Thursday 26 July 2012
We have moved to Montrouch Organic
Hi Folks,
We have finally got a home of our own, with a lovely sustainable, solar powered hoster.
As we have now gone into full on organic herb production we thought it time to have our own blog and web site for the herbs, the as yet uncompleted Gites and life in general.
We can now be found at www.MontrouchOrganic.com
Hope to see you soon
Monday 30 April 2012
Lagrasse Caveat venditor
Lagrasse Caveat venditor: A old article from Midi-Life
The horse-borne traveller coming upon Lagrasse, a century ago, would halt astride the abrupt and draughty promontory called the Bouche au Cers , bulwark against tantrum gales. Before him, spanned by a wide-arched bridge , stout and svelte, the river Orbieu running its course between the mediaeval bourg, confined entirely within its occasionally toppling fortifications, on the rive droite, and a sumptuous abbey on the rive gauche. The whole surveyed by an imposing, if unfinished, belltower . Beyond the village, a riant valley with olive groves, vineyards and wheatfields, worked high up the flanks. Further south, the jostling peaks of the Corbières and, on a clear day, the far Pyrenees.
Today's car-borne visitor will survey from the same vantage point--and all things being, it is claimed, relative--a similarly pleasing prospect, qualified now by a second elegant bridge, but sundry less harmonious developments, too, residential and infrastructural, east and south of the walls: a new gendarmerie adjoined by a singularly characterless housing estate, a school, barns, wine cellars and homes, the village winery at the southern head of the village, another cramped housing estate close by, and, most recently of all, a decidedly up-market development on the hillside above it. Scattered homes are gradually peppering the immediate environs, here, there and everywhere. The olive-groves have all but gone , the once endless carpet of vines is chequered with fallow--some already reverted to garrigue scrubland--and invasive Aleppo pines [Pinus halapensis] clad the heights.
Lagrasse, at the turn of the century , was still a fairly bustling chef-lieu and administrative centre, though it had already seen better days. It had a population of 1,125, virtually unchanged since the Revolution. It boasted a bureau de bienfaisance or charitable office taking care of the destitute, a rescue and emergency service, and a fanfare municipale républicaine--the village brass band; a tax inspector, a rate collector, a municipal clerk, a postmaster and a garde champêtre ; a justice of the peace, a clerk of the court, a bailiff, and a notary. The Mayor (Calvet) and his deputy (Mailhac) presided over a ten-man council (Camps, Oulé, Toulza, Belly, Castel, Roques, Ferrié, Nouguiès, Sicre, and Falet).
Our equestrian traveller could have had his mount shod and fed, and his saddle mended; he could have put up at the Hôtel parisien or the Restaurant Africain, and sipped absinthe at the Café National, the Café de la Lyre or the Café de la Ville. Around him, artisan, merchant and shopkeeper (see table), going about their business.
Figure I
Services in Lagrasse:
Back in 1906, our traveller would have watered his horse at one of three municipal drinking troughs. For the denizens, a water-mill at the weir 1.5 km upstream fed three fountains. The mill was replaced in the early 1920s by an electric pump. In the 1950s, many smaller private homes still used their own wells, usually sunk within their four walls, from 3-4 up to 10 metres deep. The larger residences in the village were the first to boast running water in this decade. The village lanes and thoroughfares were cobbled and smaller byways took the form of packed earth tracks. The cobbles in the Place de la halle were embedded in sand, and known by local anglers as rich nurseries for bait-worms. Such was the plunder and displacement of the cobbles, that they had to be reset in mortar. Macadam was introduced to Lagrasse in the 1950s, starting with the exiguous Rue des Remparts, behind the Promenade. Vehicular traffic was very sparse in the 1950s, though it had increased since pre-war days, when there was just one camionnette in the village. The streets enjoyed public lighting by electricity back in 1906, and by the 1950s most dwellings were supplied with power.
By all reports, though, there were no foreign foreigners in the village, and only very few French foreigners: just the gendarmes, the tax inspector and the fiscal registrars, the postal employees, the schoolteachers, and other fonctionnaires.
