Food, glorious food!
This week the focus is on food, a subject close to my heart. Whether home grown or locally produced we have been trying out all sorts of things over the last year.
Can you believe it is almost December? What a strange year we are all living through. During the week we were looking back to this time last year when my niece got married and my younger son graduated. Who would have thought where we would be a year on from those fun occasions? I have been thinking about making my Christmas cake, a bit later than usual as plans for the festive season are very much on hold for now. However I do love fruit cake and we have a lovely stall at our local market selling every type of dried fruit and nut you can imagine. I am looking forward to stocking up at the weekend and getting on with the cake.
This week, with sunny but cold weather, we have been trying to conquer the mountain of leaves in the garden! My hand is still a bit painful from the dog/kitten incidents so digging over the flowerbeds is out of the question at the moment. We have so many trees, which is amazing but also so many leaves! A never ending task but a good source of leaf mulch. We have a ready supply in the copse which came in very handy during the lockdown earlier this year, when we started creating a potager in the garden. Years ago I had an allotment as I love growing things to eat. I enjoy gardening and there is something so special about picking things from your own plot to eat, and the taste is beyond comparison.
Living further south now, I have lots of plans for growing a much wider variety of things. I have to confess I planted all the seeds in trays a bit late this year, but as the seedlings started to grow we realised we needed to find a home for them! So on some very warm days we set about designing and mapping out a potager. We settled on an 8 square metre plot for a starter and thought we would make it both practical and ornamental as it is next to the drive in the front garden, with raised beds and square box beds in the corners, and eventually somewhere to sit and a fence surround to keep the dog out. This was much to the amusement of locals who tend to take a much more practical approach – a patch of earth filled with vegetables! With lots of roof timbers to use as raised beds, Max got to work on that job while I dug out bed after bed. I swear (and I am afraid to say I did – numerous times!) that there must have been a building where we have located the potager or lots of stuff was just dumped there. I dug out so much slate, bits of wall as well as stones, etc. I also found an old matchbox truck, a coin from 1953, and lots of pieces of broken china – fascinating – little glimpses of history.
A rough plan First beds Onwards…
This year we got half the potager dug out before it was too hot and dry. We planted tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, beans, peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, aubergines, cucumbers, strawberries and raspberries to see what would work. We had varying success – lots of radishes, courgettes, cucumbers and also cherry tomatoes. The larger tomatoes were a disaster and the lettuces didn’t like their spot at all, or the heat! I ended up with one aubergine and one green pepper! I definitely need to start earlier next year.
Potager progress Courgettes on their way
I also bought a melon plant from a local farm. I have never grown a melon and was told by a neighbour that any melon, if I had one, was unlikely to ripen! A bit of a disappointment but also a challenge! Luckily the guy who looks after our swimming pool grows melons and gave me some expert advice on pruning and watering to encourage fruit. Amazingly 4 melons appeared and grew – slowly! In late August I was watering and tidying when one came loose. It smelled fabulous but looked tiny. We had some friends staying so I decided to cut another one and try them out. Oh my goodness – the flavour and smell were gorgeous. Tiny little things but perfect. I was so proud!! And who says melons won’t ripen!
On the subject of lovely fruit and vegetables, that is one of the great things about France, even in supermarkets fresh produce is largely local. Food and France go hand in hand – and wine too of course! There is a huge amount of pride in local produce and specialities. Markets, including our lovely Saturday market in Cordes sur Ciel or the Sunday market at St Antonin Noble Val are also a great source of local seasonal produce. I love that through the year you adapt your table to what is in season, so cooking becomes even more special, eating local seasonal produce at exactly the right time, perfect flavours! You just don’t see strawberries in winter.
One discovery I made last winter is that kiwis are winter fruits and grow in France. I am trying to grow one. They are supposed to be vigorous growers but mine is very slow off the mark. Perhaps it is in the wrong place. It is now even more challenged as we were hit by a sudden frost and the kiwi did not like this at all. I thought they were quite hardy to about -5 or -6, but it seems not. We will see if it recovers.
As I have mentioned before, we have a number of fruit and nut trees in the garden. Last year we missed most of the fruit, not being here all the time. This year we were here for cherry season. Wow! Our two tress were laden with the tastiest cherries. We were warned that one blink and they are gone once ripe, as the birds love them. So we picked as much as we could, eating lots on the way. Cherry clafoutis is a favourite in France and a great way to use some of the harvest. I wanted to introduce Max and Alex (my younger son) to clafoutis – but as Alex is vegan, traditional clafoutis was not on the menu!
On the day I realised I had forgotten to buy eggs so the original clafoutis recipe had to be set aside. I discovered a fabulous recipe for a vegan clafoutis that has since been adapted to suit all fruit and even adapted to make a passable version of my gooey chocolate cake. This works throughout the year with any fruit!
One of my challenges over the last year has been adapting what we eat to suit vegans. I don’t eat much meat, but I do love cheese and Greek yogurt – oh and chocolate mousse too! Max does miss regular meat, but actually we both feel so much healthier on our version of a Mediterranean diet, in the Tarn! Our meat consumption is as it should be – occasionally as something special and local. With the climate crisis it is even more important to be sensible about what we eat and crucially to know where it comes from. I have to say my sons have made me much more conscious about food miles too. I love being able to buy such local produce here, often from the producers themselves. We had some smoked trout yesterday, labelled with the date it was caught, the date it was smoked and all only 10 days ago. Perfect.
It is actually really interesting to work out how to make things without animal products and I have enjoyed the challenge. Alex spent the last year here with us and between us we have investigated adapting all sorts of recipes to make a vegan version. Over the coming weeks, and with the festive season in mind, I will pass on some favourite recipes turned vegan, and the originals too!
The kittens continue to grow and are busy exploring wherever they can. We still have 4! I think we will have to crowdfund if we are going to keep them! The first vaccination bill was huge and we have another visit in a month. Something to think about… Bear is getting used to them but gets very put out when they steal his space. A breakthrough this week, Nina slept on the sofa with him!
I look forward to hearing your comments. Let me know if you try the recipe. By the way did anyone watch the film, The Lighthouse of the Orcas? What did you think?
On the food theme, if you haven’t read Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran, try it. Delightful and full of recipes! Perhaps I should set up a blog book and film club!
Until next week and thank you for reading this.
Ali xx
