Récolte d'automne

Even though I love summer, there's something very special about autumn, when all the hard work starts paying off and I can finally reap the tasty rewards. Sure, I will miss those hazy, lazy and hot summer days and evenings, but I keep consoling myself with the knowledge that they will return eventually, whilst biting into a juicy tomato. Ooh, delicious!! What was that I was just thinking about...?

The time of many firsts..It's the first time I try to grow pumpkins and I think it's working! We'll get at least one!

Meanwhile, with the tomatoes and courgettes there's no such worries, we'll have more than enough. And maybe we'll have to buy a bigger freezer because even I can't eat courgettes every day.

Our very first tomato this year!!

They come in many different shapes and colours. After all this, who would want to buy tomatoes in the supermarket? It's a pleasure for the eyes, as well as for the tastebuds.

I managed to get three pepper plants growing too, and they are starting to perform. Right next to this one is an aubergine plant (my only one!), and it is yet to be seen if we'll get anything from that. Fingers (and toes) crossed.

This little fella started growing in the middle of the green beans, all on its own. Must be the remnants of the previous occupant's compost pile. But look at it! I counted at least 20 tomatoes and I'm sure there's still more to come. Allez ma petite!!

Another vegetable we had in abundance was the green bean. In my excitement I planted maybe too many and we have been at aloss to think how to conserve all of them, because throwing them in the compost is not an option!

One way is to put them in the jars with water and salt, stick the jars in the sterilizer for three hours and voila! Beans for the winter.

My first ever butternut squash plant, one of my favourite vegetables. I'm well pleased to have managed to grow one. I visit it daily to see that it's still there and ok. I'd rather that it'll finish on my plate and not in the tummy of a rabbit. Isn't it pretty?

We get new courgettes nearly every day, but sometimes couple of days goes by when we've forgotten to pick any and this is the result, a giant. Good for filled courgettes in the oven though!

'Give me the fertilizers or prepare to die!'

My récolte of carrots was a whopping 11! I'm not sure what went wrong there. Well I think I won't bother with them next year. Not the most beautiful selection either but I think it'll be enough for a soup and a salad.

Conserving the precious carrots in the sand until it is time to prepare them.

I've been growing and drying a lot of herbs as well for the winter. Here is some basil and flatleaf parsley.

Brambles grow pretty much everywhere in these parts and I've been enjoying picking them. Maybe more than eating them, which is a bit funny, but there you go. But Mon Cheri loves eating them and has also made some jam. I will make bramble tarts later on, to remind us of the taste of the summer.

At the end of the summer I found couple of good places to pick blueberries and we got enough to make some jam and to eat just as they are.
A bit too late Mon Cheri had a revelation, and he made a type of berry-picking rake, to help us getting as many blueberries as possible. It might be a bit rustic but it does work, I'm proud to say. Oh, it's good to have a handy-man in the house!

What's Cooking in My Kitchen?

I like baking, but the planned thing in my head doesn't always come out as I imagined it. Like the carrot bread here. I was so excited; the carrots I'd grown in the garden and making my own bread with them and using apparently a fool proof recipe...Well, it didn't really work out, so I don't know what that makes me. What's worse than a fool? An imbecile? Or maybe I just need some practise until I get better at it, n'est ce pas?

The carrot bread was a bit hard and lacking salt, though otherwise quite tasty. But somehow it just wasn't get eaten. We munched couple of slices of it, then I put the rest in the freezer and I think it might just end in the poubelle one of these days. Sigh! I'll try again another day.

Moving on to the confiture department. We got some apricots from Mon Cheri's dad; from his garden in the south where it's hot hot hot and the fruits are sweet and delicious. And we made lots of jam, my favourite one! We've also made blueberry, rhubarb and bramble jams but the apricot one is really the best, in my opinion. Mon Cheri prefers blueberry jam, so that's perfect; no fights at breakfast table then.

This will last us for more than a year!

This one is not about cooking but I'll tell you anyway. One morning we were talking with our neighbour Marie-Therese about lavender and how lovely its smell is, and what-do-you-know, in the afternoon she brought us a big bunch of it. Merci! Now I could use in my homely crafts what would have otherwise ended up in a compost.

