of insects.

I have a little bit of space at the end of my pumpkin bed so I also put a couple of "Potimarron" seeds into pots. This is a pumpkin, not the character in the French version of Bob the Builder, Bob le Bricoleur .

Then, I got onto sorting out seeds, basically looking at what I haven't sown which I should have and there were plenty.

First of all, an apology goes out to Miss Fuggles (A Blog Called Fuggles) who back in February very kindly let me have some seeds including some Poletschka beans. I regret to say that they had been completely overlooked and did not feature at all in my list of sowings and proposed sowings published the other day. However, that won't stop me growing them and they have very firmly been put in the box where I keep the seeds that I am sowing next....Just as soon as the garden is dry enough to get out there again....

Next into the box went the successional sowings. I am absolutely hopeless at successional sowings. This year I'm growing an 18 day radish and it will be ready before the second batch even leaves the packet!!!! The same with salad stuff, I know I need to be sowing every couple of weeks but, somehow it just doesn't happen.. So radish and lettuce are in the box.

I really enjoyed my Red Cabbage over the winter and picked the last a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that an April sowing will produce cabbage in November/December so I thought I'd give that a try, to supplement my usual Autumn sowing. So red cabbage in the box!!!!

Already in the box were some Dwarf French Green Beans given to me by Sarah. Sarah is a lovely lady who gardens not far from here in Charente-Maritime I visited her a few months ago and am intending to get over to see her again soon. She doesn't write a blog though, she has this idea that spending time in the garden, actually growing things is what counts!!!!

As you can see, there will be plenty to sow next week!! The good news is that my cold frame is fairly empty, as is the heated shelf in the workshop where I germinate seeds, so I should be able to quietly get on with growing the lettuce, the pumpkins and the cabbage and then get the beans and radish in the ground just as soon as I can.

Actually, maybe I could call on Bob le Bricoleur's friend Potimarron to come and give me a hand.

Yaĉon - an update

2009-04-26T01:14:00.001+02:00

Back in January, Patrick of Bifurcated Carrots sent me a couple of Yaĉon tubers.

I potted them up as instructed and subsequently, one of the tubers germinated and then, a few weeks ago, the first leaves appeared in the pot.

However the second tuber showed no sign of life.

The first tuber has continued to grow and as you can see is now a healthy plant just waiting for any chance of frost to pass before getting out into the big wide world.

I kept this one watered and checked daily to make sure conditions were right for the second...but nothing

UNTIL

this morning, when, comme d'habitude, I watered big brother and there, just peeping out into the daylight were the tiniest pair of leaves.

So Yaĉon the baby brother has made it and hopefully will catch up with his big brother in the big wide world in just a week or two.

A Nice Supper

2009-04-25T18:25:00.001+02:00

I made this hot sauce the other evening to serve with some shrimp and smoked salmon that I was having for supper. I ate the fish, covered in the sauce and accompanied by my home made bread and, of course, salad from the garden.

This is a nice little hot sauce to serve with shell fish, smoked salmon etc..

It takes about 5 minutes to make and keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days.

Ingredients

Tomato Ketchup
1 tsp Horseradish Sauce
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tbs Worcestershire Sauce
a couple of drops Tabasco Sauce

I usually make this in a small ramekin.

Half fill the ramekin with Tomato Ketchup. Add all other ingredients and mix together. Let stand for about 30 minutes.

Multigrain Bread

300gms multigrain bread flour
200gms plain bread flour
300ml water
a handful of mixed nuts
1 tbs walnut oil
3tsp coarse sea salt
7gms (1 sachet) of dried baker's yeast

I make the bread in a bread machine, setting the machine to run overnight so that I awake to the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread.

Put the water,oil and nuts in the pan
Add the flour.
Create a dip in the middle of the flour, and spread the salt outside of this dip.
Put the yeast into the dip, ensuring it stays dry.

Set the machine to cook on a whole grain programme to finish when you want to get up....

If you are not going to delay the start, there is no need to worry about keeping the yeast dry.

I'm sorry, bread is funny stuff and I have never successfully made any, using any measurements other than metric.

I have added a new blog caled "Ian's French Kitchen. There is a link under "Our Links" in the sidebar. I will post all future recipes to there as well.

A Thank You

2009-04-23T21:49:00.001+02:00

I have just posted my latest item for this blog which, as you will see is an overview of the new Vegetable Garden and what is growing there.

As always when I post an item, I then went to the blog to read the finished article as you will see it.

As I read it, I realised just how many people have helped me get where I am today. I think I have credited everyone who has given me seeds etc and I know I still have some seeds to sow which don't get a mention.

