Preparing for Abundance

Our most fruitful courgette is pictured above and below is the line of courgette plants that have literally quadrupled in size during the last few days of rain - we’re very excited to see the flowers appear and although I have lots of lovely recipes involving the flowers and I’m told that it’s common to have a glut of courgettes, we’re so excited to harvest our first fruit we’re not yet prepared to sacrifice the flowers!  Soon come I’m told once we’ve exhausted the ideas of what to do with an abundance of courgettes that won’t keep.

We’ve also got cucumbers as pictured below and our french neighbours tell us that from this stage, it’s only about 5-8 days before we should be eating them as they do tend to take off fairly quickly so it looks like we shall be in a position to welcome my sister, her husband and their 2 daughters with some fresh produce from the garden.

Mum and Richard left this morning (after Richard took the tractor for a turn in the field - photo above) to spend a few days in the Loire on their way back to the UK and the sun is shining (finally!) so hopefully that will last for the duration of their time in France - it certainly helps us to have the sun shine in between visitors so that we can catch up with the laundry!  We also hope that the sun will bring out the sunflowers - below is a photo of a line of sunflowers I planted from seed - we’ve got about 6 different varieties so it should be lovely once they’re blooming.  In addition I’ve got 50 gladioli that I planted from bulbs given to me by my mum back in May (photo also below) and presumably they now need some sunshine to burst into flower!

One of our neighbours was celebrating her 75th birthday yesterday so we stopped by to wish her “bon anniversaire” and all 4 of us were welcomed with champagne and nibbles which was lovely considering it was only 11 o’clock in the morning!  We’ve also invited them and the other neighbours who gave us the 12 tomato plants to join us for lunch next week so shall have to put our “french heads” back on for that!

Given the cheesecake issues I’d had last week, it was amusing to have some dinner guests bring a cheesecake with them the other night.  It was a really lovely lemon one which we served with strawberries and so of course I asked for the recipe - it’s another easy one and quite delicious - she warns that you shouldn’t be put off when you’re making it by the runny consistency - once you add the lemon, it does tend to thicken it and it sets beautifully - serve with raspberries or strawberries - enjoy!

Easy Lemon Cheesecake

For the Base

10 digestive biscuits, crushed

2 oz butter, melted

1 oz demerara sugar

For the Cheesecake

5 fl oz single cream

1 x 14oz can condensed milk

6 oz  low-fat soft cheese, softened (I would use regular)

grated rind and juice of 3 large lemons (she’s noted 150ml max)

Mix together the biscuits, butter and demerara sugar and turn into a 9inch/23cm flan dish and press evenly over the base - leave to set.

Mix together the cream, condensed milk, soft cheese and lemon rind, then add the lemon juice a little at a time, whisking until the mixture thickens.  Pour the mixture into the flan case and leave to chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

BON APETIT!