Spring at last

The winter here in south west France has dragged on a bit this year, with the cold and wet weather extending into the beginning of this month.

However, the last couple of weeks have brought some spring weather with them and, suddenly, things are bursting into flower

These tulips are in a small flower bed right next to the main door to the house, so, although Tulips are short lived, I get to enjoy them everday whilst they are in bloom.

Elsewhere in the garden, my tomato seedlings are slowly growing.  The other day I potted on about 50 of my “Ian’s Red Cherry”.  I was very pleased about this as I thought I had lost all the seed to mice in last years mouse attack, but, happily, I found a canister of seeds which were a couple of years old.   As tomato seeds are well known for their survivability, I decided to give them a try.   Hopefully, I’ll now have enough tomatoes to save seed from later in the year.

I also have both Marmande and Moneymaker seedlings waiting to be potted on which I expect to be doing this week.

Earlier in the week, I found a few berry bushes being sold off for less than 2€ each and bought some.  I had an issue with my labelling of the black currant and blackberry bushes…  OK, I labelled them both as blackberry by mistake… but, once they fruit I’ll know which is which.  I’ve planted them and also a gooseberry bush I bought at the same time.

I also bought a couple of raspberries from the same place, but they are intensive care due to violent abuse before I took charge of them.   Another thing I bought recently, which is also in intensive care was a small olive tree.    I don’t think it had been watered for many months when I took it over.

The bulk of my work at the moment is directed along two paths.     The boundary hedges are in a pretty terrible condition and I’m investing a lot of time in restoring them.   The second path is simply weeding and grass cutting!      Sadly, my ill health last year meant that I didn’t get to do very much in the garden and, therefore, I have my work cut out this year to restore order.

In the orchard, the pear and cherry trees are in blossom and the apples are not far behind.  I noticed lots of buds on the peach and nectarine trees as well.   In the kitchen garden, Forsythia is blossoming in the corner beds.   I hope the bright yellow flowers are attracting lots of insects into the area.

Finally, I’ve also been attacking some of the large shrubs in the “park” area and am hoping they will respond to the harsh treatment.   Roses have been heavily pruned again this year.

The long drought and then severe winter have caused many of the potted shrubs to die.   Some pots froze solid even though I had moved them into an unheated workshop.   I’m keeping a careful watch on the pots, just in case there is any sign of recuperation.

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.

I 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…

Back at last

After almost two years of not being able to set a foot in my vegetable garden, I am happy to report that, at long last, I have been given the OK by my consultant at the local hospital and have once again started a little gentle gardening.

Last week I started by cutting back all the paths in the veg garden.  The garden is laid out with beds of about 7.5 metres (25 ft) by 1.2 metres (4ft) .  In between each bed is a footpath of about 600mm (2ft) width.  There are 3 beds across the garden in a row and at the moment about 6 rows.  The garden will eventually accommodate 8 rows.    Around the edges there are also some corner beds where I grow the flowers and shrubs etc  that drag in the birds and the bees and those kind of things.

Not having been worked for two years it was in a pretty sad state.

I started by cutting back the paths.  They are all grass pathways so it wasn’t too big a job to run my mower over them and I soon had them looking neat, it not perfect.

I have started with one bed!!!  I cleared it and put a mulch on it and then sowed broad beans.

I was quite pleased with my progress after such a long time.

The next day I was out all day doing other domestic things that have been neglected.

Imagine my horror when I went out to the garden the following day and discovered that the local mice had been having a great party, fuelled mainly, from what I could see, by my broad bean seeds.

Yes, I know you are supposed to protect against mice but after being away so long I simply forgot!

As they say in this part of the world  “C’est la vie”

Tomato, Onion and Potato tart

Firstly, yes, I am till alive and I can only offer my sincere apologies for the extended delay since my last post.    I’ve not been in very good health and have had a spell in hospital.

The other day a couple of things happened that made me decide to do this post.    My neighbour and farmer arrived with  a couple of sacks of tomatoes, potatoes and onions, all of which he had grown on the field I own.    When I first moved here, the land I bought included a couple of agricultural fields.   I’m no farmer, and the two fields together were not enough to do much with so I spoke to my neighbour and we agreed he would manage them on my behalf.   He grows a few kitchen vegetables, wheat and straw or hay and I pay him for managing them with the produce.  In fact these days, we just split the produce between us, lovely warm produce straight from the field or straw to add to my own kitchen garden

After he had gone another friend invited me for supper  and I decided I could use the fresh produce to make a tart.  I’m afraid I didn’t measure anything but I’ll tell you what I did.   

 

First I blind baked a pastry tart shell, about 30cms by 20cms (12” x 8”)   I used a rectangular pie dish and lined it with greaseproof paper.

I took about 4 good sized potatoes and  cut them just enough to get them into my food processor, where I used the very finest slice to produce wafer thin potato slices.  I blanched the potato for just a couple of minutes in a little salted water, taking care not to let it burn.   I didn’t use too much water as I wanted to say rather firm.  Once blanched I immediately dipped it into cold water to arrest the cooking, then drained them.

Next I took about three of the medium onions and sliced them  and to the sliced onion I added a bout 5 cloves of garlic also sliced.  I fried the mixture, adding a touch f salt and black pepper until the onions started to caramelise.  Then I put that dish aside.

To assemble the tart, I started by layering about half of the blanched potato in the bottom.  The potato was a bit wet still so I added just a dessert spoonful of rice under the potato to soak up any juices.

On top of the potato I layered tomato, sliced fairly thickly.   Again season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Next, another layer of potato.

Then a layer of the fried onions and garlic before putting the final layer of tomatoes on the top.

I scattered some fresh basil leaves over the dish and returned it to the oven to bake at about 180C (350F) for 20 mins