------- II -------The second or holiday home phenomenon has gathered considerable momentum since the late 1960s, less here than in many or most other southerly parts of France--and far less than on the Côte d'Azur or in the Lubéron, for example-- but noticeable nonetheless. It is a factor in the decreasing proportion of born-'n-raised "lagrassiens" in the village, now estimated at about 20%.
The new part-time population brings with it other side-effects. On the plus side, there has been considerable, and it would seem contagious, investment in the physical fabric of the village, and its often historic bricks and mortar. Prominent properties, many of them tumbledown and some even close to ruination, have been purchased and lovingly--and often expensively--rebuilt, repaired and rehabilitated. Façades have been repointed, arches restored, and cracked lintels replaced. One spin-off seems to have been a renewed local pride in the overall aspect of the village. Tattered parking lots, installed wherever some decrepit old hovel had been demolished, have been spruced up. Grubby lanes have been resurfaced. On the plus side, too, hills and environs have been reforested, and many trees planted (photos taken a century ago show a more or less bald landscape, somewhat depressing by our present-day yardstick). There seems also to be a keener and more visible appreciation of vegetation in general, conveyed by a collective, but in no way regimented, effort to add embellishment by the introduction of a much wider range of flora--an aesthetic development that is certainly not in line with traditional peasant thinking. Not for nothing does Lagrasse qualify as "Un des plus beaux villages de France".
Sixty some holiday homes [cf. Fig. III] means 200 to 300 extra residents in the summer months. Factor in their exponential families and other visitors, and passing tourists in July and August, and the village's summer population probably rises to almost twice its wintry 700 souls. All this is, as they say, good for business. And when the merchants are flush, the municipal coffers may benefit fiscally, too.
In this respect, however, a paradox rears its head. A century ago, the village was a somewhat autonomous and more or less self-perpetuating hub, where the range of activities had a more intrinsic and organic sense than is the case today. True, there was, then, a layer of existence that was bordering on the feudal (as everywhere in Europe at the turn of the century), but it seems possible that the structure of services offered a wider gamut of real employment, and a more meaningful possibility of fulfilment and integration. Nowadays, the various activities being carried on in the village have a more speculative and artificial character, more to do with consumption than any constructive or contributive spirit . This reality seems clearly illustrated by the nature of the new rash of shops, and the merchandise they offer--targeted essentially at the passer-by, no longer at the resident. In a nutshell, a village that has apparently become considerably more well-to-do is actually functioning less healthily in its viscera--and this tallies with this other imminent turn-of-the-century, where virtuality is a powerful buzz-word, among others...
Another more salient by-product yet of this 'progress' is, needless to add, its encroachment on the landscape. I confess, in passing, to a particular bête noire: those who, for their own--often considerable--gain, and with scant regard for the arena of their activities or those unhurriedly inhabiting it, see fit to accelerate the already brisk natural pace of development, progress, call it what you will. In these parts, furthermore, where the stock of available property is now becoming scant--especially in sought-after villages, with a certain cachet, like Lagrasse--it would seem that those involved as intermediaries in the sale of existing homes may now be switching their rapacious attention to land development schemes, pure and simple. That some of these realtors and riffraff agents are foreign nationals with visitor status does not heighten one's store of affection for their meddlesome doings. When a time-honoured hillside or pleasant riverain lea is earmarked as the next subdivision, and in due course defaced, more often than not, by ill-conceived dwellings , the conversion of the countrysdide is irrevocable: hill and lea will never revert to the natural state (cf. the Côte Vermeille , the Spanish costas, western Eire, Aegean Turkey, and points north, south, east and west the world over).
Second homes offer an illusory populousness. In reality, they have the effect of accentuating the phantom-like climate of places so afflicted in the nine or ten out-of-season months. Houses--often, as we have mentioned, a village's more salient properties (maisons de maître, and the like) and architectural gems--stand shuttered and gaunt. Shops and boutiques are inevitably spawned (see fig.1) to cash in on the summer influx, but close down in September, as soon as the vacationers have left: more shuttered façades along streets now more lifeless than when once lined with dark-roomed homes.