I'm also aware that by writing these pieces for the blog, I have a focus, a spur, to keep me going....

So, to all of you, those friends who have given me seeds etc, those friends who have offered advice and even materials, those friends who have turned up in the garden to help and encourage, and also, those friends who read this blog and offer comments, to all of you, I want to say a BIG thank you.

Garden Layout

2009-04-23T21:37:00.001+02:00

After all the work in getting the new beds ready I thought I'd give you a list of what is actually growing in them and also, what is just around the corner...

So here is what is actually growing, today, in the garden (in the Ground)...or things waiting to be planted (And almost ready to go in the ground)

Bed Number	In the Ground	And almost ready to go in the ground:
Bed 1	Spunta Potatoes Oak Leaf Lettuce
Bed 2	Courgettes Dog Beans (Patrick) Dwarf French Yellow Bean (Sarah)	Bari Cucumber (Kate)
Bed 3	Borlotto Beans Wisley Magic Runner Bean Purple Runner Bean (Sarah) Black Turtle Beans (Kate/Toni)
Bed 4	Spunta Potatoes Binjt Potatoes Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Bed 5	Verte Grande Asparagus Argenteuil Selection Asparagus
Bed 6	Queensland Blue Pumpkin (Marie-Sylvie) Butternut squash (André)
Bed 7	Ananas Tomato (chaiselongue) Geant Tomato (Gabriel) Coeur de Boeuf Tomato (Marie-Sylvie)	Purple Ukraine Tomato (Miss Fuggle) Veeroma Tomato (Miss Fuggle) Golden Sunrise Tomato
Bed 8	Glasking Perpetual Rhubarb (Val) White Lisbon Spring Onions Lillia Red Salad Onion Jaune Paille des Vertus Onion Globe Artichoke
Bed 9		Melon Medley Charentais Melon (M.Gary)
Bed 10 (a)	Ian’s Red Cherry Tomato	Yellow Cornos Capsicum (Kate) Kaibi Round Pepper (Miss Fuggle)
Bed 11	Bok Choy	Red Radicchio Cavolo Nero (Kate) Cabbage Broccoli
Bed 12	Douce Provence Peas Dwarf French Green Beans (Sarah)	Yakon (Patrick)
Bed 13 (a,c,e)	Longue d’Espagne Hazelnuts Salad Leaves Radish (18 day) Radicchio
Bed 14 - 24	These beds are not yet Constructed
Bed 25	Groeseillier a Grappe Juniper Red Currant Raspberries (André)
Bed 26	Zeva Raspberries Magnific Delbard Raspberries September Raspberries Fall Gold Raspberries
Bed 27	Bay Evergreen Shrub (Still to identify) Deciduous Shrub (Still to Identify) Hyssop	Thyme
Bed 28	Cotoneaster Lacteus Deciduous Shrub (Still to Identify)	Wild Flower Mix
Bed 29	Cotoneaster Lacteus Kerria Japonica Pleniflora Lagerstroemia Rouge	Wild Flower Mix
Bed 30	Evergreen Shrub (Still to identify) Deciduous Shrub (Still to Identify)	Wild Flower Mix

SALAD GARDEN	Oak Leaf Lettuce Joy’s Cos Lettuce Radicchio Radish Broad Beans Garlic(Patrick) Burgundy Creole Cuban Purple Creole Tuscan Ail Blanc de Lomagne Salad Onions Spring Onions Leeks Fennel Marais des Bois Strawberry Gariguette Strawberry	Batavia Lettuce Wild Alpine Strawberry
HERB GARDEN	Basil Chervil Chives Coriander Flat Leaf Parsley Garden Cress Garden Mint Peppermint Sage

The Salad Garden seems a bit strange now but it was originally the vegetable garden and it will become more salad oriented as we harvest the existing crops.

The layout for the new garden originally allowed 12 beds for expansion...but I have already pressed one into service to grow Hazelnuts (Bed 13) so there is space for just 11 more.

and here is a sketch plan of the new garden

At last....

2009-04-20T21:39:00.000+02:00

Today is a bit of a time for celebration in the Kitchen Garden in France.

Over the past few months I have been constructing several new vegetable beds in a part of the garden that was previously wild. All together there are 19 new beds in this project and today I finished the preparation of the last of them.

If I cope with these 19 new ones, then there is provision for a further 11 beds to be added next year.... or in the future, anyway.

So, this evening, I have given myself a big pat on the back and even, and those of you who know me will realise how rare this is, even had a small glass of wine to celebrate.... Yes it was a local one.... Bergerac Rouge.

Now I just need to get on with the planting, seed sowing etc to make full use of all this new space.

Soon, I'm going to post an inventory of what I have growing and what is waiting in the wings.

