rocket stove cooking

I love my Rocket Stove.  I’d seen them here and there before, mainly home made affairs, cobbled together with old baked bean cans and old oil canisters and I’d had it in mind to build one of my own one day.  In Dorset I was caught with my guard down, at the Scythe Fair, where I saw a professionally forged, easily transportable, robust affair which I bought it without a second thought.  

How right I was.

Since getting back to France I use it most of the time for cooking meals, not just for myself but for four or five people at a time.  Mainly pot meals that require simmering for a while, but also fry ups and dishes that require a proper amount of heat.

Lighting it was tricky to start and then getting the burn temperature right.  I’ve since improved my wood drying technique and shan’t ever need to cut down another tree to cook with it.  It’s a joy to gather those fallen twigs and small branches and know that they have a serious role to play and also to be able to cook on free, easily gathered material at almost a moments notice.  I’ll need to be more prepared for when the weather turns and keep a good supply of well dried twigs available for cooking.

Thinking about how much wood I would use on a traditional fire, or the gas I would burn to achieve the same result is absurd.  A small bundle of kindling is enough to cook dinner and provide a nice cup of tea to wash it all down.  I’ll be heating my shower water with it soon and filling my hot water bottle with it when the nights get cold.  The gas stove will always be a welcome alternative for when the weather is foul, an oven is needed or speed is of the essence, but ongoing, my rocket stove cooking is becoming an integral part of my daily routine.  

The wheelbarrow in the photos is a makeshift wind deflector, self standing, easily positionable and has many other uses.  Ideal

dinner in the making

the twigs are burning within the metal tubing

a mini furnace

a near complete burn with no smoke and hardly any ash

MMMmmmmmm  lentil, tomato and nettle stew nearly done

revisits to Nic and Brigitte and on....

And then to Nic’s for a week, more of a catch up visit and to see how he’s getting on with the various projects that he has on the go.  I haven’t been to the tower for a couple of years so it’ll be interesting to see the changes.

In fact Nic has been concentrating on another property he has in the village with the idea of selling it on to finance further developments of the main building, that way he can do it properly without scrimping to get decent materials.  He has spent most of his time refurbishing the house, which is coming close to being ready to go on the market.

It has been a great week,  sorting out the ground outside and sowing grass seed for a lawn, scraping ceilings in preparation for a coat of paint, putting up stair banisters.  He enjoys me being here as I take over the kitchen and give him a good break from cooking, which he finds tedious and struggles with inspiration for meals.  I’ve loved throwing together meals with minimal ingredients on an ever more healthy theme.  Each time I visit, we find that our knowledge of food has increased and we both err towards a more natural, home produced diet.  This time cows milk products have been struck off the list, goat and sheep cheeses and yoghurts are still allowed, the reasoning being that unless very locally produced, the poor cows are now fed an increasingly unnatural diet of grains, industrial food processing waste, live inside for most of the year and are kept going with antibiotics and a range of productivity enhancing drugs.  The natural grass diet of a cow is becoming a rarity rather than the norm.

Enough of that for now.

I continue writing ten days later, having not had chance to use the wifi before moving on.  

The last week at Brigitte’s was wonderful, so nice to return and help a lovely lady and good to see that she is well on the mend after a winter of illness.  The aim was to help get the garden up and running again, but I was beaten to the post by Gareth who had arrived earlier in the year for a couple of weeks  but has decided to stay, almost indefinitely by the sounds of things, and is busy settling into the region.  

Gareth is a great gardener and he’d gotten most of it under control, a botanist by training and brilliant at wild plant foraging, so as you can imagine, our conversations were in-depth, endless and fascinating for the two of us, both learning loads from each other.  I don’t think I have eaten so many different wild plants in such a short period ever, mainly a tasting, but occasionally more of a meal, including the ever popular nettle soup and several almost completely wild salads.  