A somewhat Pavlovian reaction on the part of some second home-owners, often from points north, who think they are perhaps in chic Provence or Malibu, seems to involve the need to install a swimming-pool, come what may. Pools, fancy portals, gardens and yards more manicured than is the local wont, and Toyota Landcruisers... all are so many signals to the ubiquitous larcenous fringe, a new intrusion that affects everyone in the locality, rich and poor alike.
For all the taste, lastly, that is mercifully demonstrated in the restoration of existing, older homes, there is conspicuous evidence of not a little ostentation in certain new homes . Several forseeable look-at-me eyesores now stand on the hill above the Lagrasse village winery. They are owned by Germans, Britons, French from elsewere, and locals, and come complete, needless to add, with pool, some in the mock-Riviera, sun-cult, leisure-in-the-Midi style, others in the spirit of high-design, totally at odds with the environs.
***
All these factors combined mean that prices are, as they say in realtor-speak, stable, which means they are on the up. This makes it hard(er) for young local couples to set up home here. It is, arguably, in the hands of young(er) residents that the future of places like Lagrasse hangs. If a population becomes too predominantly geriatric and absentee, now matter how wealthy, its habitat will inevitably atrophy. Then the second home-owners will sell up--at a handsome profit if they get the timing right--and run... to another Lagrasse--if they can find one that has not suffered the same fate.
'via Blog this'
"I cannot avoid the conviction that no innate tendency to progressive development exists"
Charles Darwin, 1872
Charles Darwin, 1872
by Simon Pleasance, Ribaute, canton of Lagrasse
The horse-borne traveller coming upon Lagrasse, a century ago, would halt astride the abrupt and draughty promontory called the Bouche au Cers , bulwark against tantrum gales. Before him, spanned by a wide-arched bridge , stout and svelte, the river Orbieu running its course between the mediaeval bourg, confined entirely within its occasionally toppling fortifications, on the rive droite, and a sumptuous abbey on the rive gauche. The whole surveyed by an imposing, if unfinished, belltower . Beyond the village, a riant valley with olive groves, vineyards and wheatfields, worked high up the flanks. Further south, the jostling peaks of the Corbières and, on a clear day, the far Pyrenees.
Today's car-borne visitor will survey from the same vantage point--and all things being, it is claimed, relative--a similarly pleasing prospect, qualified now by a second elegant bridge, but sundry less harmonious developments, too, residential and infrastructural, east and south of the walls: a new gendarmerie adjoined by a singularly characterless housing estate, a school, barns, wine cellars and homes, the village winery at the southern head of the village, another cramped housing estate close by, and, most recently of all, a decidedly up-market development on the hillside above it. Scattered homes are gradually peppering the immediate environs, here, there and everywhere. The olive-groves have all but gone , the once endless carpet of vines is chequered with fallow--some already reverted to garrigue scrubland--and invasive Aleppo pines [Pinus halapensis] clad the heights.
Lagrasse, at the turn of the century , was still a fairly bustling chef-lieu and administrative centre, though it had already seen better days. It had a population of 1,125, virtually unchanged since the Revolution. It boasted a bureau de bienfaisance or charitable office taking care of the destitute, a rescue and emergency service, and a fanfare municipale républicaine--the village brass band; a tax inspector, a rate collector, a municipal clerk, a postmaster and a garde champêtre ; a justice of the peace, a clerk of the court, a bailiff, and a notary. The Mayor (Calvet) and his deputy (Mailhac) presided over a ten-man council (Camps, Oulé, Toulza, Belly, Castel, Roques, Ferrié, Nouguiès, Sicre, and Falet).
Our equestrian traveller could have had his mount shod and fed, and his saddle mended; he could have put up at the Hôtel parisien or the Restaurant Africain, and sipped absinthe at the Café National, the Café de la Lyre or the Café de la Ville. Around him, artisan, merchant and shopkeeper (see table), going about their business.
