Monday 19 January 2009

Feeding the land / Nourrir la terre

Our garden needs a lot of organic material to improve the soil and to help it retain water during the dry summer. This morning we went a few kilometres into the hills to the Mas Rolland goat farm to collect manure. It's a beautiful drive, around hairpin bend after bend climbing between slopes covered with garrigue and holm oak trees (the Mediterranean evergreen oak) and rocky limestone outcrops.

road to montesquieu_1_1

Notre jardin a besoin de beaucoup de matière organique pour améliorer la terre et pour aider la retention de l'eau pendant la secheresse de l'été. Ce matin nous sommes allées quelques kilometres à la ferme de chèvres de Mas Rolland pour chercher de fumier. C'est une belle route - des virages en épingle à cheveux montent entre les collines couvertes de garrigue et de chênes verts et les affleurements de calcaire.

We took a trailer full of manure back to the garden and spread it on some of the beds we've cleared. / On a apporté une ramorque pleine de fumier au jardin et l'a mis sur la terre qu'on a nettoyé.

trailer of manure_1_1 muck spreading_1_1

muck spread_1_1

The garden after our morning's work / le jardin après notre travail

Good peasant food / un bon repas paysan

This was hungry work so we went home to eat a hearty peasant lunch of haricot beans cooked with salted belly pork which I'd prepared yesterday. / On est rentré chez nous pour manger un bon repas paysan - des haricots cuits avec de la poitrine salée que j'ai préparé hier.

haricot beans_1_1

The recipe will be on the Mediterranean food blog.

La recette sera sur le blog de la cuisine mediterranéenne.

3 comments:

Jan said...

Mmmm, that pork and haricot beans looks tasty.

MaryAthenes said...

Miam, apres le travail, rien de tel qu'une bonne assiette !
Bises

Campo Girls Gardening in Spain said...

Hola

Your dinner/lunch looked great, despite it being for peasants LOL

I envy you with all that flat land, my friend also has a lot of flat land, mine slopes slightly so we struggle but we are getting there and loving every minute, carrots are just coming up and I can't wait to see how big I can get them :)

Look forward to chatting soon :)