Sauerkraut, Aphids & Dinner for under EUR 5!

Having returned back to the farm and to health (5 days after my ‘birthday boxing day’ I was finally feeling back to normal – what a journey!), I decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to replace some of the ‘good bacteria’ in my body and so made a batch of sauerkraut – it is still fermenting as I type and will continue to do for some time but should be beneficial to eat within the next week or so and we’re both very much looking forward to that – if you’re not a fan of sauerkraut you should definitely try making your own – it is a different animal entirely from the run of the mill store bought stuff and although yes it’s got that sour fermented taste – it really is absolutely delicious served with meat of any kind but especially sausages or home made burgers!

Just some of the many benefits of sauerkraut to the body,

• It is a source of vitamins, C, B & K, it is low in calories and high in calcium and a good source of fiber, iron & potassium
• It contains live (good) bacteria and beneficial microbes and is rich in enzymes and will improve digestion
• It is high in antioxidants – I’ve no idea what they are but I’m told they’re REALLY good!! 

Per Wikipedia the main disadvantage of sauerkraut is that,

“excessive consumption may lead to bloating and flatulence due to the trisaccharide raffinose, which the human small intestine cannot breakdown”

So – not a great side effect but to be fair when fermenting your sauerkraut you are given fair warning – you do want to let it sit and ferment in a well ventilated area of your home as the smell of fermenting cabbage can at times be quite overwhelming!  That said, the side effect is really only in cases of excessive consumption so we’ll have to keep our appetite for sauerkraut in check!!

If interested in making your own sauerkraut, the basic recipe is,

1 medium head of cabbage (white or red or a mix of the 2)

1 tablespoon of unrefined sea salt

Shred the cabbage – place it in a large mixing bowl, then add the salt – take some time to ‘massage’ the salt into the cabbage until the cabbage releases water and it gets quite wet.  Have a clean large glass/mason jar on hand and fill with the cabbage – press the cabbage down until it is submerged in the brine (you should not need to add any water or brine) – you may wish to weight it down as the cabbage will float on the top – cover with a clean cloth so it can breathe and leave it for 1-2 weeks (checking periodically to ensure the cabbage is submerged below the liquid) – once you are happy with the fermented result you can refrigerate it which will halt further fermentation – this will keep for up to 6 months.

Optional additions,

Carrots (shredded)

Onions (thinly sliced)

Garlic (chopped/sliced)

Carraway seeds or Juniper Berries (crushed)

As for the Aphids, we’ve discovered the downside of having a successful vegetable patch is the enormous amounts of creatures that are attracted to it – everything from slugs, to beetles, to worms to white and black fly (not to mention the rabbits!)  But our current problem is the aphids which apparently multiply at a rate of knots and need to be kept in check as soon as you’re aware of them and so we’ve been researching the issue and calling on chums for wisdom and advice and so far have discovered that the best way to initially get them under control is simply spraying with soapy water (just regular dishwashing liquid will do) – however, one friend just provided the following from a magazine she’d been reading and so we’re embarking on this treatment this week so will see how that works,

-    Take 1 unpeeled, crushed head of garlic and steep in 1 litre of boiling water.  Cool & put the ‘garlic water’ in a spray bottle and spray the affected areas.  Apparently if the aphid problem if really bad then you can alternate this treatment with 3 large handfuls of basil also steeped in water and used as a spray.

What I have discovered is that the nicest way of keeping these bugs under control is to add plants to your garden that attract the beneficial insects and this is why you’ll see so many flowers in so many vegetable gardens (certainly here in France) – not simply to decorate the garden but to serve a solid purpose and I’m told that nasturtiums are an excellent plant to rid the garden of aphids and so will be heading out next week to find an enormous amount of nasturtiums to dot around the garden – photos to follow!

And so to leave you with a recipe – and as it’s for pork it will go spectacularly well with the sauerkraut!