Red Cabbage

2009-04-18T16:04:00.000+02:00

I picked the last of my red cabbage a couple of days ago. You may remember, I was only growing it because I bought it in error, not noticing the hand written amendment to the printed label which simply said rouge (red)!!

I have however been very pleased with the dozen plants I had. I have enjoyed red cabbage in various ways over the past few months particularly liking the leaves shredded and pickled.

I decided to cut the last couple of heads and pickle them, hoping they'll last a few months longer....

To pickle red cabbage I use a mixture of 50% water and 50% vinegar and boil it with some pickling spice. I now make my own spice blend for pickling.....

Pickling Spice Mixture

Ingredients:

1 tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Chilli Flakes
1 tsp Mixed Peppercorns
1 tsp Yellow Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Ground Ginger
2 Bay Leaves

I use this quantity for 5 litres (5 US Quarts) of vinegar/water, just crushing the bay leaves and then mixing all the ingredients together. For smaller quantities, I use a tsp per litre (US quart).

I then bring the vinegar, water and spices to the boil and let it simmer for a moment or two.

I put the shredded cabbage into jars and add a teaspoon (probably slightly less) of sugar to each jar before pouring on the hot spiced vinegar and sealing.

I use some conserve jars that are readily available here in France called Le Parfait. They are really excellent and available in all sorts of sizes and forms. I like the screw top jars best.

These jars use a disposable capsule to seal the jar and then the screw cap lid holds everything in place. The problem, nowadays, is that these capsules are getting very expensive and add significantly to the cost of home preserving. You need to use a new capsule every time you seal a jar.... and they now cost about €0.75 (US$1.00) per capsule. Today I have modified the capsule in an attempt to make it reusable although the seal will probably only last a couple of uses but even that halves the cost.... I have drilled a small hole in the middle of the capsule which I have then sealed with wax. I'll tell you all about it in the future if it works out OK.

Today, 18th April is St Parfait Day...hence this piece.

Hot Cross Buns

2009-04-11T21:02:00.002+02:00

Hot Cross Buns are an age old recipe traditionally eaten at Easter in Great Britain, where an old law permits their sale only at Easter and Christmas. They are now eaten in many parts of the world. They are basically a spicy, glazed, currant bun with a pastry cross piped on the top... Not strictly pastry, it's often, simply flour and milk made into a firm batter so that you can pipe a cross shape.

Hot Cross Buns, however, don't seem to be available in this part of France, indeed I suspect they are not available in any part of France as the French people I have talked to didn't know about them. Now I'm usually happy to adopt my French life and go without whatever is not available, except, that this year I have been invited out to lunch on Easter Sunday and thought, "wouldn't it be nice to take a traditional British thing with me"... So, none available in the shops, I decided I would simply make some.

Well, that was my first error. There is nothing simple about making Hot Cross Buns. If you have the choice between making them yourselves, or buying them from a bakery, choose the bakery! I have spent the entire afternoon baking about a dozen hot cross buns.

First I had to find a recipe. As usual, I turned to the Internet.

There was a recipe with a beautiful photo on a site from a British magazine called Woman's Weekly. Woman's Weekly launched in November 1911 and is still being published today. It does what the title says, a weekly magazine for women and cookery has always been a strong part of it's subject matter so I thought they could probably be relied on to give me a good traditional recipe. And they did!

Next I assembled all the various ingredients, , nothing very unusual, flour, sugar, spices, milk, an egg, bakers yeast, all of which I had in my cupboard.

Then to start making the buns. First start the yeast in a milk and sugar solution.

As soon as that was happily going I mixed the flour, sugar and spices and and then added the yeast mixture and the beaten egg, formed all this into a dough and left it to raise for an hour and a half.

Once it had risen I worked in the fruit and then made the individual buns, before leaving them to rise again for a further 1/2 hour or so

Next I added the cross that gives them their name, then off to the oven.

As they were baking, I started to get the idea that I had chosen well and the recipe was going to be delicious. The smell from the oven was mouth watering....

The recipe called for the hot buns to be glazed as soon as they came out of the oven which is what I did next.

So, several hours after deciding, I have about 16 Hot Cross Buns. They look and smell great and I'm struggling to wait till they are cool to try the first one.

For the full recipe, go to the Woman's Weekly Hot Cross Bun recipe

Things I did differently:

I varied the recipe a little. I made my own mix of spices using Ground Nutmeg, Ground Ginger, Ground Cloves, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Mace, 1/2 tsp of each and then added another tea spoon of Ground Cinnamon. I mixed strong white flour (300gms) and wholemeal flour (200gms) and I substituted whatever fine brown sugar I had in the cupboard.

