Drought

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.

Vegetable Soup

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!

I missed the Market

I'm on a small vacation at the moment and so didn't get to make my usual trip to market.

I find France an amazing country to live in.  The history, the culture, the pace of life are all so very different to that I have known for most of my life, which was spent living in the United Kingdom.

Every Saturday I go to the little village market at Villereal where I buy my fresh produce for the week  I buy a lot of my produce off the same man called Laurent and chat with him about Rugby...I came to France from Wales...and rugby is the national sport of both countries.

Of course, Laurent and I, are often rivals on the sports field and that friendly rivalry often overflows to the market stall.

This conversation normally takes place in the market square alongside the covered market hall which was built in the 12th Century, during the hundred years war.

This market hall, in the centre of a Bastide Town has survived, mostly intact, from that day to this... Through many wars, the first and second world wars, the hundred years war itself and of course, the French Revolution.  I has seen times of tranquility and times of huge change.  It was created as part of what was probably the first urbanisation of Europe and has quietly sat there as, over the years traders and customers have come and gone.

Even now, those very Bastide towns themselves, created all those years ago, are coming under threat from different forces as the inevitable winds of change blow through rural France...the very farmers on whom this place has relied for hundreds of years, being uprooted in favour of agribusiness.

Sometimes I stand there and remember all this and am held in awe as I think back through 900 years and try to imagine the activity that has gone on in this market hall....this same place where I am now standing and then I wonder what stories it will have to tell, long after I have gone...In fact, what stories it will have to tell 900 years from now..

A quiet Villereal

Villereal market was extraordinarily quiet today with very few people around.  There were vacant tables in all the cafes and everywhere we went we were able to buy with the minimum of queuing.  I don't know why, maybe the storms that have come through in the past couple of days or maybe the sudden cold that descended yesterday (2C overnight(28F))which felt very cold indeed...

I must admit that we hurried around and finished our shopping as quickly as we could, although we did linger for a while over coffee and croissants.  Laurent, the vegetable man, did ask me why I had abandoned my new young  wife and gone back to my previous model....but I explained that the new one was only on loan for a few days.....(Kate from Hills and Plains Seedsavers accompanied me to the market last week and spoke impeccable French to Laurent, who immediately fell in love with her in the way only true French men can.)

Villereal - 13/9/08

Last Saturday we visited Villereal market "comme d'habitude".    It was a beautiful day, not too hot but not too cold either.... I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt....

It was a relief after the crush of the summer tourist traffic to have a moment to chat to the traders.... I fully understand that our economy, including my personal economy, relies so very heavily on the tourists arriving and spending some of their money here.... I don't begrudge them anything, as without them, the very things I enjoy wouldn't exist..... but it's nice when the time comes for them to go home again and we can return to a less frenetic existence.... 

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours wandering around and this week I visited the cheese man, who had some beautiful Cantal regional cheese as well as these intriguing looking Torteau Fromage.

Laurent had his usual excellent range of fruit and vegetables..  .. the sign offers a 10kg sac of haricot grain for €25  (for the non metric readers.. 10kg is about 22lbs and €25 is about 35USD)

ANOTHER DAY

I have a friend (yes!!! Even more friends!!!), I have a friend who regularly tells me that he can talk his way out of all sorts of trouble. This sentence usually appears somewhere near the end of a discussion where he has revealed that one or more of the women in his life have found out about one or more of the other women in his life.

Well, this post is my attempt to emulate his advice.

In my life, right now, there are two problems, both of which I need to talk my way out of.

I’ll call them problem A and problem B. You always knew I had an imaginative brain didn’t you!!
Both problems surfaced today.

Problem A is a result of my recent post some gorgeous wildlife photos

Problem B arose out of this post(Another Day), before I had even written it!!!

So here goes with the talking.

Problem A. You see, I made that post in good faith with the permission of Michael, the guy who takes the photos. I thought it was a good post, the photos were simply stunning and as soon as I hit the publish button the comments started to come in and, of course, with such spectacular photographs the comments were all positive.

So where’s the problem I hear you ask? Were they not Michael’s photos?

Yes, they are all genuine photos taken by Michael himself mostly in the early hours of the morning. That is not the problem.

The problem you see is much closer to home, my wife also knows Michael’s work. She was at the dinner on Thursday when we discussed the original post and Michael gave his permission to show his photos.

But, and here it is, she also knows some of the other photo’s Michael has taken over the past three years. The guy lives next door. He and Mary are regular visitors to our house. We often share in various activities, like attending the recent Gourmet market. Marché Gourmande.

