Sharing in our neighbours bounty

Photos above and below (same veggies just 2 slightly different angles to give you a proper idea of the enormous amount of veg we’ve just been given) are of more veggies just dropped off by our neighbours - apparently they don’t like aubergines but grow them (presumably because everyone else does!) and so we have been on the receiving end of their glut of aubergines - this makes a total of over a dozen they’ve given us to date!  In addition, they’ve given us huge amounts of lettuce - 2 different varieties - in addition to a few kilos of green beans.

Simone simply popped round at about 8 o’clock this evening with 2 enormous bags of goodies - we haven’t seen them socially in a while so she said she just wanted to check in and bring some gifts from the garden.

Considering we didn’t make a particularly informed decision about where to buy in France, we do feel so blessed to have chosen such a beautiful spot surrounded by such fabulous neighbours.

Simone and Michel, the couple who are constantly giving us gifts from their garden and who we have over for lunch occasionally, happened to be best friends with the man who owned this house.  When he died, his 3 sons decided to sell and we bought it from them.  As a result, and fortunately for us, Michel and Simone were presumably keen to meet the people who’d bought their friend’s house and it was the first summer we spent here in 2007 when they literally accosted us on the road outside their house with open arms inviting us in for an aperitif - the beginning of what has turned out to be a beautiful friendship.  Rocky at times, a prime example being the afternoon they came round here and Simone accused us of ridding the garden of the beautiful “muguet” that Mme. Ligeois grew so much of.  At the time, I had no idea what “muguet” was and was completely dumbfounded thinking perhaps we’d pulled up a precious crop.  It turns out that “muguet” is lily of the valley and thankfully, this was already gone by the time we took ownership of the property so we weren’t to blame for its disappearance!

In addition, and again in 2007, we signed ourselves up for the “repas des vendanges” which is the wine harvest meal held in the village hall.  We were fortunate enough to be sat next to the butcher and his wife who happen to cater this event every year, only to discover that they’d been scuba diving in Little Cayman in 1998.  Having had to explain to everyone else we’d met exactly where Cayman was, you can imagine our surprise that someone in the village not only knew where it was but had been there!  The butcher and his wife have since become good friends and I must say, it’s no bad thing befriending a butcher!

So it is with some sadness that we’ll be packing the house up in less than 6 weeks to return to Cayman and we do look forward to making this our forever home at some point in the not too distant future - besides, Michel and Simone are keen to have us round for their ‘belotte’ nights which they hold weekly in the winter for all and sundry in the hamlet.  Belotte is a french card game - the closest we have in english is probably bridge - so perhaps we can attempt to learn it whilst spending winter in the caribbean instead so we’ll be ahead of the game upon our return!

Courgette, potato & cheddar bread

This is a super recipe I found in a Good Food magazine, for anyone still struggling to get through their glut of courgettes this summer!  We’ve given at least a dozen of our yellow ones away, we’ve easily enjoyed about a dozen ourselves and we’ve got at least another dozen to harvest with more on the way.......

So of course, I’m still experimenting with recipes so that these lovely courgettes don’t go to waste.  I do so love “shopping” in the veggie patch!

This bread is lovely simply served with a salad and glass of Bergerac rose!

500g (new) potatoes

500g strong flour

7g sachet dried yeast

1 courgette (yellow or green)

85g strong cheddar cheese, grated (I used a local cow’s cheese - Cantal - which worked equally well)

A few thyme sprigs

A few rosemary sprigs (optional)

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing

Boil the potatoes in salted water until just tender, drain and allow to cool a little.

Put the flour and yeast into a large bowl.  When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, coarsely grate half straight into the mix, tossing occasionally to coat in the flour.  This will stop the potatoes sticking in clumps.

Grate in half the courgette, add half of the cheese and strip in half of the thyme leaves.  Add 1 tbsp olive oil mixed with 175ml - 200ml hand-warm water.  Bring the dough together and knead for a couple of minutes.  Put into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 200C.  Grease a 20cm x 30cm tin.  Push the bread dough into the tin firmly, pushing out the air.

Finely slice the remaining potatoes and courgette.  Scatter over the top along with the remaining thyme and rosemary if using - poke in roughly with your fingers so the slices stick out a little.  Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise again for about 45 minutes.

Drizzle with the rest of the olive oil, scatter with the remaining cheese, then cook for 50 mins - 1 hour, until well risen and golden.

Leave to cool, then serve, cut into squares.

Bon Apetit!

Easy homemade bread

We have a rule here - if we want to eat bread we must either walk or cycle to the boulangerie - this either promotes a lack of exercise but leads to eating a lack of bread or leads to eating lots of fresh bread whilst ridding ourselves of a few calories in order to get it!  It seems to work.