We got on and did several jobs that were much easier done with a couple of pairs of hands.  Replacing the roof on a sun terrace awning, clearing and strimming an enormous patch of semi wild land near the property and burning loads of garden waste, chatting on for most of the time. A third helper arrived too, Trina, a canadian, who helped out more with spring cleaning and sorting out the cellar and summer house whilst I was there.  It was as interesting week language wise, with Brigitte and I being accustomed to speaking french to each other whilst Gareth and Trina in the early learning stages, we swapped back and forth between english and french continually which was great for everyone.  

I was sad to leave after a week, two or three would have been much more agreeable, but I was on a promise and have had a long long drive to get where I am now.  It’s not that far on the map, as the crow flies, but climbing mountain roads takes time in a van like Percy, going up is slow and down is no better, gently does it so as not to overheat the breaks - it smells terrible and is slightly worrying when smoke billows from the wheels when you stop, so a low gear is more the order of the day.  1200m was the first pass then a long descent before climbing almost immediately to 850m and down again.  

I’m somewhere in the Ardeche, south of Lyon, high in the hills with marvelous views, helping a Belgian family build their first ever straw bale house that has only just begun.  I’ll tell you more next time......

finding things

Perhaps it’s time to change tack a bit here on the blog, focus a bit more on lifestyle than travel as I appear to be settling down for a while.

I’ve spent plenty of time in Vieuzos on the land, musing and dreaming and trying to decide what to do, how, when and in what order.  Until I am actually there I don’t think I can really get stuck in, but I have made some interesting discoveries.

There are an amazing variety of plants growing in this abandoned plot, a good few of them good forager fare:

nettles

dandelion

hairy bitter cress

I tried to get a close up but it obviously didn’t work.  So here’s a link to a fascinating blog that explains how it can be used and has some helpful pictures to help with identification  http://huntergathercook.typepad.com/huntergathering_wild_fres/2013/01/hairy-bittercress-pesto.html

lime

beech

fig

apple

pear

sloe

elder - flower and of course berry

wild strawberry

blackberry (a few too many)

to name a few.

I really must make a list and make sure that they are well used in season.

Another time I started clearing the brambles a bit, in the hope of finding some hardstanding to put a shed on.  I chopped and pulled at branches for several hours, though with the amount of fallen debris, had difficulty in reaching solid ground.  I did, however find the remains of a car, some pig sties and enough abandoned knick-knacks to start a museum.....

pig sties

no dig vegetable plot

Preparing the vegetable garden for winter.

This is a no dig method that we all knew about discussed at length before putting into practice.

The land had been used for onions last year and had produced a pretty good crop.  The soil is heavy clay and needs improving for the future.

This is what we did:

1 pick off the worst of the weeds

2 cover in cardboard, without too much tape or plastic

3 add a good layer of compost, this trailer load came from the local municipal facility for just over 8 euros.

4  cover the whole plot with plenty of straw to keep the warmth and humidity in, whilst the worms and soil beasties do their work over winter.

In the spring, the worms will have worked their way through the cardboard into the mulch and started to incorporate it into the soil below.  All that needs to be done is clear away little holes in the straw to plant seedlings and leave the soil beasties to continue elsewhere,  if there is still cardboard at the bottom of the hole, cut a small hole so that the seedling roots can continue down into the soil below.  Try not to walk on the plot and compact the soil, use a plank of wood to spread your weight.  For seed planting the straw will need to be cleared completely until the crop has germinated and gotten off to a good start.

Hopefully I’ll be back next year to see how productive the plot is after our efforts this autumn.

artists

Claude and Susan were great hosts, they are artists, often performing as ‘Un kilo de Cirque’ and between events lead a calm and pressure free lifestyle.  No animals to look after, save a couple of horses and a cat, so no daily feeding routines and rushing around, no work schedules and times to keep, it made a great change from other more hectic hosts.  That said, they practice their routines and learn new sketches frequently, fabricate their own costumes and have just finished renovating the old barn into a community events venue, their plan is to host local events and loan the space to societies and associations as there are few local resources like that available on a regular basis.  It’d be great to be there for a dance or musical event as the building is beautiful and the sprung dancefloor just waiting for the movement of feet and music.  The opening event is next month but unfortunately I won’t be there.  Julien and Vivien are helping out for the two day event as ushers/parking attendants/general help and I shall be in portugal visiting my brother in his new home.......

