Autumn clearing / nettoyage d'automne

After nearly two weeks of cloud and rain, today we finally had a day in the garden in sunshine doing all the jobs which we've been wanting to do. We cleared the tomato plants which were looking very sad, still with some red tomatoes and a lot of green ones, but it was time to get rid of them. We'll ripen the remaining tomatoes in the house.

Après presque deux semaines de nuages et de pluie, aujourd'hui enfin nous avons passé une journée de travail au jardin au soleil. Nous avons déraciné les tomates qui avaient un regard très triste. Il y avait encore quelques tomates rouges et plusiers de tomates vertes, mais c'est le temps de nous débarasser des plantes d'été. Les tomates qui restent va mûrir à la maison.

While the rain stopped us from keeping an eye on the garden, the snails and caterpillars were enjoying our cabbages. The caterpillars are the worst - chomping their way through the leaves. I disposed of several and a lot of snails too.

Cabbages eaten by cater-pillars and snails / les choux mangées par les chenilles et les escargots

This caterpillar has had its last meal! / Cette chenille a mangé son dernier repas!

The climbing rose is still flowering / La rose grimpante est toujours en fleur. And while we were in the garden today the mangetout peas germinated and small seedlings appeared in the sunshine!

Olive week recipe: Lamb and olive tagine

I sautéed an onion with some pieces of breast of lamb, added a quartered lemon, some chopped mint leaves, chopped garlic, bay leaves, roughly chopped garlic, a spoonful of harissa paste, some halved peeled potatoes, salt, water to cover, and covered the pan and simmered for an hour.

Then I added some picholine olives and simmered uncovered for a further 20 minutes. Meanwhile I sautéed a sliced green pepper in olive oil. I served the tagine, garnished with the sliced pepper and with a bowl of yogurt with crushed garlic, salt and chopped mint leaves.

Click here to see the recipe on Mediterranean food / cliquez ici pour voir la recette sur le blog la cuisine mediterrannéenne