First fruits

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.

Spring is here

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.

A Wander in the Orchard

	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 Saturday at Villereal

As many of you know I go to the market at Villereal every Saturday. 

It's funny what goes through your mind as you wander round a beautiful market and today was no exception.

Last night I was reading round the world in blogs and I arrived in Adelaide, South Australia at the Central Market.  Kate's Friday visit to the market has become a regular piece on the Hills and Plains Seedsavers Blog and I enjoy to read it each week.   This week , there was a paragraph about the preparations for her 50th birthday party amongst the wonderful words describing life in Central Market.

No doubt, partly as a result of reading that last night and partly from seeing a huge birthday cake in a patisserie, I suddenly found myself thinking that at the same time I was wandering around my Market, over on the other side of the world, Kate and her family and friends were having a party to celebrate her birthday.  So Kate, by the time you read this, your party will be over,.    I hope you had great fun....and thanks for a great blog.

July and August are the busiest months in the markets in this part of France as the incoming tourists swell the numbers of shoppers dramatically.  The queues in the fruit and vegetable stalls which I frequent grow as fast as the  local produce on the stalls increases.

This week, I saw local producers selling strawberries, apples, melons, tomatoes, plums, prunes, walnuts, homemade jams and walnut oil.  This farmer only sells melons, and this week, only one variety of melon.... Charentais a popular French variety which does well in this area.  We were discussing a dish where you cut the melon in half and scoop out all the seeds. Then you fill the recess with our local sweet dessert wine.  I've never known what this dish was called so I refer to it as gwm (great winey melon).  It's wonderful.

In my own garden, I've had quite a lot of produce lately.

We had some friends for dinner the other evening and served tomatoes, salad leaves, a few beans and potatoes all from the garden...I accompanied these with some poultry and home made bread to make a delicious meal.

The poultry guy at Villereal is there every Saturday, whatever the weather, all year round.  I don't think I've ever known him have a holiday.  He always has far more customers waiting than he has chickens ready....and just look at those quail on the bottom spit.... Talking about gwm in that last paragraph, makes me think this guy should be called pwm - poultry with meaning!!!

Today was the same, except that this week, the queue was particularly  long.  In the photo above,the queue for chickens starts with the girl in the foreground, goes almost to the opticians and then comes back to the guy in the white tee shirt.  As soon as I took the photo another couple joined the queue...

We've had a few strawberries from the garden, but they haven't made it to the kitchen, usually getting eaten before they leave the garden.   Again, this is a picture of the produce of the strawberry lady.   This week she had only one variety of strawberry on offer (Marais des bois) but they looked, and I'm sure tasted, delicious.

I almost missed the prune man who was tucked away this  week in a corner.  By the time I got to him he had almost sold out.   Prunes, which are actually dried plums, are another speciality from this part of France... Pruneax d'Agen are sought out all over Europe, Agen being a town just a few miles south of here. This farmer just sells plums and prunes with a few odds and ends from his vegetable garden.   His prunes always look delicious.

There was one lady I had not seen before selling tomatoes.  She had two varieties, the huge Coeur de Boeuf and a black tomato whose name I'm afraid I don't know.  She sells all her produce at one price.  What I particularly liked was that the tomatoes had been grown for taste.  They weren't pretty, but she had almost sold out when I finally came across her, and I suspect they tasted wonderful. 

Another new lady was just selling some home made produce.  She had a selection of jams and jellies, a few walnuts and some gorgeous looking walnut oil.  I bought a jar of the jam and will be trying it out soon, probably for breakfast tomorrow. 

There were many other stalls at the market this week, wine producers, fishmongers, fruit orchards, flower sellers, nurserymen, book sellers, clothing retailers, jewellery makers, artists, foie gras producers, bakers, butchers and candlestick makers etc and there was a buzz of activity that really only happens in July and August...