Figure I
Services in Lagrasse:
| Service | 1906 | 1950 | 1997 |
| General (novelty) store | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hotels-restaurants, bistrots | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Cafés | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Groceries | 4(?) | 5 | 2 |
| Bakeries | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Butcher's shops | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Saddler-harnessmaker | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Cartwright-blacksmith | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Hairdressers | 4 | 3 | (?) |
| Fodder-seedsmen | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tinsmith-lamplighter | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Watchmaker-jeweller | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Locksmith | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Ironmongeries | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Plumber | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Garage mechanics | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Wine Merchants | 2 | 1 | 2(?) |
| Housepainter-glazier | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Pharmacy | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Carpenters-joiners | (?) | (?) | 2 |
| Craftsmen | (?) | (?) | 9 |
| Shops | (?) | (?) | 5 |
| Estate Agents | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Physician | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Oil Mills | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Dentist | 0 | 0 | 1 |
There were three major fairs in Lagrasse 100 years ago: the Fête des Cochons in late January, the Foire de Lagrasse on 12 August, and the Fête des Comportes , in late October. Today, the summer months see an occassional Wine Fair, a Potters' Fair for the past dozen or so years, and latterly, since 1995, the Banquet du livre, a book fair.
Back in 1906, our traveller would have watered his horse at one of three municipal drinking troughs. For the denizens, a water-mill at the weir 1.5 km upstream fed three fountains. The mill was replaced in the early 1920s by an electric pump. In the 1950s, many smaller private homes still used their own wells, usually sunk within their four walls, from 3-4 up to 10 metres deep. The larger residences in the village were the first to boast running water in this decade. The village lanes and thoroughfares were cobbled and smaller byways took the form of packed earth tracks. The cobbles in the Place de la halle were embedded in sand, and known by local anglers as rich nurseries for bait-worms. Such was the plunder and displacement of the cobbles, that they had to be reset in mortar. Macadam was introduced to Lagrasse in the 1950s, starting with the exiguous Rue des Remparts, behind the Promenade. Vehicular traffic was very sparse in the 1950s, though it had increased since pre-war days, when there was just one camionnette in the village. The streets enjoyed public lighting by electricity back in 1906, and by the 1950s most dwellings were supplied with power.
By all reports, though, there were no foreign foreigners in the village, and only very few French foreigners: just the gendarmes, the tax inspector and the fiscal registrars, the postal employees, the schoolteachers, and other fonctionnaires.
Figure II
Lagrasse: population figures
Lagrasse: population figures
| 1789 | 1936 | 1954 | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 |
| 1147 | 1006 | 738 | 708 | 665 | 623 | 711 | 725 |
In the 1950s, so far as Charles Alquier and others can recollect, there were no house-hunting foreign nationals in the village, but there was some incidence of exogamous marriage. Tourism, as such, barely existed. Any visitors there were, tended to be for elderly relatives who were patients in the Abbey. It would seem that the first foreign nationals to purchase a house in Lagrasse were from the Netherlands, some time in the mid-1960s. Another Dutch family purchased an outlying homestead 2 km west of St. Pierre-des-Champs at about the same time. A description of Lagrasse drawn up by an unidentified agency in Béziers, includes the following table for dwellings:
Figure III
Housing stock, Lagrasse, 1962-1997:
Housing stock, Lagrasse, 1962-1997:
| 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1997 | |
| Principal residences | 218 | 214 | 224 | 251 | 266 | |
| Second/Holiday homes | 29 | 48 | 55 | 75 | 61 | 63+ |
| Total stock | 247 | 262 | 279 | 326 | 327 |
------- II -------
The new part-time population brings with it other side-effects. On the plus side, there has been considerable, and it would seem contagious, investment in the physical fabric of the village, and its often historic bricks and mortar. Prominent properties, many of them tumbledown and some even close to ruination, have been purchased and lovingly--and often expensively--rebuilt, repaired and rehabilitated. Façades have been repointed, arches restored, and cracked lintels replaced. One spin-off seems to have been a renewed local pride in the overall aspect of the village. Tattered parking lots, installed wherever some decrepit old hovel had been demolished, have been spruced up. Grubby lanes have been resurfaced. On the plus side, too, hills and environs have been reforested, and many trees planted (photos taken a century ago show a more or less bald landscape, somewhat depressing by our present-day yardstick). There seems also to be a keener and more visible appreciation of vegetation in general, conveyed by a collective, but in no way regimented, effort to add embellishment by the introduction of a much wider range of flora--an aesthetic development that is certainly not in line with traditional peasant thinking. Not for nothing does Lagrasse qualify as "Un des plus beaux villages de France".