And yes, having succumbed to temptation, they were delicious.

In the Garden

2009-04-10T23:01:00.001+02:00

I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks working away in the garden. As you will recall, I have been making a new vegetable garden and I thought today would be a good time to reflect on all that I have done.

I'm turning a piece of meadow into the garden and have created about 19 new beds. All the beds are about 7m x 1.2m (24ft x 4ft). The ground is heavy clay so I have had to do a lot of amendment mainly adding in sand and compost.

The site has the provision for another 11 beds which might get added next year.....

The layout of the garden is pretty straight forward. It occupies a square piece of land running roughly north west/ south east. There are 4 corner beds, each quadrant shaped. On the west side there are two beds run together to form one long bed, running at right angles to the main beds. Apart from those, the rest of the beds are in rows of 3 beds running lengthwise.

Of the 19 beds, 18 have been prepared leaving just one bed still to make. More sand and more compost......

I have also been planting these beds extensively over the past couple of weeks.

At this moment, I have perennial beds planted with Asparagus, Rhubarb, Artichokes, Red Currant, Raspberries and Hazelnuts. The quadrant shaped corner beds have been planted with shrubs to attract birds and insects, some evergreen and some deciduous, Bay, Cotoneaster, Kerria, Thyme, Flowering Currant, etc.

Here's a list of the vegetables already planted

Spunta Potato
Binjte Potato
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Joy's Cos Lettuce
Oakleaf Lettuce
Chicory
Radish
Bok Choy
Ian's Red Cherry Tomato
Sturon Onions
Lillia Red Salad Onions
Spring Onions
Borlotto Beans

I also have lots of seedlings ready to be planted, including


Charentais Melon Queensland Blue Pumpkin Purple Ukraine Tomato Veeroma Tomato Golden Sunrise Tomato Capsicum Yellow Cornos Capsicum Kaibi Round Cavolo Nero Kale

In the herb garden this year I have

Bay
Basil
Chervil
Coriander
Dandelion
Dill
Hyssop
Flat Leaf Parsley
Garden Mint
Peppermint
Sage
and something called aillette in France.....maybe a wild garlic.

Last year's vegetable garden is still in operation and has

fennel
red cabbage
Broccoli
several varieties of Garlic
Salad Onions
Leeks
Broad Beans
and three varieties of Strawberries

and finally, I still have some seeds to sow, mainly beans cucumbers, melons and peas.

I think I'm likely to remain busy for a few more days yet....I'm so pleased that when Kate was here helping me get started on this project she insisted on having a table and chairs right in the middle of the garden

Baked Chicken

2009-04-09T00:14:00.001+02:00

I have a friend who eats chicken.....lots of chicken. When I say she eats lots of chicken I mean she eats chicken, at lots of times, breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night supper...... you get the idea. I remember, recently, she was staying with me and, as with all our guests, off we went to Villereal for the Saturday morning market. She hadn't had any breakfast before we left, settling just for a cup of coffee so when we arrived, the first task was to organise breakfast. Now, I often have breakfast at the market... I go to my favourite boulanger/pattissier and buy croissant or apple turnovers or whatever takes my fancy. Sometimes they have something seasonal, like last week, when they had a "Poisson d'Avril" which was like a huge apple turnover but filled, not with apple but with a delicious almond paste......

But I digress, on the particular visit in question, I went off to my bakery to buy "Chausson au Pomme", an apple turnover and my friend went off in search of her breakfast.... Imagine my surprise when she returned to the bar, where I had ordered us a couple of noisettes, holding a large piece of spit roasted chicken. The owner of the bar was completely unphased though, and when he brought our coffees simply wished us both "Bon Appetit" and announced he would bring a warm cloth so she could clean her fingers when she finished.

All this sprang into my mind the other day when I was searching through the freezer looking for something simple to cook for dinner and came across a couple of portions of chicken.

I decided to bake them with my herb and cheese crust. It's very easy to make, smells gorgeous when you are preparing it and doesn't let you down when you come to eat it.

Baked Chicken in a Cheese and Herb crust

Serves 4

4 portions of chicken,
100gms (4oz) bread, (I use a stale crusty baguette),
100gms Strong hard cheese (I used Mature English Cheddar)
1 medium egg
Handful of Parsley
Sprig of fresh Mint
Sprig of fresh Basil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Wash the chicken and dry gently

In a food processor blend the bread, cheese and herbs.

Beat the egg and dip chicken in egg then coat generously with breadcrumb mix

Cook in the middle of preheated oven (180C) for 45 minutes

It's a pity the boffins in Silicone Valley haven't come up with a way to send smells, as this really did smell so gorgeous, even before you cooked it.