Susan started life in London and has lived in france since the eighties.  It was great to spend time with someone who has spent so long here and has settled almost completely.  Many of our conversations were in french, especially if the others were involved, but often alone, her french with a definite west london accent made me smile.  She prepared us great meals and, much to the amusement of my french friends, kept us well supplied with tea at all the appropriate times and with cake or biscuits in the afternoon.  How civilised.  Proper pot with cosie, I wish I’d taken a photo now, PG Tips, though in tea bag form as they were easier to get hold of.  

Our accommodation was wonderfully comfortable and definitely different to the usual room , Julien had a wonderful gipsy caravan and I, a white van.  We were going to swap halfway through our stay but as we were both comfortable in our beds decided not to change in case it wasn’t for the better.  Vivien stayed home in his camper van as usual.

We put down new stones on the floor of the winter horses shelter to help keep their feet dry, spent a couple of good mornings clearing brush and scrub in one of the higher pastures, no bonfires as it was far too dry, but plenty of fun for whoever is there in the winter.  Collected several truck loads of heating wood and stacked it ready for the winter, I can imagine that the hall takes a fair amount of heating even if everyone brings their log contribution that is requested of them.  Put up the framework for a tack room, I guess you can call it that, somewhere to keep saddles and straps and all the paraphanalia that goes with horses.  Someone else will get the pleasure of boarding the sides and kitting the inside out when the  wood arrives.

fat hen

Chenopodium album is the botanical name, in england we call it ‘fat hen”, there are probably numerous other local names, but this is the most common.    The reason being that it was used to fatten hens for the table.  In france it is known as “chenopode” and is used just the same.

young Fat Hen leaves

A combination of prior knowledge, a handy reference book that Aimee and Marc had with them and some of Marc’s archaeological facts have been combined to tell you these facts.

Fat hen plants love colonising disturbed soil, so since civilisations began, this plant has been growing close to humans.  It grows quickly, providing plentiful fresh green leaves that are rich in vitamin A, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus, they are also a good source of protein, trace minerals, B-complex vitamins, vitamin C,  iron, and fiber. These have been harvested, eaten raw and cooked, until recent times, when larger leafed spinaches and leaf beets became more popular and stole the show.  After many centuries of culinary participation, fat hen became a weed.

close up stems of drying seed

A resurgence in foraging and eating the free bounty that nature provides has us (well some of us) leaving this delicious plant to grow amongst the vegetables and around the the garden for later use.  It can be harvested from spring through to the first frosts and eaten raw in mixed leaf salads or prepared in a similar fashion to spinach, steamed or sauteed and served hot with butter and salt.  By harvesting the younger leaves, the plant then shoots again to produce more tender growing tips again and again and again.  Stopped only by drought, frost or being weeded out completely. Even then, it goes to make good compost.

The leaves of fat hen are not the only part of the plant that is eaten.  The seeds too, were eaten fresh from the plant and also dried and stored for use throughout the leaner winter months.  Archaeological evidence shows that an early settler of the British Isles, perfectly preserved in a peat bog, had been fed a meal of fat hen seeds amongst other things before he was sacrificed all those years ago.

a large clump with new seed forming

There is ample fat hen going to seed around the garden at Nicolas’ so we have been harvesting it by the handful, dry roasting it in a frying pan to remove any residual moisture before storing it away in sealable glass jars for the winter.  Aimee has been adding plenty to the bread that she bakes every morning, giving it a good nutty crunch.  It also finds itself in the homemade salad dressing, which goes very nicely with a bitter leaf salad and any other dish that we see fit.  It seems a shame to let such a flavoursome and nutritious freebie go to waste when it is so easy to use.