Away for a while

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.

First tomato

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

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

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

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.

Garden and Kitchen

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!

First Seedlings of 2011

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

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

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.

Tomatoes

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.

Tomatoes

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.....

About my tomatoes???????

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

An Ill Wind....

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....

Garden Layout

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

Yacón, Lettuce, Rhubarb and lots of Tomatoes

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 First Planting

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....

When Icicles Hang by the Wall

WHEN icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo!
A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all around the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw;
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo!
A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.....(W Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost)

I've spent the last day of the year doing some of the above...

Tom wasn't about, so I had to bring the logs into the hall myself.....
The milk wasn't quite frozen when it came home....
But the blood was certainly nipt, earlier this morning....
And Joan wasn't here either, so I also had to keel the pot myself when I made the potage.

It's been quite cold here, particularly overnight and early in the mornings when temperatures have dipped to -5C (23F), although, as I write this, at about lunchtime, it's a very pleasant 19C (66F).

I'm still not able to spend too much time in the garden although I have managed to collect some wood for the fire and wander around looking at things and planning for the year to come.

I've spent many hours thinking about what I might grow next year.....  I certainly want to grow tomatoes again and I have some seed saved from last year which I hope to use.  I ended up with about 20 plants last year, growing in various places,some in the ground and some in pots.   I think this year I shall probably go for 30 plants, all growing in the ground.    I can't decide whether to grow them all in one bed or whether to plant two or three different beds.

I also grew some beans which weren't very successful, but I'm going to try again.   Patrick over at Bifurcated Carrots has given me some more Dog Bean seeds and I have high hopes for this year.

Before winter really bit.....  and my foot fell apart.....  I planted some broad beans and they are doing really well, standing up to the cold well and now standing almost 150mm  (6") tall.

Back in September, whilst Kate from Hills and Plains Seedsavers was here on her Vegetable Vagabond tour, we planted leeks, onions and fennel all of which are showing good promise for 2009.   I also planted some broccoli seedlings but I have been constantly fighting a battle to stop them being eaten and during the past few weeks, whilst I have ben laid up, the eaters have got the upper hand...  I'm not defeated yet, but I have  suffered a heavy setback.  I have left one of my Chinese leaf plants go in the hope of saving some seeds.

I also sowed some peas under a mulch of about 150mm (6") of dead leaves in early November and I was delighted this morning to see the first few plants pushing their way through the mulch and finding the light of day.

Elsewhere in the garden, things are coming back to life with lots and lots of buds appearing on various plants and shrubs.

Some of you will know that I am planning some significant changes here during the course of 2009 so it is a time of excitement for me as I look forward across new horizons.  In particular, I am proud to be hosting the first Kitchen Garden International Global Event in September 2009.  One of the many things I am truly looking forward to.

I wish all of you a very happy New Year and a wonderful and productive time in your garden.   Remember the Growing Challenge and try to grow an extra crop this year.   One thing that you haven't grown before.   I haven't decided yet, but I'm very tempted to try and grow cucumber.   When you're as new to growing vegetables as I am , then this particular challenge is not so very taxing .....  but I do wholeheartedly endorse it.

Have a great Year

Starting out on Saving Seeds!!

I've decided to try and save some seeds this year and then to grow them on next year.  I really don't know what I'm doing so I thought if I posted this piece here, describing what I have done, along with what I am intending to do, then it is likely that someone will read my piece, throw their hands up in horror and say...."OH  NOOOOO!!!  Don't do that whatever you do!!!"  and if it really is my lucky day, that person will then leave a comment saying what it is I shouldn't do and exactly why!!!!

So to start...

 

Ok, I have got some seeds from my tomatoes.  I chose just one variety of tomato, a simple red cherry tomato and kept about a dozen fruits from the six plants.    I then cut open the fruits and separated out the seeds and the pulp in a bowl of water.   Next, I collected the seeds together and discarded the pulp, and placed all the seeds in a paper coffee filter to dry.   Once they had completely dried, I transferred them to another coffee filter and sealed it.

Next I did lettuce......this time I let a couple of plants bolt and produce seeds, then I picked them and separated out the seeds from the chaff before putting them into coffee filter papers and sealing.

I was given some green sweet peppers by a friend who I know grows only open pollinated seeds so this time, I just harvested the seeds when I used the peppers.  I was also given some Charentais melons which again, I know, the farmer concerned only grows from kept seed, is completely organic and, in fact, grows them on my land.....So again, I just harvested the seeds when I prepared the melons....again drying them in a paper coffee filter before sealing the packs.