Fish in a Creamy Sauce

2009-03-29T15:36:00.001+02:00

The other day I did a bit of shopping at my local supermarket... Here in France it is called a "Hypermarché" so I guess maybe it's a Hypermarket these days.

As I paid the checkout girl she handed me a booklet reviewing many of the wines they had on offer. I threw it into one of the bags and didn't pay it much attention.

The following day I was tidying up and glanced through and discovered that as well as reviews of the various wines there were several interesting recipes. This recipe caught my eye and I made it on Friday. It was delicious, and extremely simple.

The very delicate sauce goes amazingly well with the white fish and calls for a vegetable that isn't too strong.... I used Haricot Vert but think, now, I would have preferred broccoli or haricot beurré

Sadly, it was only after I had eaten it, and discovered how good it was, that I thought about sharing it here. so I'm afraid there are no photos but I'm sure you can imagine a bit of fish in a white creamy sauce.

White Fish in a Creamy Sauce
(Cabillaud sauce crémeuse au Vin Rosé)

This is a delicious sauce to use with any white fish or maybe even gammon using 1/3 bottle of Rosé wine. Great with a vegetable such as haricot vert or haricot beurré
The original French recipe, as the name implies, calls for cod…. But any white fish would be excellent.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

4 good sized pieces of white fish
2 Onions
3 garlic cloves
250ml Vin Rosé
250ml single cream
Butter
Salt and pepper
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

Cut the fish into large pieces (2”)
Coarsely chop the onions and thinly slice the garlic and then fry in a large frying pan with a knob of butter until the onion is translucent
Lay the fish (upside down) in the frying pan( in amongst the onion and garlic) and cook for a minute or two on a low heat.
Carefully turn the fish over and add the wine.
Reduce the mixture.
Add the cream salt and pepper and mix gently.
Thicken over a low heat (takes about 4 - 5 minutes)

Serve with broccoli, haricot vert or haricot beurre
.
Enjoy

Yacón, Lettuce, Rhubarb and lots of Tomatoes

2009-03-23T22:30:00.001+01:00

After my trip, I spent the first day back home, in the garden. It was a beautiful day and I spent the most part of it catching up on watering and just enjoying the great progress that had happened over the few days I was away.

	Earlier this month, Patrick, of Bifurcated Carrots, let me have two Yacón tubers and this is the first one to appear. It has also been on a short holiday, residing in a neighbours greenhouse...... well, actually their swimming pool house, which is like one huge greenhouse! The other tuber is now safely back in the dark of my boiler room, where it will enjoy a constant temperature of between 17C and 20C until it, too, decides to come out into the world.
	We had also sown some Joy's Cos Lettuce seeds before we went away and left a rather spindly collection of tiny seedlings to find their way in the big world. I'm not sure someone isn't playing a joke on me as these cannot be the same seedlings that Kate and I left just over a week ago.
	Whilst thinking about lettuce, this is a firm favourite of mine, Lollo Rosso. It's deliciously tasty and crunchy and is certainly enjoying this year's spring weather. We also left a tray of Oak Leaf Lettuce seedlings. Well, to be honest I thought we were leaving a tray of pots of soil with a few stalks in it.
	Look how they have grown. I have a covered terrace area on the south side of my house. It is open but enjoys full sun for a good part of the day and the roof keeps out the frost at night. Whilst I was away, these seedlings were just left on on a table with a neighbour popping in occasionally and giving them a drink
	I saved some pumpkin seeds from the pumpkins which another neighbour has grown for many years. I figure that if he is successfully growing them right next door to me then, even a newbie like me, should stand a chance. They are obviously going to be quite tasty, because you will see that one of them has already been eaten. The others seem to be doing ok though.
	Back in November 2008, one of our friends gave me three pots which she assured me had rhubarb seeds sown in them. I carefully nurtured them over the winter and, to be honest was beginning to think they had failed me. However, about a month ago, one of the pots showed the tiniest sign of life so I persevered. Now all three are up and growing and getting ready to enjoy their new home.
	And then there were some tomatoes.... Last autumn I saved seeds from my cherry tomatoes. I got advice from friends and bloggers in Europe, the United States and as far away as Australia. They all gave me great advice about how to collect the seeds.... pick a tomato!!! and how to save them.... dry the seeds!!! I followed this advice and saved my first seeds. Sadly, all these people did not give me any advice about keeping the seeds, once saved, and when I came to sow them, I found my packet had got damp and there was just a collection of mouldy seeds all stuck to the paper.

After some discussion I decided to just sprinkle all the seeds onto a tray of seed compost and see what happened. These seedlings are a tiny fraction of the result. I have been giving away tomato seedlings to friends and neighbours now for about a month and still have far more than I can use.

