tasty and natural

I was surprised to see elder growing here, I had imagined that the climate would have been too hot and dry, but I was wrong.  They were flowering as I arrived at the convent and my hosts  had already made elderflower syrup this year.  We chatted about other uses and ended up gathering bafulls of flowers that we set to dry as an ingredient for herbal tea, either on its own or to blend with other herbs.  

The plants cling to the wettest places and are found alongside streams and in damp valleys where they can thrive.  We drove out into the countryside and spent an enjoyable couple of hours harvesting and chatting in the warm spring sunshine.  Whilst chatting, it transpired that they had packets of seeds to sprout, that they had never dared to try, so were excited to hear that it was something that I regularly did.  That evening we set to soak three different sprouts, mung beans which give chinese bean sprouts, sunflower seeds and cress.  A week later they were nicely sprouted and we enjoyed them in salads accompanied by fresh leaves and shoots from the garden.

seeds put to soak for sprouting

elderflowers ready to dry

combing elderflowers of their stalks

le conservatoire vegetal d'aquitaine

Fruit trees.  One of my major goals this year has been to get plenty of long term planting done.  Completed before construction work starts so that during the busy months/years, the trees and shrubs can establish and start to bear fruit, so that once I move into my house there will already be the startings of an orchard and some decent sized trees, shrubs and hedges to continue my gardens around.

I have spent hours and hours researching fruit tree nurseries in the region, visiting several and perusing websites when I’ve had the chance.  Then, by chance, I visited some friends who planted an orchard several years ago.  They had an old catalogue from the place where they had bought all their trees and were still excited about the memories of their visit to the nursery.  

Pascale explained that one weekend a year the nursery has a exhibition and open day to celebrate fruit trees with demonstrations of planting, pruning and grafting.  tastings possibilities for the majority of fruits that are in season, a market area for associated goods and products and, as always at such events in france, the opportunity to eat well and copiously at lunchtime in a marquee dedicated to food.  

Since August I have slowly been learning the technical vocabulary to understand this catalogue, dreaming about my orchard and attempting the almost impossible task of reducing the contents of several hundred trees to a manageable number to buy, plant and care for.  It’s not even as if I have reference from all the British varieties that I know.  Whether they be apples, pears, cherries or grapes, all the names were foreign to me.

I managed to limit my choices to four cherries, four plums/gages, five pears, three hazle nuts, two walnuts, two chestnuts and one quince, though with the apples i reduced the hundred and fifty or so possibles to twenty five and took advice from the knowledgeable  staff to finalise my selection to eight varieties.  I sent my order ahead of time, in the hope that they would all be available.

To be accurate, it’s not specifically a nursery but a conservation orchard. It’s grand name is ‘Le Conservatoire Vegetal de l’Aquitaine’ and it’s aim it to preserve heritage varieties of orchard fruits, research new varieties, care and pruning techniques in a way that helps the wider environment.  The use of mixed species plantings to reduce pest invasions, minimal pruning techniques that stress the plant less, increasing the biodiversity within orchards to aid pollenisation and attract beneficial insects, a whole gammut of ideas that lean towards a more holistic and natural way of caring for our environment.  

The date of the exhibition had been in my diary since July and I wasn’t going to miss it for anything.  

It was amazing.  As described by my friends and more.  I was able to taste the vast majority of the apple varieties that I had chosen, plus a couple of pears and walnuts. I made changes to my order without problem. Noted kiwi varieties that were tasty for later on, along with grapes, cherries and other gages that looked good either in the flesh or on posters and was awed by the sheer enormity of the event.  Photographs will tell the story .......

from afar, and already busy

one of several  demonstration marquees

nice juicy pears

small choice of walnuts

jam making demonstrations

thankfully the organisation was faultless

and more......

Between eight and nine thousand visitors from over 30 departements of france in a weekend.  Three hundred or so volunteers from all over the south west to help, advise, demonstrate and transport peoples purchases back to their vehicles.

festive preparations

Four days in the mountains, a mini break of sorts, with Pierre at Lou Rider.  Our aim was to bake Christmas cakes and make chutney, get out and enjoy the mountains for the last time before the snow arrived and enjoy being away.

I picked up a couple of crates of ungraded apples at the market, fine to eat but ideal for cooking with, though some varieties tend to keep their shape however long you cook them for.  Apples and a couple of home grown winter squash were the basis for chutney, along with two mixes of spices and other ingredients for the two batches planned.