We’ve taken to hitting the supermarket once a week when the meat is on special – this was initially challenging for me as I’m used to planning meals quite far in advance and by shopping this way, you do have to be fairly spontaneous with your tastes as you don’t know that day whether you’ll be coming home with chicken, pork, lamb, beef, goose, duck or whatever else may be on offer…anyway, suffice it to say that we came upon a pork roast special the other day and ended up with a lovely piece of pork (no crackling sadly but I suppose that’s healthier!) to roast for just under EUR 6.

We served this with roast potatoes (from our neighbour’s garden), roast bok choy (from our garden) and accompanied by a bottle of our favourite wine from the region that costs us EUR 4,97.  The pork was enough for 2 meals each and so including the rub I’d made (almost exclusively with herbs from the garden), I estimate that my plate that night including the ½ bottle of wine I enjoyed with it, came in at under EUR 5 – incroyable!

Ingredients

¼ cup Thyme, finely chopped

¼ cup Rosemary, finely chopped

2 Tbsp Sage, finely chopped

¼ cup Garlic, finely chopped

Zest of 2 Lemons

1 Tbsp Salt

2 Tbsp Coarse ground Black Pepper

1-2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I used fresh herbs, you can of course use dried but just be warned that dried are more potent and so you will need considerably less but as long as the ratios are the same you should still obtain the same result.

This makes enough for a large roast – I only made half the above amount as our roast was only about 1 ½ lbs bs.

Finley chop all the herbs and garlic – mix well with the lemon zest and salt and pepper (you can do all this in a food processor to make it more paste like) – add the olive oil and mix well.

Make cuts in the meat and poke the rub into the cuts – cover the entire pork with the rub and leave covered in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight.

Roast as normal (I did ours at 180/350 for just over an hour and then let it rest, covered for 20 minutes and it was beautifully cooked – very tender and still juicy).

Bon apetit!

Fun & Frolics in Phenomenal Barcelona

In preparation for our next adventure, Tony set up an automated watering system to ensure the veggie patch was looked after in our absence.  It’s very clever actually he had set up a well pump (operated by a float switch so it would only operate while there was enough water in the well) and timed it to water the vegetables each evening.  And so with the vegetables taken care of, last Wednesday, we packed up the car and left the farm for a visit with some good friends who live on the river Tarn in the Aveyron region.  We arrived at their place late afternoon on the Wednesday and had fun catching up over the obligatory aperitif before dinner!

On the Thursday, we walked to the river and went for a swim (yes – I actually got in the river – photo evidence below – and yes – it was jolly cold!) and generally had a lovely relaxing time so that before we knew it we were waking up on Friday morning – the day the Barcelona adventure was to begin.

And an adventure it was – not least in getting there….due to the rail strike in France (the longest since 2010), our train wasn’t running and there were no other options until Saturday morning so I was a little sad having treated ourselves to first class tickets there and back but as we were meeting Emma and Greg later that day – Emma having flown in from Cayman and Greg from France – it wasn’t an option to delay by a day because of the trains so we made an executive decision and decided to drive to Barcelona instead.

It was a fairly straightforward drive and Barcelona is only about 1 ½ hours from the border and so we arrived slightly earlier than if we’d have taken the train we’d initially booked and were therefore the first to arrive so we checked in, and decided to go for a wander – what a phenomenal city – I’m always astounded at the difference in cultures of all these connected countries – especially coming from sleepy rural France, we were suddenly surrounded by people and it was quite astounding – the vibrant, loud and colourful atmosphere we were thrown into – in rural France you’ll barely see anyone outside after 6pm at night and in Spain you’ll be lucky to book dinner before 9pm at night!

Emma and Greg made it safely to Barcelona later the same evening and so we went out for dinner to celebrate the birthday eve – Mark and Oona were to join us on Saturday afternoon so we didn’t want to overdo it on the Friday – we had a lovely meal of tapas and some local wine and made a decision that we must eat as much ham on this trip as possible – it’s delicious!  Photos of our first night out below…

Saturday dawned and Emma had booked us all on a sequeway tour of the city at 10 so we started with breakfast and presents at 8am – I was thoroughly enjoying being 40.

