Pretending to Farm in Cayman

Tony and I arrived back in Cayman to take up gainful employment in order to top up our peasant fund once more - we hope to return to the life of french peasants in rural France again one day but realise that our definition of “peasant” might differ from others!  We’re hoping to live off the land one day and in that respect our definition is true but we’re also hoping that we’ll always have indoor plumbing and a glass of wine to wash down the bounty from the garden!

We did the rounds of goodbyes to all in the hamlet and as we popped by to say goodbye to our new friends, the winemaker and his wife, we discovered that they’d just bottled the first of the wine from the grapes we’d picked less than 2 weeks before.  We were invited in to try the wine and then they gave us a bottle of it to take away - having had numerous glasses with them and then a few more at another friends house shortly after, there was no way we were going to be able to drink it given we also had to be up early the next morning to get on a plane.....so - we decided to wrap it well and take it with us.

Photo above is of our first night in Cayman enjoying our neighbours wine on the beach - I shall be sending photos back to them - he can now say he makes wine for an international audience!

Photos below are of our first seeds planted back here - we’ve arrived back in perfect time for planting tomatoes which is good news so we’ve got a variety of different types of tomatoes, cucumbers, rocket (or arugula as they call it over here), lettuce, aubergine, peppers and okra.  The pots are made of newspaper so can be planted directly into the soil and will break down once the seeds have come to life - it’s a brilliant little kit that looks a bit like a pestle and mortar that my sister bought for us when she came to stay and will be put to good use and will travel back with us when we return one day!

We’ve also got a lovely scotch bonnet plant that we bought at the farmers market the other day and these plants are usually quite generous with their fruit once they get going so I shall have to come up with 101 uses for scotch bonnets - watch this space.....!

Discovering “Bourru”, packing up the house and pondering the meaning of life...

Everywhere you go right now, there are signs indicating this years “bourru” has arrived - almost reminiscent of the hype we get over the other side of the pond when “beaujolais nouveau” is released.

Of course, we’d no idea what bourru was or what one did with it - it’s essentially “wine in the making” that’s been siphoned off mid ferment and bottled with just a lead seal - no cork - no proper seal (very important to realise you can’t lay it down in the fridge if you want it to stay in the bottle) - because it’s obviously still fermenting - it’s quite a sweet, slightly fizzy, light wine - although tastes more like soda pop than wine and can probably get you in trouble - normally it’s about 11.5% but as one winemaker pointed out to us - it could have a bit more than that given the tax is paid on the alcoholic content it’s entirely possible all wine is “under declared”!

So - sadly, it’s impossible to bring any back to Cayman to enjoy but we’re doing our best to drink as much as we can prior to our departure!!  It’s only available for a few weeks after the “vendange” and so we’re thrilled to be here for just the right time to enjoy this new discovery.

Sadly, it would seem that all good things really must come to an end and we’ve been busy rotovating the veggie patch (photo above and below - no more veggies) in order to lay plastic over it so that it might lay fallow and not be overtaken by weeds in our absence - we feel this will give us an advantage when we finally return in the initial preparation of replanting our vegetable patch - also, packing up and winterising everything - this involved breaking down all the beds - putting all bedding/clothes etc. in plastic bags with camphor to discourage moths, putting all books in plastic boxes - scattering enormous amounts of rat and mouse poison around the place and generally having a clean out - quite a mammoth task but one we’re getting better at each time!

One of the tasks was to move 3 really large piles of firewood into another barn in order to make room for the tractor and car and trailer in the main barn - at first the task seemed insurmountable and I suppose I had been putting it off.  I finally got round to it - just moving one piece of firewood at a time and many hours later the job was done - Tony commented that this was a good analogy for life - how often are we faced with tasks to do or jobs to commence and our first thought is one of negativity or self doubt?  How often once we’ve won the battle of self doubt or general negativity do we tackle the task and little by little the job gets done?  And yet - each time, for some reason we wonder how we’ll ever get the job done..........we’ve really had this analogy hammered home to us this week as we also moved massive piles of weeds and tree trimmings and dead sunflowers from the veggie patch so that we could cover it with plastic - again, the task seemed impossible and yet here I am typing - looking out at a clear veggie patch just about to be covered in plastic!

We have been blessed with the most incredible weather here as we’re packing up - temperatures in the ’30’s / ’80’s each day making it so much easier to retain the “oomph” that usually deserts us as we pack up the house and prepare to leave - on the one hand it makes it so much harder to leave but on the other hand it makes it so much easier to get everything we need to do done.

The “pretend farmer” blog will be on hold for a short while but I do hope to continue blogging my “farming in pots” experiences in Cayman as we happen to be returning for prime tomato growing time having left the most phenomenal crop of tomatoes to feed the land here in France!

We’ve learnt alot in France this summer - we could certainly have done more but we’ve managed to balance a steep learning curve with precious time with friends and family and wouldn’t change that for anything.

We hope to see more of you out here in the future as and when we can return and hope one day I can blog about our real farming experiences!

Thanks for sharing this journey with us.

With love from the pretend farmers

xx