That said, it was raining the other day when I wanted some bread and instead of walking or cycling to the boulangerie, I finally decided to make some bread - it’ll take me a while to master a traditional baguette but I’m pleased to report (as pictured above) that I’ve found a fairly foolproof method for basic bread using only 5 ingredients and some water - I’m now keen to try incorporating bacon bits and caramalised onions and turning my basic loaf into a lovely fougasse OR adding walnuts and figs to serve with foie gras - if this does indeed happen - we’re simply going to have to exercise for the sake of exercise as opposed to having to dangle the carrot (in the form of bread) in front of ourselves and our bikes!! :)

This recipe takes approx 2 1/2 hours from start to finish so if you start making it at 10.30 in the morning you can enjoy it with your lunch at 1 o’clock!

Easy Olive Oil Bread
7g sachet yeast

500g strong bread flour (white or wholewheat)

2tsp salt (adds flavour and slows down the rising action of the yeast giving you a stronger dough)

1 tsp sugar (a little sugar or honey feeds the yeast to give it a better rise)

2 tbsp olive oil (a little fat adds flavour and stops the bread from drying out too quickly, although it’s not essential)

Tip the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the yeast, salt and sugar.

Boil the kettle and measure 100ml into a jug.  Top up with cold water to the 300ml mark.  Add the oil.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid all at once.  Mix quickly using your hands to make a soft and slightly sticky dough (white flour will be stickier than wholewheat).  Wipe the dough around the bowl to pick up any loose flour.

Sprinkle the work surface with flour and tip out the dough.  Knead it by stretching it away from you, then folding it in half towards you and pushing it away with the heel of your hand.  Give it a quarter turn and repeat for a few minutes.

When the dough is smooth, put it back into the mixing bowl (I oil the mixing bowl lightly which helps stop it sticking after the first rise), cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 1 hour (no need to find a warm place).  

Tip the dough onto a floured surface, knead to remove air bubbles. Shape into a round, place on an oiled baking sheet and slash the top with a sharp knife.  Cover again and rise for a further 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 240C - Bake for 30-35 minutes until browned and crisp.

Bon Apetit!

The ‘Piggery’

Tony and I went out on Tuesday to get some building bits and pieces so that we were well organised for our stonemasons when they began their work as agreed with them (in English) on ‘Wednesday 24th’.

So it was that we returned on Tuesday 23rd at around 3pm to discover our stonemasons had started bright and early on that day - when I said (in broken french), ‘Oh hello!  We thought you were starting tomorrow’, he replied back in broken english, ‘No - we agreed - the 24th - so here we are’!  I let that go and made a mental note to make all future agreements in both languages because apparently his english numbers are as good as our french ones (not very)!

Thankfully, we hadn’t had a change of heart after our weekend away and we were still keen to press on with the ‘piggery project’ and now, 3 days later, we have a massive hole in the back wall (a quadruple french window/door will be installed eventually) and the makings of a beautiful back terrace being built with stones salvaged from the destruction of the wall.  Photos below are of the back wall when we left Tuesday morning and what it now looks like on Friday morning after just 3 days work - we’re quite impressed with the progress and although Tony thinks I’m a little hasty, I’ve already begun picking out bathroom fixtures and fittings for the future ‘home’ this piggery is to become for visiting friends and family!

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we went out with some friends yesterday afternoon (photo below of Tony with Bob & Sandrine) to visit a beautiful place called Sarlat, a little further south, we had a lovely wander around the town and then popped to a nearby chateau with extensive gardens - every Thursday from 8pm, they open the chateau and gardens to the public and put hundreds of little candles along all the paths and in addition they have I think 4 different groups of musicians playing at various intervals along the paths - at one point there was a group of men playing saxophones, at another place some violinists - there was of course the mandatory group of accordian players and then a few entertainers for the many children who are encouraged to participate in the evenings festivities.  This all goes on until about 1am and so after a lovely afternoon and evening, we returned home at about 2am this morning to a spectacular light show of our own - lots of lightning signalling the incoming stormy weather.

This morning we discovered many of our sunflowers are lying on the ground having been battered by the rain - although aware of the oncoming storm, thankfully we both slept through it and were completely oblivious to the apparent strength of the rain - I suppose there has to be some benefit to getting to bed at 2am!

It’s still raining today so we shall be working indoors and I imagine if it dries up for the weekend, I shall be spending the better part of it in the veggie patch tackling the never ending task of more weeding.

Bon weekend!

Eating (almost entirely) for FREE!