We had a phenomenal day – after the segueway tour we found a lovely restaurant for lunch – cava sangria and paella was the order of the day for that meal (we decided we’d have to have double ham at dinner as we didn’t have any at lunch) all finished off with a siesta back at the hotel while we waited for Mark and Oona to arrive from the UK.

Sure enough, Mark and Oona made it safely and once checked in we decided to take some champagne (another gift) to the executive lounge to open more gifts that Mark and Oona had brought with them.  We then went out for a wander and for dinner found 2 really good tapas restaurants, one was particularly authentic, a real hole in the wall place with plates of tomatoes and garlic on the table – this had a few of us confused but thankfully, Mark & Oona having spent time in Barcelona and quite a bit of time in Spain in general explained that when the bread arrives you peel the garlic, rub it on the bread and then slice the tomatoes and essentially rub the tomato juice onto the bread to make the traditional ‘tomato bread’ that accompanies all Catalan meals – it was delicious all accompanied by lashings of cured ham, sardines, chorizo and a host of other interesting tapas that seemed to simply keep coming – lovely!

A few days earlier, Tony had remembered that a friend from his Greek days (many moons ago) owned a club in Barcelona and had been in touch – his friend Michel had said we should definitely pop by and so after we’d eaten as much ham as we possibly could we decided to go and find his club.  Amazingly, Michel was arriving as we were and Tony spotted him immediately – bearing in mind Tony and I hadn’t seen him since 1996 – as with everything so far on this fabulous weekend our timing was spectacular! 

Michel welcomed us into the club – gave us a phenomenal spot to commandeer and essentially gave us incredible VIP treatment for the duration of the night with champers coming out at midnight while the DJ played happy birthday – 40 was still looking pretty good and we staggered home (by taxi!) and got to bed around 3.

Sadly my excitement was tempered somewhat when I woke up on Sunday morning incredibly sick – we all put it down to an excess of everything and as I went back to bed the others headed off for the tour that had been booked of ‘Sagrada Familia’, the Gaudi Cathedral which had I been more compos mentis I would have been incredibly sad to have missed but as it was I was just grateful that I could go back to bed – my biggest regret is not what I missed in Barcelona but the time I missed with my sisters and their men – precious time indeed given it was the first time in 3 years that we’d been together and the first time to date that the 6 of us had been together.

I made it out for the ‘last supper’ on Sunday night – Mark and Oona were returning to the UK first thing Monday morning – and it was another lovely evening finished off with a visit to the Magic Fountains at Plaza Montjuic – if you’ve been to Vegas – it’s reminiscent of the Bellagio fountains but in a much more spectacular setting.

I was out of action for most of Monday as well and sadly Greg, Emma, Tony and I said our goodbyes on Tuesday morning and Tony and I drove home which took us 6 hours – we arrived late afternoon on Tuesday and as I sit here typing on Thursday I’m pleased to report I’m feeling human again but whatever it was that hit me, it seriously hit hard and I’m only sad that I did miss out on spending as much time as possible with my sisters but can honestly say that we maxed every moment we did have together and I don’t think we could have talked more, eaten more ham or laughed any harder!

So now, back to pretending to farm which is feeling more and more like real farming as we got back to nearly 100 heads of bok choy (Tony got a bit carried away!), enormous amounts of kale (but thankfully not ready yet – we’ve got to get through some bok choy first), courgettes, cucumbers & tomatoes on the vines and everything looking spectacularly healthy including the most enormous amounts of weeds and so it looks like I shall be waiting for the next sunny day to don the bikini and get back in the veggie patch to tackle the weeds – I think it is the bikini that identifies me as still a pretend farmer (or the wife of one!) in addition to our neighbours comments every time they wander into our veggie patch to let us know that ‘we’re doing it wrong’!  We love the learning curve though and love that our neighbours despite not quite understanding who we are and what we’re doing, are so generous with their knowledge and the offerings from their garden – we are blessed indeed.  And so as I leave you, I am heading out to the garden to pick some arugula (rocket to those in the UK) which we've grown from seed and shall be having for dinner with fresh sardines on the BBQ.  A few photos of what's been growing in our absence.....