Sixty some holiday homes [cf. Fig. III] means 200 to 300 extra residents in the summer months. Factor in their exponential families and other visitors, and passing tourists in July and August, and the village's summer population probably rises to almost twice its wintry 700 souls. All this is, as they say, good for business. And when the merchants are flush, the municipal coffers may benefit fiscally, too.
In this respect, however, a paradox rears its head. A century ago, the village was a somewhat autonomous and more or less self-perpetuating hub, where the range of activities had a more intrinsic and organic sense than is the case today. True, there was, then, a layer of existence that was bordering on the feudal (as everywhere in Europe at the turn of the century), but it seems possible that the structure of services offered a wider gamut of real employment, and a more meaningful possibility of fulfilment and integration. Nowadays, the various activities being carried on in the village have a more speculative and artificial character, more to do with consumption than any constructive or contributive spirit . This reality seems clearly illustrated by the nature of the new rash of shops, and the merchandise they offer--targeted essentially at the passer-by, no longer at the resident. In a nutshell, a village that has apparently become considerably more well-to-do is actually functioning less healthily in its viscera--and this tallies with this other imminent turn-of-the-century, where virtuality is a powerful buzz-word, among others...
Another more salient by-product yet of this 'progress' is, needless to add, its encroachment on the landscape. I confess, in passing, to a particular bête noire: those who, for their own--often considerable--gain, and with scant regard for the arena of their activities or those unhurriedly inhabiting it, see fit to accelerate the already brisk natural pace of development, progress, call it what you will. In these parts, furthermore, where the stock of available property is now becoming scant--especially in sought-after villages, with a certain cachet, like Lagrasse--it would seem that those involved as intermediaries in the sale of existing homes may now be switching their rapacious attention to land development schemes, pure and simple. That some of these realtors and riffraff agents are foreign nationals with visitor status does not heighten one's store of affection for their meddlesome doings. When a time-honoured hillside or pleasant riverain lea is earmarked as the next subdivision, and in due course defaced, more often than not, by ill-conceived dwellings , the conversion of the countrysdide is irrevocable: hill and lea will never revert to the natural state (cf. the Côte Vermeille , the Spanish costas, western Eire, Aegean Turkey, and points north, south, east and west the world over).
Second homes offer an illusory populousness. In reality, they have the effect of accentuating the phantom-like climate of places so afflicted in the nine or ten out-of-season months. Houses--often, as we have mentioned, a village's more salient properties (maisons de maître, and the like) and architectural gems--stand shuttered and gaunt. Shops and boutiques are inevitably spawned (see fig.1) to cash in on the summer influx, but close down in September, as soon as the vacationers have left: more shuttered façades along streets now more lifeless than when once lined with dark-roomed homes.
A somewhat Pavlovian reaction on the part of some second home-owners, often from points north, who think they are perhaps in chic Provence or Malibu, seems to involve the need to install a swimming-pool, come what may. Pools, fancy portals, gardens and yards more manicured than is the local wont, and Toyota Landcruisers... all are so many signals to the ubiquitous larcenous fringe, a new intrusion that affects everyone in the locality, rich and poor alike.
For all the taste, lastly, that is mercifully demonstrated in the restoration of existing, older homes, there is conspicuous evidence of not a little ostentation in certain new homes . Several forseeable look-at-me eyesores now stand on the hill above the Lagrasse village winery. They are owned by Germans, Britons, French from elsewere, and locals, and come complete, needless to add, with pool, some in the mock-Riviera, sun-cult, leisure-in-the-Midi style, others in the spirit of high-design, totally at odds with the environs.