Everyone loves the sound of that and I can confirm that the reality is even more spectacular - photo above is of our lunch today which comprised of roasted courgette soup  with creme fraiche and chives (recipe found on the following link from a previous blog - http://pretendfarmer.blogspot.com/2011/08/veggie-patch-envy.html), the only shop bought additions to the soup were the 125g of frozen peas and the creme fraiche.  The soup was accompanied by croutons made from stale bread which although bought (the intention is to make bread but having such good bread so readily available makes it difficult to make this a priority!!), and a salad comprising of yellow courgettes, cherry tomatoes, onion, basil and feta with an olive oil and balsamic dressing - the feta, olive oil and balsamic were all bought in - everything else was from the garden.

And of course the table was decorated by a beautiful sunflower from my ‘sunflower patch’ - I almost had to do battle with a bee for this particular one but didn’t feel too guilty as there’s plenty more for him to enjoy!!

Our piggery is taking shape and I shall be posting pictures tomorrow of the amazing progress made in just 3 days - watching these guys work is brilliant - it’s a husband and wife team and they’re truly amazing - I’m jolly glad it’s them and not us doing the stonework - they’re salvaging some lovely big pieces of stone from the walls they’re removing in order to build a back patio and fill in some of the existing doorways to make them into windows.  It really will make a spectacular independent cottage once done - we shall let you know once the ‘booking calender’ is open! :)

We’re off with some chums this afternoon for a picnic in what are supposed to be some beautiful gardens not far from here so will be sure to take photos and report back tomorrow - having had such lovely sunshine for so long we’re just hoping our planning a picnic won’t coincide with the weather breaking - on that note we’ve given up with the online weather reports (which have been consistently wrong for the duration of the summer) and will start relying on the farmers who definately seem to know more than the weather men!

Back to Work!

We’ve just returned from 3 fabulous days away with chums who live about 4 hours south of us - it would have been lovely to have spent longer but as we returned as saw the sorry state of the veggies and sunflowers we realised it was a good decision to only go for a short break - it’s been 100 degrees for the past 3 days and without water everything is looking very sad - despite that, we came home and managed to harvest a couple of courgettes, a few tomatoes and were happy to see that there are another half dozen aubergines sprouting and the fig tree is heavy laden with ripening fruit (photo above of some of the figs we’ll be having for breakfast) - this is wonderful to see but means I’ll have to be diligent about the wasp traps so that we can get to the fruit before they do!

The sunflowers (pictured above) and gladioli are all coming out which is a joy to see and our chums very kindly also gave us some of the bounty from their garden - a few bags of green beans, some greek peppers, lots of cherry tomatoes and a variety of herbs so coming back to an empty fridge isn’t a problem and I may even be able to put off a visit to the grocery store for a few days which is always a bonus!

Photos above and below are of us and our chums at the river just by their house and also at the wier which has a chute actually made for canoes to get through but used by many as a water slide either ‘bareback’ or on floats - we took a couple of ski biscuits and enjoyed ourselves immensely yesterday afternoon - the perfect way to escape the heat!

So it is that we’re back on the ‘farm’ hoping the weather cools so I can do some sensible work in the veggie patch - I bumped into the farmer that takes hay from our fields twice a year and asked him if he would give us some manure for our veggie patch - he said ‘of course’ and started up his tractor and off he went - this was a week ago and there’s still no sign of any manure - on the one hand we’re pleased that it wasn’t sitting in the middle of our courtyard as we returned from our short break, on the other hand, we’ve no idea when to expect it or how much to expect - we shall report back once we have a sighting of either the farmer or ‘our’ manure!

On Wednesday the stonemasons begin work on the piggery and we shall be heading to the Mayor’s office to let them know of our plans - we just hope and pray that it’s as straightforward as everyone tells us it is otherwise it may be a bit late with the back wall slated to be “broken” into by close of play Wednesday!

The ‘tournesols’ (sunflowers) are here! :)

Photos above are of our first sunflowers from the 100 or so planted - it’s very exciting but a little disappointing at the same time - exciting because who doesn’t love sunflowers - disappointing because I planted them along this beautiful border on the left side of our courtyard and due to the direction of the sun (duh! I’m not very bright apparently - we live and learn), they are all facing away from the courtyard - however, if I move our outdoor dining table into the vegetable patch we can dine and enjoy the view of the lovely sunflowers, sadly they just refuse to look at us whilst we sit in the courtyard!!

So - next year the sunflowers will be planted along the barn wall so they shall look at us all day but this year I’ll just have to make do with the knowledge that I’ve brought seeds to life  (despite their ungratefulness and refusal to look at me) which is always a wonderful thing!

