Mourning the loss of 20 beets…

As some of you know, I’ve been computer-less for nearly 2 weeks – as ridiculous as it sounds, I felt like I’d lost a limb – I was surprised how much I do rely on having access to my e-mail and to the internet – it was a good break but I am thrilled to be ‘back’!

Sadly, just before the computer died, I’d finished what I’d hoped would be my next blog – it was titled ‘Snakes, Field Mice and Housemartins’ – suffice it to say I shan’t try to recreate that particular blog but it was inspired when Tony came to me one day and said, ‘Promise you won’t freak out if I tell you something….’ To which I responded, ‘You’ve seen a snake haven’t you?’ – It turns out that yes he had – BUT – one that appeared to be over 50cm long and so my research tells me that it wasn’t an adder (or viper as they’re called in these parts), although we do get adders in this area and it’s reassuring to know that all the pharmacists stock the ‘anti-venom’!!  With regards to the field mice – I was out weeding what will be my ‘sunflower patch’ when I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye – large enough to cause concern and so I shrieked and Tony came running – this happened a few more times until we realized it was simply a field mouse (and actually quite cute) but subsequent shrieks from me when taken by surprise (a few worms have also surprised me when I’m weeding – I’m getting a little better but still need to toughen up quite a bit if I’m to be taken seriously as a pretend farmers wife!) have failed to elicit a response from Tony at all and I’m reminded of the story of the boy who cried wolf and only hope my future shrieks are only caused by field mice and not adders because it’s unlikely that Tony will come to my rescue!

Our vegetable patch seems to be progressing well and we now have,

• 80 sweet corn plants (considered cow food in France and we’ve been warned NEVER to attempt to feed this to a French person who will simply think we’re very strange or English which I suppose is the same thing to them!)
• Lots of tomatoes – about 10 different varieties
• Cucumber (3 different varieties)
• Bok Choy (or pak choy for those in the UK)
• Kale
• Beetroot (3 different varieties)
• Aubergines (including some seeds that were given to us by a friend in Cayman that came from the Brasserie’s garden)
• Courgettes
• Strawberries (3 different varieties)
• Approximately 100 lettuces (6 different varieties)
• Melons (3 different varieties)
• Brussel sprouts
• Cabbage
• Leeks
• Celery
• Red and Yellow onions

And still more to plant……(some photos of the veggie patch below)

We’re trying to do a little exercise every day (to combat the duck we're addicted to!) and so far this is mostly just walking and in order to get us into the habit and tempt Tony away from his tractor I’ve had to make the exercise more enticing and so if the walk takes place in the evening it’s a 4km roundtrip to our local aperitif spot (so we can stop mid walk for a glass of rose!) and if the walk is in the morning it’s the 6km roundtrip to the bakery (the one 4kms away is closed until 11^th June) so we have croissants when we get home – so although I don’t think we’re winning the weight game, I do feel we’re not losing it as badly as we might if we were instead driving for our aperitifs and croissants!

It was on one of these evening walks that we were stopped by our neighbours who asked if we had lettuce in the garden yet – we told them we did but that it was a few weeks or even months away from being big enough to eat so they told us that they had some lovely lettuces and insisted we have some and that they’d leave us a bag on their gate post to collect on our way back from our aperitif.  When we returned there was indeed a bag of freshly uprooted lettuce (about 5 heads) and in addition, they came out to present us with 20 beetroot plants that they’d uprooted from their garden that they wanted us to plant in our garden and so that is why at 9pm on Friday night I was digging 20 holes to plant the beets in – I thought they’d be happier getting in the ground immediately and we were expecting it to be a hot one on Saturday so thought they’d settle in nicely overnight and be ok.

As I type this on Sunday morning, it seems I’ve killed every single beet plant – they don’t appear to have any life left in them at all – admittedly it did reach nearly 100 degrees yesterday which was tough going for us let alone the baby beets trying to get settled in to their new home but the biggest concern of all is that in the course of our conversation with these particular neighbours, I invited them for lunch next Sunday and so now I’m not only having to deal with the sadness of the loss of life of these wonderful plants but trying to figure out how to explain to the neighbours how I’ve managed to kill their lovely beets that looked so alive and vibrant when they gave then to us with specific instructions on how to replant them (which I’m sure I followed to the letter!)

On a more positive note – we managed to get our hands on some fresh asparagus the other day – this is a first for us and it was absolutely spectacular – we enjoyed it both on it’s own and in this lovely recipe given to me by my mother which I’ve included below – definitely best with fresh picked asparagus but would also work with the not so fresh stuff available in Cayman (I can’t believe the difference though to the fresh – it’s like the strawberries we get over here – Tony describes the taste ‘like strawberries that have been injected with strawberry flavouring’!).

Asparagus with lemon vinaigrette

Serves 4

500g/16oz asparagus, trimmed

5 plum tomatoes, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ lemon, juiced

50g/2oz blue cheese or goats cheese or feta, crumbled

small handful of basil leaves to serve

• Blanch the asparagus in boiling, salted water for 1-2 minutes.  Drain then rinse in cold water and pat dry.  Divide the asparagus between 4 plates.  
• In a small bowl mix the tomatoes, shallots, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice and some seasoning,   until combined.  
• Pour the tomato mixture over the asparagus and top with the crumbled cheese of your choice and the basil. 

You can also add smoked pancetta cubes or crumbled crispy bacon and a poached egg to turn it into a meal – serve with a fresh baguette.

Bon Apetit!

In closing, I should let you know why Housemartins were considered worthy of writing about previously – in our absence and since the hail storm last year, our barn roof has been open and it would appear as though an entire village of Housemartins have made their home in the barn – we believe there are now babies waiting for their daily feed as Tony’s been closing up the barn and around 7pm each evening there’s an enormous amount of Housemartin activity and they’re all very noisy – so the other night we were sitting out and Tony said I think they want me to open the barn door – they’re trying to get back in – I was a little skeptical that Tony could speak ‘housemartin’ but humoured him as he went downstairs and opened up the barn door – sure enough only a few seconds after the door was open a dozen or so Housemartins flew right into the barn through the front door so (at least until the tractor gets disturbed by this), we’ve taken to opening the barn door each morning and evening to allow easy access for the Housemartins!  How different our lives have become!