***
All these factors combined mean that prices are, as they say in realtor-speak, stable, which means they are on the up. This makes it hard(er) for young local couples to set up home here. It is, arguably, in the hands of young(er) residents that the future of places like Lagrasse hangs. If a population becomes too predominantly geriatric and absentee, now matter how wealthy, its habitat will inevitably atrophy. Then the second home-owners will sell up--at a handsome profit if they get the timing right--and run... to another Lagrasse--if they can find one that has not suffered the same fate.
'via Blog this'
Friday 27 April 2012
Three Organic Alternatives to Hormone Rooting Powder
Organic growers don’t use hormone rooting powders for a couple of reasons, firstly the most important active ingredients are synthetic plant hormones, produced in chemical plants nor real plants, and secondly many contain fungicides to prevent infection which can damage plant growth and yield.
One of the most important active synthetic ingredients of hormone rooting powder is Indole-3-butyric acid, fortunately this nippily named plant hormone is also naturally present in weeping willows.
Willow Tea
A willow tea can be made using either the bark of a willow, or preferably, as it doesn’t harm future growth the free spring yellow branch shoots. There are a number of ways to make the tea but this is the one I find works best.
Simply cut the shoots into 3 centimetre lengths in warm water for a good 48-72 hours, leave for a day and then dip your cuttings in the tea and plant. Put in the fridge the mixtue seems to last for three to four days.
Honey Tea
A Honey tea is also a great way to get cuttings to take off, take a spoon of organic honey, dissolve it in a cup of warm water, leave in a dark place until cool and then use as with the willow tea. I don’t quite know why this works, I think it probably has something to do with honey being a natural antiseptic, and preservative. I use it on those herbs I have had problems with disease wise and anecdotal evidence from last years shows it seems to reduce rust on my mint. Warm the tea is great for sore throats as well, particularly with a dash of lemon and a splash of whisky.
Give it a lick
Saliva, literally licking the cutting end before planting some says has similar effect as honey tea, probably because saliva is an antisceptic. Personally I haven’t tried this one on large enough a scale to make any reasonable comment. Do 1,000 rosemary cutting and you will have one dry mouth, let alone the burning from all those traces of essential oil.
There are a number of commercially produced organic rooting powders from large scale horticultural suppliers. Vitaxand Sinclair, but rather cough up hard cash why not have a go at making your own?
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Freezing Weather Delay
Finally, Finally the first planting of the year.
The weather has been just atrocious this winter, -15 with an added 5 degree of wind chill.
Much that was once alive has died, Cistus, Lavanders, Oak and Ash trees, even on of the huge Pines that shelters the Domaine.
But on this first warm day the planting goes ahead.
A new batch of organic seeds from Agrosems.com - it's way cheaper to buy in bulk.
So the first wave is in, PERSIL Commun and PERSIL Géant d'Italie.
CIBOULETTE Commune
Lovely Lovely Basil BASILIC Genovese and BASILIC Citron
I've seeded up 500 THYM Ordinaire but it is at least two weeks late, let's see how they do.
Hopefully the Coriander has made it through the frosts, bit touch and go in many cases sadly.
On the plus side the Sage and Rosemary cuttings rolled through the winter with a 'Call that Cold do you Buster' smirk.
The French Tarragon always likes to be challenge, but spilt one of the mother plants in 25 pots and will be interesting to see what takes and what goes and joins the Dragon in the Sky.
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Ordering organic seeds locally
I've just spent a morning planning this year's vegetable garden.
This year for most of my new seeds I'll be buying from Graines delpais http://www.grainesdelpais.com/
This is a local organic seed company over in the Razes. I met them at the Couiza organic show- home of Nature et Progres. Most of their seeds are produced locally, with a few growers in the Herault and some in Le Drome.
What I love about them, apart from being organic and local, is the wide range of local specialities. Plants that are from the region surely have a higher possibility of survival?
We will be using a combination of areas round the house.