I'm hoping that seeds from my cherry tomatoes will be the first seeds I am able to offer on the Blogger's Seed Network, from next year.

The White House Vegetable Garden

2009-03-21T22:52:00.001+01:00

I've been away for a few days visiting family and friends but look what sensational news reached me as soon as I got back.

Back in February of last year, Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International started a campaign to persuade the new incumbent at The White House to turn over some of the high profile lawns to grow vegetables.

Well, on Friday last, First Lady Michelle Obama was joined by school children and broke ground to create an 1100 square foot Vegetable Garden on the South Lawn.

You can read all about it in Roger's report in the KGI Newsletter..

Let me join people all around the world in congratulating Roger on this wonderful achievement and in hoping that the example being set by the Obama's will be taken up by other leaders.

The news is particularly good as I believe that gardening is new to First Lady Michelle Obama and that she intends to involve all her family in the creation of an organic vegetable and herb garden.

Picture from dailymail.co.uk

SPRING ARRIVES

2009-03-18T07:47:00.001+01:00

Now, at last, the vegetable seedlings can spend the days out in the sunshine, covering tables and window sills in every vantage point on the south side of the house, as well as in the cold frame. Here are just some of them.	Ian's cherry tomatoes are very strong and are being given away to neighbours as they prove that even mouldy seeds should be given a chance to grow.100% germination means there are hundreds of them!
The lawns are a profusion of colour as tiny violets, polyanthus, daffodils and other bulbs and several wildflowers burst into life. I feel like a buddhist as I tiptoe across the grass, trying not to step on anything in flower! Every day something new appears. The trees, such as this willow, below, have buds bursting forth as the days warm. The raspberries and hazelnuts so recently planted all have their first leaves and the cuttings we took when we pruned them are making more plants for planting later.

	At left is the first shrub to colour here. It is a forsythia and you see it everywhere, forming vibrant yellow hedges while other shrubs are still dormant. I can see how spring is such a time of joy in the garden, in these colder climates, as so much is deciduous and colourless over winter.

Clam Dip

2009-03-09T21:42:00.001+01:00

We have had a couple of days off from our garden whilst we have entertained some family.

A few friends came for dinner last night and I made a nice clam dip which we served with a second, avocado, dip and raw vegetables as part of the aperitifs.

Here is the recipe for the Clam Dip:

INGREDIENTS

2 x 61/2 oz cans chopped clams
5 small cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
750 grams Fromage Blanc
125ml single cream
Juice of half a lemon
Good dash Worcestershire Sauce
A few drops of Tabasco (to your own taste)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

Drain clams.
Mix garlic, Fromage Blanc, single cream, lemon, sauces and salt and pepper and adjust to a thin dip consistency by adding cream or fromage blanc. The mixture will thicken in the Fridge!.
Add Chopped Clams and blend with a stick blender
Blend until the clams are small enough.
Put into fridge for at least two hours before

Hazelnuts

2009-03-02T23:22:00.001+01:00

We spent the weekend preparing our next bed in the new vegetable garden. This time the prepared bed was planted with three hazelnut bushes which we bought on Friday.

We visited a small nursery, not far from here and were delighted that they had bare rooted hazelnut bushes at a reasonable price. We decided to buy three as we were advised to plant them about 2m (6'6") apart.

We also bought a dozen lettuce seedlings which looked superb and were so much further advanced than our own ones, grown from seed. The lettuce seedlings were being sold in packs of 6 growing in the squares from the 1" size soil blocker. In another part of the nursery there were hundreds and hundreds of these blocks with all manner of seedlings growing in them, with not a plastic pot in sight!!!

The new vegetable garden is on a slight slope and this bed is the farthest down the slope that we will be working this year and it was interesting to note how much better the soil was as we moved down the hill. I say better, but please don't think that I mean good!!! It was still a heavy clay in need of a lot of amendment.... just not quite as heavy as the top beds we had made already.

On Sunday we opened up three large holes and planted the three bushes in good compost.

Hazelnuts are the first nut trees we have planted here, but a neighbour tells me that he has a hedge of hazelnuts which is growing quite happily. Of course, we do have three large walnut trees.

Raspberries

2009-02-25T22:19:00.001+01:00

Kate and I have spent the past couple of days preparing the new raspberry bed and then planting a single row of 32 canes.

As ever in the garden, we started off with a patch of land that had been wild meadow for the past couple of years. The soil here is chalky clay and very heavy.