And her favourite of all Michael’s photos wasn’t included. But it gets worse. She is convinced that Michael has sent me the photo in an email! I have searched and searched and searched again, but to no avail. The photo in question is of a fox. I shall ask Michael, in my best French, if he will let me have a copy to post and put it up as soon as I can. It is superb.

Whilst talking about Michael, I had an email from him as well today. He thanked me for posting the photos and said he was proud to see them here. Proud – to see them. Michael, it is not you but I that should be proud. And I am. I am proud to be allowed to show such superb photos. Thank you

In the email he explained that on the walk home from here on Thursday night he came across some glow worms. As he explained, glow worms are technically very difficult to photograph. I imagine they are. Regular readers will be aware of my own failed attempts to get photos for this blog!!

Any way, he included two shots of glow worms. I post them here for your comments. These things are tiny and incredibly difficult to photograph and I would like to thank Michael for trying. He finished his email saying he hoped to be better next time!!!

Hopefully now, I have talked my way out of problem A

Problem B

Is quite simple really,. Today is Saturday and regular readers will know that I go to Villereal Market more or less every Saturday morning to buy my fruit and vegetables.


I tend to buy most of what I need from a small general greengrocer who comes to market every week. He has a large varied selection of produce. He brings it in from other small growers near by, He grows some himself and he buys some at wholesale markets. By spreading his procurement like this he can guarantee a varied selection of produce throughout the year, and he comes to Villereal, with his great selection, 52 weeks a year.

Now, as I’m always saying, those regular readers amongst you know about my prowess with the digital camera. In the old days when cameras had film and you chose between black and white or colour and they got processed in completely different ways, I was a keen photographer. I have hundreds of excellent photos. I have albums of negatives all filed and indexed. But all that was before the digital revolution. I had a camera – it took still photos – end of story. I could change the lens but that meant physically taking off one lens and replacing it with another. My camera weighed about 2 lbs (1Kg) and I had a small rucksack to carry all the other equipment in. I also had a telephone and a fax machine and a record player and even a mobile phone.. although this was very new technology and didn’t work everywhere.

Now I have a computer, and I put on a pair of headphones and pretend it’s a telephone.
Now I have a computer with a scanner and printer and pretend it’s a fax machine.
Now I have a computer and I put on a cd and pretend it’s a record player.
Now I have a mobile telephone but it pretends it’s a camera.
And now I have things like sat nav and satellite tv which we hadn’t even dreamed about back then!

Now, where was I?? Oh, yes, the camera. When I was going to use my old camera, I would check it before I left home, film, batteries, clean the lens that sort of thing.


And then, when I wanted a picture, I would look through the viewfinder, see what I wanted, frame it and then press a button.

There would be a loud clanking noise as a set of blinds moved across the camera, as a prism was bounced out of the way and then everything returned to normal, as it was before. It took about 1/500th second to take a photo and after 1/500th second you could move on to your next shot. .My view in the viewfinder would go black for a fraction of a second but then it would return.

Now I have a digital camera. I check it before I leave home, SD card, batteries, clean the lens, that sort of thing.

And then when I want to take a picture there isn’t a view finder so I have to look at a miniature television screen, except it bright bright sunlight and no amount of looking makes any difference to the nothing that I can see. When I imagine I finally have the photo framed I press a button 1/500th of a second later the camera says “What, oh you want me to take a photo”. I move on photo completed,. The camera says “ Oh ok if you insist I’ll take it in a moment”. By now I’m putting my camera in the bag and the camera finally says “OK, I’ve got a lovely photo of the inside of this bag”, or “of the space where that man was standing before he walked away” or “of the ground you pointed the camera at after you thought I’d already taken the picture”.

And, I do believe that is, and has been, the crux of my problem. Digital cameras are much much slower than I ever realised.

I admit I only realised this today!

So, back to problem B, I took some photos at my usual green grocers stall. I then asked Laurent to pose so I could include one of him. He asked me about the blog and I told him, I gave him the address. His wife asked me about the blog. I gave her the address, I even explained that the blog was in English as they are both French.

And then I bought my fruit and veg and went home.

I plugged my SD card into my laptop and looked in horror at the usual batch of totally unusable dross that I manage to capture.

There was a lovely photo of the apricots, which were stunning. Except the photo shows the apricots just disappearing out of frame.

There was another general photo of a range of greengrocery, except the photo shows no greengrocery and a few empty boxes.

An then there was the photo of Laurent. Now this photo IS published here, so you get a feel for what I’m talking about. Laurent is the guy in the blue shirt! Just out of frame!!! I took the photo and put the camera away. It then got around to taking the photo I had requested!


However, this photo is important. It is the one that MIGHT have taught me how to take digital photos. This blog will be the proof.

And Laurent, if you are reading this, then I really am sorry, I will take another photo next week and give you a spot all on your own.