The vegetable patch for the peas, feves, beans and toms- I have been using a system called BRF, which is basically a thick layer of wood chips chipped on the day of cutting and applied. This seems to slowly increase the depth and organic matter in the soil, protect the plants from the cold and also to seal in moisture in the summer. There is a problem with this system as the early days of decomposition suck up nitrogen from the soil. I have tried to deal with this by laying down first a thick coating of compost and then the wood chips. It seems to be working so far. But it is a four year process and time, as they say, will tell.
This system seems to work with my no dig approach to the vegetable beds, but as I say early early days.
I plan to get them in nice and early so that we will be picking them early summer before the heat and dryness really kick in.
The varieties I have chosen are:
Peas- Petite Provencal
Feves- d'agualdue- longue cosse
Haricot- vert fin Fin de Bagnol for their long fine fruit and Coco Blanc- will try drying them
I plan to get them in nice and early so that we will be picking them early summer before the heat and dryness really kick in.
The rest of the vegetable garden will be taken up with toms- and of course the asparagus patch, which should be coming into full production this year- fingers crossed.
For the tomatoes I've gone for a local variety, Labguedocienne.
A long thin variety called Roma, which always look great on a plate and also good for bottling, and for sauces.
Last but not least a cherry tomatoe called Met de Mexique, which works wonderfully in a salad of rockette and roast pine nuts with slivers of parmisan cheese and Vincent's olive oil.
Going to try and grow them all from seeds this year. I didn't have much luck last year with seeds and ended up buying plants but found they did bring some diseases with them. So this year I am going to bring the seed trays in doors and hope th heat of the house works its magic on them.
Old paraffin containers for the thirsty chaps- placed suitably near the house for watering with grey water from the sink and shower. This is a costly version as I fill them with new soil for the carrots and spuds, but the spuds last year were delicious. I used a system of adding more soil as they grew- just like those fancy potato grow bags thingies. Worked a treat, and the soil was then thrown onto Caroline's flower beds and herb garden. Note to the wise don't throw potatoes soil onto an area that you intend to use next year for tomatoes- they don't get on at all.
The plastic tubs will be getting the cucumbers, courgettes, potatoes, and carrots, and maybe some cherry toms.
The third area is what we call the kitchen garden- although it isn't anywhere near the kitchen. Its a protected area surrounded by a stone wall, the soil is poor but we are working on that- and it is close to the washing machine so handy for watering with all the water from the machine which we capture in two black plastic bins.
This is for the herbs, in addition to the herbs in old wine barrels near the front door.
I love coriander but find that it tends to go to seed very quickly in summer. The Vietnamese guy in Lezignan market gave me a good hint, to grow it over the winter, and this works a treat. I have two barrels of it near the front door and now eat it all winter, it makes a lovely green and fresh addition to winter soups- carrot and coriander being my favourite. What is more it survives intense frosts and being buried under snow.
We have a lovely bay tree in the kitchen garden which is wonderful for stews.
Mint, parsley, rosemary, thyme, lavender all grow around the kitchen garden, the oregano may have survived- not sure yet.
My lovely friend's Ken and Jon bought us a French tarragon plant last year which was superb- I had mistakenly planted Russian tarragon which while looking the part had no flavour at all. It has died back over winter but I am hoping that it will come back as strong as ever in the Spring. Chicken just doesn't taste the same without a tarragon cream sauce. Mind you a New Year's resolution was to eat a lot less meat, and then to try and eat organic meat, so we will see. Though Caroline has been talking about getting chickens for their eggs after she had tummy upsets from eating non-organic eggs twice over the winter. Maybe I'll get to eat some of them- oh how I remember sitting in front of the telly as a kid with a blanket over our legs as we plucked chickens. Not one of my favourite childhood memories I have to admit. Think its more likely that we will stick to their eggs.
We have chives everywhere, don't know where they come from or how they survive but just happy they do.
Caroline wants more verbena and mint for her tea so will be planting up a couple of barrels of them for near the front door so they are easy to water- for the mint, and easy to pick for her morning cuppa.