We spent a lovely evening with some good friends who used to live in Cayman and more recently were traveling around France in an RV and stopped by on their way back to the UK - it was really nice to catch up with them and show them around our corner of France (more precisely our house, courtyard and fields and not much else!).  Rose (pictured above with Tony and below with her husband, Simon and Tony) is a yoga instructor and so before they left today we had an informal yoga class with her which was really enjoyable and much needed since our return to our daily bike rides with a vengeance - we are now well stretched and looking forward to our drive tomorrow a few hours down south to visit some other chums - sadly we’ll only be with them for 3 nights but any longer we just felt wasn’t fair to the veggies who need our love and attention (and our watering)!

I shall be offline until Monday when we return but will be back on with photos of our weekend adventures after that.

We’ve also got some stonemasons starting work on the piggery next Wednesday so will be sure to be updating you on that progress along with photos - in addition, we have to visit the “Mairie” to obtain permission for the works so am sure will have an interesting tale to tell of how we got on there - I would imagine talking to the Mairie about building works will test our french a little more than the odd aperitif or lunch date has so far......

Bon (nearly) weekend!

The ‘chasse’ (hunt) is on...

Today marks the first day of the hunting season in these parts - apparently the season runs from 15th August through to February however each region has specific hunting days and in our region the days to hunt are Wednesdays and Sundays so this morning we were awoken by the sound of gunfire in the surrounding woods, not surprising as we live next door to the president of our local hunting lodge and are normally awake to the sound of his dogs (he has about 20 - mostly daschunds and spaniels) and today, the dogs are presumably in the woods with the hunters tracking some wild boar for dinner!

They’re mostly hunting wild boar and deer - it was interesting to note that up until about a month ago we could spot many deer on our neighbours land but for the past month or so there’s been no sign - perhaps someone warned them they were on the president's land and it might not be the safest place for them to hang out!

We’ve yet to see any wild boar (and are happy to keep it that way) but we do often see evidence of them having been in our fields.

The local butcher doesn’t ever sell wild boar meat and apparently you have to ask at the local hunting lodge if you wish to purchase some and we may just have to pluck up the courage to ask so that we can try the local speciality which is civet - a lovely stew made with wild boar, lots of red wine and other delicious-ness - if we do get our hands on some a recipe will be sure to follow!

Love EVERYTHING french - except their paint!

Tony and I have finally had to admit that much as we love the french themselves (at least all those we’ve met to date), the french way of life, the french places we’ve been, french food and of course french wine, the paint is awful.

We now understand why every house we’ve ever seen is wallpapered and are wishing we were a little more fond of wallpaper ourselves!

We’ve tried the cheapest of the lot and just today having decided that “you get what you pay for”, we splashed out and bought 4 litres of “dulux monocouche” (literal translation is “one coat”) for EUR 43 thinking this would be the answer to all our problems.

We can now report that monocouche actually means you can probably get away with 2-3 coats and so Tony wondered if others had experienced a similar issue so googled “why is french paint so bad” and immediately stumbled upon “britishexpats.com forum” where the topic of discussion was indeed french paint and it would appear we are not alone - one comment on the forum actually says “using dirty dishwater would be more effective than using french paint” and it seems as though certainly all the british expats bring paint with them when they come - incroyable!

So here we are, determined not to let our overly priced paint go to waste - waiting for the first coat to dry so we can put the 2nd coat on in the hopes we might be able to leave it there - I should mention that this is being painted over a ceiling that has already received an undercoat as well as two full coats of even poorer quality paint that Tony’s using now as primer.

Living and learning and wondering if a few gallons of paint will fit in our suitcases the next time we return from Cayman.....!

Upping the ante!

It would appear that the neighbours have won the race (not that they even knew there was one) - and not only won but gone around and done a second lap!

The photo above is of their lovely “haricots verts” - found in a bag hanging on our gate after breakfast.  We were both touched and so promptly went round to say our thank you’s and swap kisses (we’re still undecided as to whether or not there’s a different number for hello and goodbye - we’ve confirmed it’s 4 at the goodbye and we tend to only do 2 at the hello but I must check to ensure we’re not shorting them a couple of kisses!)

Madame was pleased that we got them and commented that she hadn’t wanted to catch me in my pyjamas again hence leaving them on the gate!

So tonight, we shall be dining on duck breast with the very last of the red wine and cherry sauce, potatoes sauteed in duck fat and green beans with toasted almonds - although we thought we might try and stay off the wine during the week and today is the first day of the week, we may have to put that off for another week and enjoy one of the lovely bottles that Mark & Oona kindly bought us the day before they left!

Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow (we’ll get back off the wine..)!

The Waspinator!

Photo above is of a “waspinator” bought for us by my sister when they came to stay.  She’d heard about our wasp problems and had very kindly sent the very tasteful wasp traps over with mum.  The wasp traps have been very active since they’ve been installed but there’s a part of me that does wonder if they actually attract the wasps and hornets to the area given the traps are full of sugar syrup.....

So, Oona very kindly did a little research and came across the waspinators - when we first took it out of the package (literally a piece of wasp nest shaped material that you fill with plastic bags to puff it out and hang somewhere....), we both had our reservations as to the effectiveness of this piece of “equipment”.

So, it is with great joy and humility that I can report that in the week since we installed it outside our front door, next to one of the wasp traps, not only have we not spotted a wasp indoors but the trap has also been spectacularly unsuccessful of late.  The theory is that the waspinator looks like a nest and other wasps will stay away because they’ll think it’s someone else’s nest!  You can see why we might have harboured some skepticism but it does in fact turn out that it’s a genuis idea and, as I type, working well for us.

Having gotten to about 30 degrees yesterday and been very hot and dry all week, it's nice to be able to report we had some early morning rain and it's now a little overcast which of course means weeding weather - although it's a task that desperately needs doing it's not one I relish doing however the satisfaction of having it done is the driving force and especially now we have our first aubergine (photo above), 2 melons (photo below) about a week away from eating and enormous amounts of cucumbers, courgettes (both yellow and green) and tomatoes.

So today Tony will spend the day sanding the plastering he did yesterday (his least favourite job) and I shall spend it in the garden avoiding the creepy crawlies that I am still a little wary of having watched a spider give birth in the veggie patch yesterday and was promptly informed that spiders are in fact friends of the garden so I wasn't allowed to kill it! :(

Tarte Tatin with Caramelised Shallots

Some good friends recently gave me this recipe and funnily enough it calls for 1 1/2 lbs of shallots which happens to be the exact amount given to us by our neighbours yesterday and so today for lunch this is what we had, accompanied by a salad made with their lettuce and tomatoes and our yellow courgettes thinly sliced - all washed down with a glass of Bergerac rose!

50g/2oz buttter

675g/1 1/2lbs shallots, peeled (cut any large ones in half)

2 tbsp (preferably clear) honey

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

a few thyme sprigs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

A little flour for rolling out pastry

250g/9oz puff pastry, defrosted if frozen

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F.  Melt the butter in a frying pan - add the shallots and fry over a medium heat for about 5 minutes or until just beginning to brown - stirring from time to time.

Add the honey and vinegar and fry for a further 5 minutes until the shallots are deep golden, stirring frequently towards the end.  Add the thyme sprigs (I removed the twiggy bits) and season with salt and pepper - leave to cool.

Transfer the shallots to a greased shallow cake tin (20cm/8in in diameter).

Sprinkle the worktop with flour and roll out the pastry a little larger than the tin.  Place the pastry over the shallots and tuck it down the sides of the tin.  Make 2 slits for steam to escape.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is well risen.  Leave to stand for 5 minutes, cover the pan or tin with a plate, invert then carefully turn out onto the plate.  Serve warm or cold.

Bon weekend & bon apetit!

The neighbours are in the lead...

.....by an even larger margin - don’t think we’re going to be able to top this for gifts in one day!!

Above and below are photos of the shallots, onions, garlic, beets and carrots that I’ve just been given when I went to pick up my ‘bag of garlic from the gate’!!

Our friends had other friends over for an aperitif so I joined them and got to wander around their garden during which time Michel harvested multiple carrots and a couple of beets to add to the bag of garlic, shallots and onions that Simone had prepared earlier and left by the gate - Michel also pointed out the ‘haricots verts’ that are just coming in and promised a big bag of them in the days to come.

As some of you already know and for those of you who don’t, we’re (sadly) going back to Cayman in October - sad because we would have liked to continue pretending to farm but secretly pleased to follow the birds to warmer weather for the winter (and beyond).

The good thing (bad thing for us, good thing for the competition I’ve invented with our neighbours) is that we won’t be here to harvest our 120 leeks as well as our 12 brussel sprout plants (which should give us perhaps a couple of hundred sprouts) and so as long as the neighbours like those veggies we may leave them with those gifts - do you think that counts in ‘the game’ - leaving gifts that keep giving even after we’ve gone??!!

So - for the timebeing we shall continue to pretend to farm and continue blogging and only hope that what we’ve learnt will hold us in good stead when we return!