The berry beds had already been marked out as part of the earlier preparations, 2 beds running north/south, each 7m (23' 6") by 1200mm (4 ft) with a 1m gap between them. I quickly decided that it would be better to use the land as 1 bed 15m long by the 1200mm and so changed the marking. It meant we lost an access into the middle of the vegetable plot but I don't think that matters.

We had already planted a redcurrant bush at the north end of this bed but the change in length made no difference to that.

Next we started to work the soil. Clay that has not been touched for a couple of years takes quite a lot of moving but we decided to use our power rotovator and soon started to break up the surface. We had also decided to turn in the existing grass as a green manure. After several hours of walking up and down the bed following and quietly coaxing the rotovator to work the area I wanted we seemed to be making some progress. I operated the rotovator while Kate wheeled barrow load after barrow load of sand up for me to work in.

The composition of the soil improved in front of our eyes as the sand and grass worked it's magic on the heavy clay, and by the end of the day we had a bed with a much lighter and more workable soil composition.

The next day we returned and spent the morning reworking the bed a little more before resetting the rotovator to a narrow setting to allow us to work a deeper trench in the middle. All the time we were adding sand, dry grass and compost to the mix.

After lunch we laid out the planting of the 32 canes. This involved measuring the position of each cane and then digging a small hole sufficient for the root structure of the individual cane. Once the canes were set in the hole to the right height the hole was filled with a good compost to give the canes somewhere to start their new life. The canes were placed 400mm (16") apart.

Once all 32 had been planted we simply cut the canes, where necessary, back to 300mm (12") above the ground and finally spread a well rotted manure and compost mix in between the plants as a top dressing.

M. Gary

2009-02-21T20:10:00.001+01:00

When I moved here a few years ago, I became the owner of the garden and a couple of fields. I was very soon introduced to Monsieur Gary, the farmer who worked these two fields. M. Gary doesn't pay any rent for these fields as, under French law, it becomes complicated if he does, but as I have no desire to take on the task of managing them, I'm happy for him to relieve me of this work.

M. Gary is now 86 and recently, following a small heart attack, decided it was time to wind down his farming activities. Part of the winding down process was to return to my care one of the two fields he tended. This is the location of the new vegetable garden.

Over the years, we have become very friendly with M Gary and have, from time to time, been delighted by the gift of a melon or some other thing he has grown. M Gary tells me he isn't an organic farmer, he just doesn't use anything manufactured on his land, preferring his own compost, his own farmyard manure and saving, from one year to the next, his own seeds. He's not allowed to put the "Agricole Bio" symbol on his produce because he isn't licensed, but to my mind, he is just as much, if not more, of an organic farmer as anyone.

Because he has been farming in this area longer than I have been alive he has become a constant source of advice and information to me, and so it was, that when we decided we needed some old straw and some farmyard manure, Kate and I paid him a call.

Once we had made him understand our needs he quickly offered to drop off a bail of straw next time he was passing and he also said we were welcome to collect a trailer full of his farmyard manure, although it was fresh!!!!! Whilst we were chatting, Kate asked if he had any eggs but he sadly explained that he didn't have any available at the moment.

The next day we drove up into his farm where we found him standing in a hole almost as deep as he was tall. He explained that since our visit he had decided to make a new vegetable patch and that he was digging a hole to plant one of the trees that would form the periphery. He pointed to the others he had already planted and showed where the rest were going. We continued on our way and soon had a trailer full of straw and manure just waiting to be composted.

Back at the garden we were able to unload the trailer into the new compost bin we had built.... one of a row of four!!!

The next day we were again working in the garden when M Gary appeared with his tractor and our bail of straw.... I hadn't realised quite how big a commercial bale of straw is these days.... but we soon had it in position alongside the compost bins. In the conversation that followed, M Gary proudly announced that if we called up later that evening he would have some eggs for us.

As the afternoon's work drew to a close, Kate announced that she was off to make a curry and I decided this was a good time to go and collect our eggs.

As dusk fell I drove into his yard and saw him in a barn illuminated by two very old, very dim, light bulbs. This was a barn I had never been in before and I soon discovered why. As I walked in, M Gary was sitting on a low stool, on the far side of a large cow, which he was milking. I didn't even know he still owned any cows, but he soon informed me, as I watched him milk, that it was his last cow and that it was to go on Sunday, as he was no longer going to keep cows.

If I can manage it, I shall go to the farm tomorrow and watch M Gary milk his last cow for the last time. A tribute to a man who has farmed all his long life and is so much a part of our landscape.

Asparagus....

2009-02-20T21:48:00.001+01:00

We recently bought some asparagus crowns and have spent the past couple of days preparing our asparagus bed before planting the crowns.