I have twenty strawberries under plastic at the moment and working out the best time to bring them out, last years crop was minimal so somewhere near to the house, in much bigger pots and regular watering- but where oh where I am not sure.
Last but not least I will be putting in salad leaves around the garden. I try and use Charles Dowding (He of the No Dig Organic Gardening book) approach of picking their leaves rather than the whole lettuce to give a colourful mixed salad.
So that's it. I thought I had a plan that was focussing in a minimal crop span, but now that I have written everything down it looks more wide ranging than I originally thought.
Fingers crossed for a good season.
Monday 16 February 2009
A bleak future for Eco-friendly walking tours in France? - Natural Choices
A bleak future for Eco-friendly walking tours in France? - Natural Choices
When we think about rail in France the first thing that pops into our minds is the wonderful TGV zipping through the countryside at highspeed. Indeed the TGV where it is in place is superb, and I am always pleased to see the First Class section packed with pensioners use their railcards to visit family and friends. Howevere since the partial privatisation of SNCF the limited investment in the rail service has been concentrated on the major commuter lines. More and more of the RER (Regional services) and smaller lines have seen their services cut back, or smaller lines closed down. Even major lines, such as the ectension from Orange through to the Pyrenees to link up with the huge investment Spain is putting in place to its high speed network is looking more and more like a pipe dream.
Train travel is one of the joys of France, the smaller lines picking their way through the countrysude linking up market downs such as Lezignan with Perpignan, Montpellier, Toulouse and beyond could rapidly become a thing of the past. In my mind their should be more to the ethos behind a social trasnport system than shareholder value.
When we think about rail in France the first thing that pops into our minds is the wonderful TGV zipping through the countryside at highspeed. Indeed the TGV where it is in place is superb, and I am always pleased to see the First Class section packed with pensioners use their railcards to visit family and friends. Howevere since the partial privatisation of SNCF the limited investment in the rail service has been concentrated on the major commuter lines. More and more of the RER (Regional services) and smaller lines have seen their services cut back, or smaller lines closed down. Even major lines, such as the ectension from Orange through to the Pyrenees to link up with the huge investment Spain is putting in place to its high speed network is looking more and more like a pipe dream.
Train travel is one of the joys of France, the smaller lines picking their way through the countrysude linking up market downs such as Lezignan with Perpignan, Montpellier, Toulouse and beyond could rapidly become a thing of the past. In my mind their should be more to the ethos behind a social trasnport system than shareholder value.
Thursday 21 February 2008
Fete de Bigarade- LaCaunette, 23rd - 24th Feb
La Bigarade, la fête de l'oranger en Minervois
It's the Fete de Bigarade this weekend at La Caunette in the Minervois, two days of celebrartion of a rather bitter orange that grows in the microclimate around La Caunette, with 30 or so local flower, tree and herb growers. Look out for the amazing Iris people from the Bassine de Thau, there are some great olives from Roussillon, as well as a range of herbs, roses, flowers. There are also a series of talks on growing olives, figs, making essential oils, and growing truffle infected oaks. Most of the talks are on Sunday. As usual with a good local Fete there is a parade of old fellas dressed up strange faux 18th century dress- the companions of the bitter orange, and a hearty lunch to be had on site.
We will be there on Saturday to try and find some interesting varieties of local herbs and flowers, as well as to nose around and chat.
It costs three euros to get in.
It's the Fete de Bigarade this weekend at La Caunette in the Minervois, two days of celebrartion of a rather bitter orange that grows in the microclimate around La Caunette, with 30 or so local flower, tree and herb growers. Look out for the amazing Iris people from the Bassine de Thau, there are some great olives from Roussillon, as well as a range of herbs, roses, flowers. There are also a series of talks on growing olives, figs, making essential oils, and growing truffle infected oaks. Most of the talks are on Sunday. As usual with a good local Fete there is a parade of old fellas dressed up strange faux 18th century dress- the companions of the bitter orange, and a hearty lunch to be had on site.
We will be there on Saturday to try and find some interesting varieties of local herbs and flowers, as well as to nose around and chat.
It costs three euros to get in.
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