Sweet Corn

Chard

Bok Choy

Purple Kale

The first cucumbers

Round Courgettes

Various varieties of lettuce and arugula

Different varieties of beans

The 'dead beets' very much alive!

Wishing everyone good health,

A bientot!

Making Hay while the sun shines…

Proof that hay really is made when the sun is shining - on our walk this morning, I took a few photos of the fields surrounding us – some with freshly cut hay ready to be baled and some with piles of hay bales awaiting collection – photos below!

Yesterday was the long awaited lunch with the neighbours – we welcomed them with a glass of Pimms which they’d never had before and seemed to quite enjoy and then served Roast Chicken with chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes, green beans with almonds, and a mix of veg (carrots, turnips, fennel & onion) that had been roasting alongside the chicken all topped off with home made giblet gravy – it went well although I do think it was an experiment we probably won’t repeat – a one off novelty meal perhaps!!  We finished the meal with cherry crumble and custard (crème anglaise!) – they seemed amused to pour the custard over the crumble and again seemed to quite enjoy it but it was definitely more of a novelty that I think they’re glad they’ve experienced but probably feel no pressing urge to repeat any time soon – perhaps I’m overly sensitive but that’s the impression I got!

But the novelty of the actual food aside, it was a lovely day and true to their ever generous natures, they showed up with 3 flowering potted plants, another 5 heads of lettuce, a 5 lb bag of potatoes dug up from their garden, a bottle of wine, a selection of artisan teas (les anglais love their tea!) and a chunk of ‘brebis’ (a local cheese made from sheep’s milk).  All this was in addition to one of our guests arriving on our doorstep on Saturday armed with a bucket of horse manure and 5 pumpkin plants he’d dug up from his garden and wanted to offer us to put into our garden – he’s 84 and yet wouldn’t go until he’d helped us dig the holes (being certain that they were planted nowhere near the courgettes or cucumbers which wouldn’t be a good idea for all sorts of cross pollination problems that we got a little lost on in French!), filled them with horse manure and then planted the baby pumpkins – these are apparently the traditional large orange type so we look forward to enjoying those later in the year.  Maybe we can introduce them to pumpkin carving for Halloween!  Anyway, spurred on by all the growing activity around us, we’ve also invested in some lovely flowers to make the place more inviting and try and be more French (they really do make an effort with flowers in their gardens, vegetable patches, window sills – it all does look very lovely especially at this time of year) and I was out snapping again yesterday – photos below of some of our flowering efforts.

Tony and I still have a fear of the telephone (so much harder to understand and be understood when you’re not talking in person), and we’ve noticed the increase in sales cold calls that happen always at lunchtime or in the evening – very annoying usually however, having had quite an interesting conversation with one of these people the other day, I’ve taken to answering them (much to Tony’s dismay – he can’t stand the intrusion regardless of the language it’s in!) as a way of practicing my French – so much easier to practice my French (i.e. make a fool of myself) on someone I’m not trying to make friends with, or impress and will likely never meet and who I can always hang up on without feeling any remorse if need be!

My next post will likely be less about farming and French life and more about all things Spanish – to celebrate my 40^th, Tony and I are heading to Barcelona (although reading that the French railways are entering their 6^th day of strikes isn’t the news I want to hear as we’ve got train tickets to get to Spain – ‘on verra’ (we will see..)….) to meet Emma & Greg and Oona & Mark – the first time the 3 sisters will have been together in nearly 3 years and the first time ever that the 6 of us will have been together so lots of cause for celebration – in addition, John & Miriam are also getting married on my birthday (in California) so even more cause for celebration – I see a few glasses being raised on the weekend!  Sadly we won’t be at their wedding but will be wishing them both a long life filled with love and laughter as Emma, Greg, Oona, Mark, Tony and I intend our celebratory weekend to be.