I got to use one of my latest car boot treasures, an apple peeler, corer, slicer all in one.  It really was amazing and already paid for (3 euros) for the quantity of apples we processed.  Check out the pics.

one of my new kitchen toys

chutney in the making

peels, cores and slices in one easy action

 Pierre had been soaking dried fruit in alcohol for weeks in preparation for the cakes and we raided a supermarket on the way into the mountains for all the other ingredients.  Between us we made nine beautiful cakes of varying sizes and two cases of chutney, one of which will blow your head off!!!  I can’t wait till they’re nicely matured and ready to taste properly.

alcoholic fruit

Christmas is coming

Neither of us were on form, so we didn’t really venture out that much which was a shame.  The winter cold bugs were busy doing their thing and our bodies probably benefited from a bit of a rest.  Thankfully all the produce we made was thoroughly cooked and none of the bugs will have survived.

Aveyron, Creuze, Dordogne....

Time flies when you are having fun.  And it does.  Can’t believe that I’ve been back from Portugal for nearly three weeks, I guess with a weekend in Toulouse and numerous projects going on at Nicholas’ plus friends visiting for a weekend and other helpers arriving the time gets swallowed up in no time.

I have been charged, as is now usual, with sorting out the garden produce before the frosts arrive and then ensuring that as much as possible is preserved for the winter.  All the winter squash are now drying inside, there are numerous jars of tomato paste, ratatouille, green tomato chutney and jam safely stored away in the cellar.  Onions that got a light frosting now transformed into a mean start to any chilli dish, just add to beans, mince or vegetables for a hearty meal on any winters night.

Nic has been collecting large bottles, amongst many other things, you should see his loft space, for several years but is always wary of using them as they tend to be rather fragile, especially as they no longer have their wicker protection.  Thanks to a couple of rainy days and my needle skills, they now have neat hessian bands around their middles, a quick and easy way to protect them.  Several have already been  decanted into and the rest wait for the next bulk purchase of wine or hazelnut oil, pressed from the nuts that we collected earlier in the autumn.

We had a great weekend with a couple of Nic’s mates from down south.  We planned to follow a mini ‘transhumanse’ (the process of moving livestock from high to low pasture in mountain areas) on Saturday morning, followed by a lunch with a local sheep farmer, in fact it took most of the day, with a good walk in glorious sunshine followed by a delicious slap up meal in a barn completely put together with local produce, plenty of lamb and local wine.  The meal was followed by a demonstration by the local folkloric association and a quiet evening in.  On Sunday we spent an afternoon in a thermal spa resort, soaking in jacuzzi’s, steaming in saunas, relaxing in hammams and hot pools.  All the more enjoyable after being in his rather chilly house during the first frosty spell of winter.  Much improved from recent years, but still in need of final insulation and a couple of doors to keep the last of the draughts at bay.  Returning from the spa was exceptional, the sky and sunset was one of the most spectacular that I have ever seen.  The blazing golden orb of the sun descending from view with a multicolour display of cloud formations, con trails and stunningly lit scenery,  It’ll have to remain a memory as no one had a camera.  The everchanging blend of purples, reds, oranges, greys, greens, blues mutated as the sun and clouds moved across the sky and we traveled through the autumn landscape.  The spectacle lasted long after sunset and finally came to an end once the stars has started to light up the night sky.  What beauty.

We have spent a fair amount of time working in another property in the village, one that he bought at the same time as the tower and is now being done up for sale.  The proceeds will go to fund the continuing restoration of the tower, professional help with roofing and the purchase of ten metre long beams do not come cheap and the small income he has is easily used up each month.  We’ve been replastering with lime mortar, installing electric lighting and power sockets in one of the main rooms, it’ll look smart once it’s finished.

All good things come to an end and I have headed north to catch up with Matty.  We are heading to a location that we visited earlier this summer and helped with the round house.  This time we are going back to learn the skills of willow weaving.  Not baskets but hurdles, fences and garden structures, things of a grand scale.  It was something that our host Matt promised us back in the summer and now is an ideal time to coppice, prepare and weave.  As ever he is slightly delayed, so I am giving Matty a helping hand with some work he is trying to get finished before we drive west.

beauregard

During the last few years I have discussed countless projects and possibilities with people, all of whom have done a few of these things.  Whether it be pizza and bread making, cultivating fruit, keeping bees, building with local materials, renovating old buildings, making a bread oven, drying fruit and vegetables, keeping poultry and sheep, working wood, mending mechanical things such as rotavators, bicycles, food processors and motorbikes, recycling and re-utilising discarded objects, conserving fruit and vegetables, making juices, having solar heated water, dry toilets, composting, living in yurts and caravans, storing rain water, gardening organically on a large scale with traction animals, there have been many discussions, I have gleaned many ideas for the future and made countless notes on what to and not to do in many situations.