I took the stalks off, made little bag-things and stuffed them with lavender. These will go into the cupboards with towels and linen and keep them smelling sweet.

In Finland we make this thing called kurkkusalaatti, a kind of cucumber relish, with vinegar and spices, which goes well with meat, for example, and is absolutely delicious. I don't have cucmbers but I do have courgettes galore, so I used them and it worked out just fine. Maybe not quite as delicious but a good substitute anyway.

Suddenly I'm craving for a hamburger.

Another neighbour, Sylvette, gave me several kilos of rhubarb, since she's got way too much and she doesn't really know what to do with it anymore. Throwing it all into a compost is not really an option. So, I have made several crumbles and here's some jam coming on.
Mon Cheri was rather dubious about my rhubarb crumble but after the first taste, all crumbles have vanished in record time.
The proof is in the pudding!

Silence, ça pousse!

Well, the summer has been lovely and hot, as you can see from the colour of the grass. Or what used to be grass! But the main thing is that the plants in the potager have been growing vigorously. We have enjoyed eating the strawberries, salad, mangetout, radishes, beetroots, green beans, courgettes and herbs all summer long and now we are waiting for the tomatoes to ripen. There's going to be quite a lot, although maybe not quite the 50 kilos we got last year. But that was in the south man, can't beat that warmth and sunshine.

On the second 'terrace' I found few other permaculture beds, all ready to go, once I had removed all the weeds and grass growing there. I planted some pumpkin and butternut seeds and few potatoes too. Among the long grass I found some more strawberry plants and potatoes! Let's see if we get anything from those plants.

The courgette seedlings took to their new home like a duck in the water and have been positively flourishing. I've never seen anything like it! We need to look into this permaculture thing and make sure the whole potager is prepared in that fashion for the next summer.
So far we've got 25 kilos of courgettes and they're still going strong. What are we going to do with all of them?

And this is what the other end wad looking like in the beginning of the season. On the left some dwarf beans, then beetroots, salad, strawberries and mangetout.

Among the first things from the garden we ate, are the radishes, mangetout and strawberries. This is the first time that I've managed to grow radishes, so it's quite something. And they were delicious!

The garden needs some colour too, so I planted some more wildflower seeds into this flowerbed.

And here they are,working out much better than in the other, much bigger flowerbed which has a lot of greenery but not much colour.

Yes, I'm talking about you! It's flowers we want. Mind you, the ladybugs seem to love it here, so it can't be that bad. I forgive you. Carry on.

The 27 tomato plants in the greenhouse just weren't enough, so I planted nine more by the stonewall (this photo), three in the potager and six up on the second terrace.  Well, I had planted a lot of seeds from last years' tomatoes and didn't want all the plants to go to waste, and also it will also be an experiment; whether they survive outside on their own, without the protection of the greenhouse, or not. There's also couple of tomatoes that have seeded in the garden on their own, so I guess it'll be fine.

Here they are, little soldiers, doing just fine!

I had also some extra courgette plants and I stuck them next to the stonewall. Maybe not the best soil in there but it's warm and cosy anyway.

My lovely neighbour, Sylvette, gave me some chitted potatoes, which is great because I hadn't gotten around buying any and it was probably too late to do it. So, in they went and we'll be eating at least some of our own potatoes this autumn.

This gives me a nasty flashback into my early childhood, when I had to weed a potato field the size of a half a football field. And with no pay either! Early in the morning when the ground and the plants were still wet with dew. Talking about child labour.
Brrhh, none of that here now. I can weed (or not) in the +32°c heat of the afternoon with a glass of rose in the other hand, if I want to! You've got to profit of being an adult, n'est-ce pas?

This little corner had a loooads of greenery for the longest time too, but then I cut some rhubarb sticks to make a rhubarb crumble and things started happening.

Much better now when the flowers have more light and can really get into the business of growing.

Somebody said in the beginning of the summer, 'Nah, the sunflowers won't grow in here, it's too cold.'
Eh, voila! Proved them wrong!

That's more like it, colour!

Mon Cheri's favourite, tagetes, african marigolds.

And sometimes the weeds that grow in the middle of the lawn, seem to be the prettiest things of all.