Showing posts with label red cabbage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label red cabbage. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Olive tree

I have been tempted back into the garden by the sudden change in the weather here, where it has gone from cold, grey and rainy to bright and sunny but still cold at night.

Olive treeI recently sowed coriander, parsley, red cabbage, and a few cherry tomatoes.  The tomatoes are Ian’s Red Cherry, which I have cultivated for several years now and my new red cabbage which I’m calling Cavolo Chereissimo, a red cabbage I’ve cultivated from saved seeds for three years now

Then, earlier in the week, I was lucky to find an odd olive tree in my local supermarket.     I was lucky, but also very surprised.

I regularly carry out my food shopping each week and, in this instance, tend to be a creature of habit…  Visit the bank, visit a small market to buy butter and milk and, sometimes, some nice cheese, then on to a rather special fresh food store where I buy fresh fruit and vegetables before finally pulling into the enormous car park of one of our main shopping malls.   The anchor store here is a very large hypermarket and serves my needs well.    

As well as food, I tend to buy all my household bits and pieces here and it was whilst picking up a pen refill that I noticed a single olive tree… looking quite lonely.

There had obviously been a pallet full of these trees but now there was just one left and, to be honest, it looked a lot healthier than trees and shrubs often do in this store.   I pondered for a second or  two, before dropping the pot into my trolley.

The plant looked very dry but apart from that it seemed ok.

I gave it some water when I got home and it has sat on the table on my terrace for the past couple of days.

I can’t decide whether to plant it direct into the garden, somewhere in my orchard or whether to pot it up into a larger planter and keep it on the patio.

I’ll let you know what I decide…

Monday, February 7, 2011

Seed Exchange List

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.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Rainy Day Sunday,

 

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.bob the builder

Potimarron 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.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Red Cabbage

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

IMG_0467-1
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.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

September's here

September has brought with it an autumn feel to South West France.... It's 9:30 pm and I'm sitting at my laptop writing this wearing a sweater for the first time for several months.  Overnight temperatures dropped to 9 C (49F) last night, the first time we have seen temperatures in single figures since April.

In my garden, the horse chestnut tree is always the first thing to announce the impending arrival of autumn as it starts to drop it's leaves quite early.    Today there is hardy a leaf left on it...

So it's time to start to think about what to grow over autumn and winter and as this is my first year I'm a bit stuck where to start.

I already have some Chinese Cabbages growing which look like they are going to recover from the caterpillar attack.  Also the red cabbages which have been in since the spring are looking nice and will be ready to harvest soon.

I'm going to try and grow some broccoli and some fennel.   Fennel is a wonderful herb which is native to the Mediterranean region although can now be found all around the globe.  I have become a convert to it since moving here to France.   In the last week, I have sown seed for both fennel and broccoli, although, I am still very new to growing food and my success with seeds is not brilliant, but I will persevere.  The fennel has peeped through the surface with a spindly little shoot which I believe is normal...  I have half a dozen broccoli, from a  sowing a couple of weeks ago and I have just sown a few more...

I also recently put some peppermint in which is just beginning to show and hopefully will be a nice addition to my mint pot.   In the herb pots, the mint is doing extremely well, the basil is also doing well now after a couple of false starts and the flat leaf parsley that was sown back in July is now developing well

I have a volunteer pumpkin whose vine has grown to about 8m (26ft).  It is in a 2.4m (8ft) bed and I am winding it up and down the bed trying to contain it.  I didn't know whether it was pumpkin or melon or quite what, but on Kitchen Garden day, one of our guests assured me it was pumpkin and as he is a commercial pumpkin grower, I guessed I should listen....

I am also in the process of deciding about extending the garden.  This year I have had a lot of successes but have really had too many varieties with not enough of any one thing.    I'm thinking of doubling the size of the plot, as I don't want to overwhelm myself and I am also going to grow next year's tomatoes in the ground rather than in pots, so that will need some more space...

I still have to make a decision on lifting, splitting and moving my rhubarb as well...  At the moment it is in a rose bed.. but is producing nice rhubarb and I hear stories of people losing the whole lot once they try and move them....The other problem is that the space I had earmarked for it has now been taken over by Strawberries....

I also picked up the first walnut today....so before long, the annual race between me and the squirrels will start in earnest..

I think it's a good thing that I have got the swimming pool construction out of the way now as it seems I'm going to be busy in the garden for a while........

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Red Cabbage

I’m very proud of my Red Cabbage.




It is only growing here at all because I bought it by mistake, thinking it was a plain old green cabbage. The picture on the label quite definitely showed a plain old green cabbage and how was I supposed to know that the “rouge” written across the label in marker pen made such a difference?


So here they are. Almost the first plants I bought for my vegetable garden and certainly the most successful, I have already been cutting the young leaves and using them in my salads.


Let's raise a glass to Chou Rouge