Now I find myself at a location that has or does all of these things, it is truly amazing. The amount of time and effort that has gone into these projects over the last twenty or so years has been incredible and the fruits of this labour are a joy to behold.

Up on a hill above the ancient town of Montbrun Bocage with a view that stretches as far as the Black Mountains in one direction and the high peaks of the pyrenees in the other, there is an ancient farmhouse called “Beauregard’ and it is there that I am staying and discovering all these things.

It is the last location on our list for the summer that was decided back in June when Julian Vivien and I decided our summer route.  It hadn’t been one of my favourite choices but it  would allow us to spend some time in a new area to see if it would be a suitable place to look for land.  Jean-Francoise had written back saying that he had decided on a project that would keep us busy for a couple of weeks if we were interested and we would be welcome.  He proposed that we build a shelter for his donkeys and that was about it. So we added it to the list and arrived a week or so ago.

The family of four plus another four grown up children who come and go from time to time, plus another WWOOFer, Cecile are all really lovely people, welcoming, kind and of generous spirit in time, energy and soul.  Day to day life is full of tasks, planned or otherwise and things move along at speed.  With ten or so folk to feed there is always something needing harvested or chopped or peeled.  Hens, ducks, sheep and donkeys to be fed and watered.  Gardens to be tended to, crops to be harvested either for immediate consomation  or to be preserved for future enjoyment. Bread to be made and of course our predetermined tasks in hand.  

As a team we are progressing well with the framework for the stables, there isn’t a fully worked out plan so we consult every morning and discuss what the next steps are to be.  So far we have made more mistakes that I care to mention, although, happily recoverable from and we haven’t had to waste any wood just yet.  The errors come from miscommunication of ideas, changes of mind and further reflections that result in modifications for the future.  All are taken in good humour and with an attitude of learning, discovery and the fact that we are only, in fact, building a shelter for some beasts, not a work of art.  That said, we are paying attention to detail, trying to perfect techniques and do things to the best of our abilities, fully aware that in the not to distant future it may well be our houses that we are working on. (Well, I am anyway).

We work in the mornings, starting early, and then have the afternoons free to do whatever we wish to do.  Explore the area, read or write, go for a walk, do nothing or else participate in whatever else is going on at the time.  Cecile has different tasks and often works the afternoons, Jean-Francoise always has several additional tasks on the go, so there is always something new to get involved with and learn.  For the evening meal there is a voluntary helping out with tasks which means that meals get prepared fast, eaten at a leisurely pace, often on the terrace overlooking the valley and tidied away without fuss or bother.  It all works wonderfully and I am quietly content that I can now follow the gist of a good number of the conversations that go on during mealtimes.

the caravan where I sleep at night

solar food drier

the smartest duck shelter I have ever seen, we're going to

waterproof the roof next week with old hessian sacks and chalk render.

the dreaded asian hornet.  the sting is intensely painful ( I know)

home constructed bread oven.  made bread, pizzas for 20 people, cooked

meringues and dried figs and tomatoes from the garden

bakers tools

preparing to press apples on a grand scale

almost industrial

the big press in front of the honey and juice workshop!!

vines protected from the hornets and birds

another composting toilet

patiently waiting for their new quarters to be finished

the Sunday market at Montbrun Brocage

apple juice

Apple juice is something that I have wondered about for ages, how is it made, what do you have to do to the apples before they are pressed and how much do you get for your harvest?  I expect that commercial presses are much more high tech, but for home use what we did here was superb.  Three decent baskets of windfalls, none too bruised, the wasp and bird eaten ones are fine so long as it remains fairly clean.  A fairly robust mincer a small multipurpose press and some sterilized bottles.

We shredded the apples

Tipped them into the press

Added the top of the press with additional blocks of wood to help maintain pressure

turned the screw threaded head until the juice started to flow

continued till winding until it was too difficult and there was no more juice to flow filling bottles as we went

Opened the press, chucked the pressed apple ‘cake’ onto the compost, hosed everything down and left it to dry in the sunshine.

Easy.