The new vegetable plot is made up, largely, of heavy clay and I took the decision, early on in the preparations to prepare individual beds as needed. For the asparagus we decided to remove the first couple of inches (50mm) right across the 1200mm wide bed. Next we dug a trench, 600mm (2ft) wide,a long the middle of the bed about another 150mm (6") deep and then finally we dug the deepest part of the trench, again along the middle of the bed but this time going down about a further 300mm (1ft).

Once we had finished excavating, we filled the deepest part of the trench with well composted manure.

Using clumps of the hard clay, we then sat the asparagus crowns on individual islands about 100mm (4")above the manure and in-filled to the level of the crowns with a mixture of clay, sand and dry grass cuttings.

Next, we piled compost on the crowns to just below the finished level, again filling all around with a mixture of clay, sand and dry grass.

Finally we put a layer of leaf mould over the whole thing.

In the trench we planted 11 green asparagus (Verte Grande) and 11 white asparagus (Argenteuil).

It was nice to actually get a vegetable growing in the ground at last. The preparation of the land has only just begun as we are preparing the beds as required. I have marked out all the new bed positions and, of course, had already planted a redcurrant bush in the berries bed. But this was the first vegetable to go in.

Next I prepared two beds for potatoes. Here I just mixed sand and dry grass cuttings into the clay to a depth of about 200mm (8"). I shall now leave these two beds exposed to our frosts for a few weeks until I am ready to plant the potatoes, when I shall loosen the soil once again.

In each corner of the whole vegetable plot, I have constructed a quadrant shaped bed. Today, Kate and I prepared the first of these quadrant beds and planted a bay tree in it. We also planted about 6 small evergreen trees in this bed which I want to hold for a year or so, until another part of the garden is ready for them.

News about seeds

2009-02-17T16:41:00.001+01:00

Some days ago, I posted about the Bloggers Seed Network.

I am pleased to say that I have since been in touch with "Miss Fuggles" of "A Blog Called Fuggles" and have arranged to receive a nice selection of her home saved seeds. I shall be proud to try and grow these on during the coming year and hope to be able to report many successes in the forthcoming months.

Miss Fuggles is providing me with,

Pea Bean,
Poltschka Bean,
Black Valentine Bush Bean,
Kaibi Round Pepper,
Purple Ukraine Tomato
Veeroma Tomato,

all of which I'm looking forward to arriving in the next few days.

Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots has also agreed to let me have some Yacon tubers which he tells me will be here in a couple of weeks.

As well as all these, Kate brought me a collection of seeds from the Hills and Plains Seedsavers in Adelaide.

Many thanks to all of you for your help.

The First Planting

2009-02-17T16:14:00.001+01:00

I'm in the process of making a completely new vegetable plot for this year and was pleased on Sunday when the first plant got put in the ground.

The plot has several beds, all about the same size and I have worked out a planting schedule for this year. One of the beds, on the west side, is dedicated to berries and it was in this bed that I planted the first new bush I had bought. During a visit to a garden centre at the end of last week, I found some fruit bushes which had been reduced as a result of storm damage during the recent hurricane. There were bare rooted fruit trees and some container grown bushes, all reduced. I bought three fruit trees and a redcurrant bush.

On Sunday, I planted the redcurrant bush in the berries bed, a peach tree to the south of the plot and a pear and a plum in the same hole in another part of the garden where, eventually, I want a little shade. The garden centre actually told me that the plum tree would pollinate the pear tree, but I don't know if this is correct.... It could be that the man was mistaken... or it could be that I misunderstood what he was saying whilst translating from French to English!!!!!

I also bought some Asparagus crowns and spent Monday preparing a permanent bed for them.

Seed potatoes are chitting in the windowsill in my workshop and the rest of Monday was spent in preparing another bed for potatoes

In the new cold frame we have Ching Chiang Pai Tsai (a kind of Bok Choy), Joy's Cos Lettuce, Lollo Rosso Lettuce, Batavia Lettuce all coming along as well as some herbs. I have not grown Bok Choy before so this is part of my response to the Growing Challenge

Overnight temperatures are still dropping down to around -3C or -4C(25 - 27F) and it's proving difficult to maintain the temperature inside the cold frame above 0C (32F)... But it is called a cold frame after all!! I'm trying to line it each night with some insulation material left over from some recent work carried out on the property.

Last year I saved some seeds from a red cherry tomato that I grew and particularly liked. I was rather disappointed to see that they had got damp over the winter and gone a bit mouldy but then dried again. I sowed them anyway and was delighted to see the first shoots appearing.

Many of you will remember that Kate is staying here with me at the moment and as you can see, she is helping a great deal with the layout and organisation of the new plot. It was at her insistence that a seating area was included in the plan....