My intention is to grow on all of these seeds next year.   If I am successful, then I shall do the same again in the autumn 2009 and then, maybe I could offer some of the seeds to exchange....  It would be a start.......

Boeuf Cherhomme

	We have had a couple of family guests staying with us here in the south west of France over the past two weeks and whilst they were here we decided to throw a small party to allow our friends and neighbours to meet them. As the weather had turned cool I decided to serve a hot dish amongst our party fare and after much discussion in the kitchen I was designated the task of making a dish I particularly like. In our household we refer to this dish as Instant Moussaka..... but I have to admit, I decided that I really couldn't call it that now I am writing it up on the blog.....
	You see, Moussaka is traditionally made with minced (ground) lamb but I make this dish with beef..... and traditionally, Moussaka has aubergine as a constituent part but I omit the aubergine...and of course, traditionally, Moussaka has a Béchamel sauce topping.... I use potato....  So, as you can see it's not really Moussaka.... We had quite a long discussion about this and eventually agreed that we would adopt a name which obliquely referred to it's origins... so in the future it will be known as:
	Boeuf Cherhomme I took1kg (2lbs) minced (ground) beef and sauteed it in olive oil with a large onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, adding into the mix, some herbs de Provence, Italian herbs and of course, a glass or two of red wine.    Once the mix had cooked well I added tomatoes.   I used a tin of tomatoes as, at the moment, I don't have any of my own.
THIS IS THE PICTURE OF THE FINISHED DISH WHICH I FORGOT TO TAKE	Once this had all cooked down nicely, I covered the bottom of  a large dish with a layer of pre-boiled potato and then spooned half the mixture over them.  I then added further layers of potato, meat and a top layer of potato and cooked the whole dish in the oven for about 20 minutes. After sprinkling cheese over the top I grilled the beef and then served immediately....
	We also made a marinated sweet and sour carrots dish that I love and which was enjoyed by our guests.
	All this cooking activity for the whole day meant we didn't really have time to prepare our own meals so about mid afternoon, we all stopped for afternoon tea in the British tradition.....  I had a French pastry - a "Religeuse" or Coffee Nun, a very tempting piece of choux pastry stuffed full with coffee cream and then topped with coffee icing.  It certainly made the cup of tea taste better..........

From Garden to Kitchen

I have not managed much in the garden this week.  It has been raining a lot....quite a lot....no, I guess it's an awful lot...  Every Sunday morning I check my rainwater gauge and log the rainfall for the preceding week...  It was actually raining, but only very lightly, when I checked it this morning and recorded 125mm (5inches) of rain since last Sunday......  Like I said a lot of rain.

"From Garden to Kitchen" really refers to me rather than any of my produce...although I did harvest the ends of a few things.

I also managed to sow a pot of batavia lettuce which I'm hoping to persuade to grow even though winter seems to be arriving early this year with temperatures already having dropped to 2C (35F) overnight.

	"From Garden to Kitchen" really refers to me rather than any of my produce...although I did harvest the ends of a few things. We had some guests come to stay so I bought a small whole salmon from the fishmonger and on Friday evening prepared a very simple Baked Salmon with Roasted Vegetables....I think baking the salmon, just wrapped in a little foil and adding only a few herbs allows all the natural flavours to be retained.  The vegetables were drizzled with olive oil and then roasted to make a delicious meal, served with some of my homemade multigrain bread. This morning we took the guests to the weekly market at Issigeac. As I said, it was raining, so the market was virtually empty
	We were able to park easily and buy all that we wanted without queuing.   There were some beautiful local strawberries, still available, which we completely failed to resist and which we shall be eating a little a later for supper. As the cold weather is drawing in now I pulled all the tomato plants out during the week and saved the last few tomatoes.  Mainly they were green with just about a dozen or so tiny red cherry ones which went into the salad bowl. I used the green tomatoes to make my own version of Green Tomato Chutney.
	I love Green Tomato Chutney, and usually manage to make a few jars of it at the end of every tomato season.  This chutney is traditionally made with green tomatoes, apples and onions but for my version I also add figs, sultanas, banana, courgette and garlic.

I simply fill the slow cooker crock with as much of the mixed  vegetables as I can manage, add some sugar and vinegar and then cook for about 12 hours.  I find that the slow cooker allows the chutney to develop a beautiful ,rich, deep, colour.  We have just a couple of jars of last years chutney left so by the time this batch is ready, in a month to six weeks, we'll have completely run out....