Do I prefer the market at this time of year?   There are certainly far more stalls with many, many more customers about, on the other hand, it's hard to park, hard to get a seat for coffee, hard to get served and none of the sellers have quite as much time for a chat, which for me, is a big part of the experience.  I know that tourism is a huge part of the economy in this part of the world and provides a great deal of what I enjoy whilst living here.... but for me, the markets in May, June, September and October still have plenty of things to make them interesting but don't have the crush of people making them hard to enjoy.

I took this picture of some urns just because I thought the colours made an interesting subject and to remind myself of the diversity of products available.

Villereal market is not a farmers market....  It is a general village market, similar to those that happen up and down the length and breadth of France.  It happens to be in an area where some really good farmers and producers bring their produce to sell.

 

So, next time you're in south west France come to Villereal and just bwm (browse with me)

The Predator becomes friendly helping hand.

True life has an uncanny way of following fiction or I suppose the fact is that fiction is really a reflection on true life.

Some months ago I wrote about the life of a tomato Who’d be a tomato. In that story I talked about the predator becoming the helping hand.

As I knew it would, true life has emulated what I wrote and now, I find myself lavishing loving attention on the seven tomato plants that have been allowed to survive thus far.

The three on the left are Marmande, a local variety of big tasty beef tomatoes, then there are 2 golden sunrise and two cerise rouge – simply red cherry!

The Marmande are a big brute of a tomato and as you can see, they are set to become the playground bully on this bit of my domain.

I decided to grow the tomatoes in pots this year as I had filled up the beds I prepared and previously, in the UK, my father in law always grew tomatoes in pots in the greenhouse.

The lack of room in my beds also prompted me to grow my carrots in a container. On a couple of the gardening social networks to which I belong, there has been a great deal of discussion about container growing, and my friend ilex over at:

Homesteading in a Condo

has been an inspiration to me. The other fact I learnt, only recently, is that the carrot root fly can only fly below 20 inches (500mm) above the ground, so, by putting my carrots in this container and raising it up on a shelf the pot is higher than root fly can get!!!!

I’ll tell you in a few weeks whether it worked or not!

Elsewhere things are growing well and I’m feeding most of the French population of snails, slugs and rabbits. Just occasionally, I even manage to pick something for myself.

Rabbits ate the basil and I’m not sure it is going to recover. I thought it might but it has been transferred to the ICU and the prognosis is not good.

In the orchard there is a sad face on the fruitless cherry trees and the plums are also looking short of fruit. I have plenty of apples though and some walnuts are beginning to form. It does look however, that this year will bear a poor orchard crop for us, with no cherries, no pears and no plums. It’s too early to say about the figs, but the tree has been disturbed as this was the first year of pruning after many years of neglect.

Prunes and Grapes

This part of France is renowned for both it’s wine production and it’s Prune production. The hot long summer serves extremely well for "sun drying" plums as well as many other fruit and vegetables.

I particularly noticed the grape vines, all now standing up straight and clean after being visited by the local vintner for a wash and brush up. Vines, some of them 100 years old, have survived the winter as they were left after the grapes were carefully removed last fall. As soon as the weather warmed just enough to work back out in the open again, the grape growers returned to the fields, tending the vines, and pruning them by hand to leave just two short shoots with five buds on each. I find it quite astonishing that the wine production for the whole of this part of France will eventually grow from just two small branches on each vine.

Bergerac, my local wine region, produces about 42 million bottles of wine from about 20,000 acres. That’s 2000 bottles per acre. Out of interest, someone once told me that there were the same number of vines as the vineyard produced bottles of wine. So my friend Bernard, with 22 acres has about 45,000 vines from which to make his 45,000 bottles. He will have visited each and every vine over the past two or three months and pruned them by hand, cutting everything except the 2 branches with this year’s grape buds already on them, carefully selecting with his experienced eye, which buds to cut and which to leave. 45000 vines, 90 days pruning (7 days a week) it still works out at 500 vines a day! It makes my pruning look very small scale!!!

But now, the mammoth task is completed and the vines are ready for the uncertainties of the weather to encourage them to grow "just right" so that come the Fall, the grapes will be, exceptional!

This is a time of great hope in the wine communities of South West France