Tuesday 30 June 2009

Summer fruits / Les fruits d’été

Our apricots are a late variety, the tree is a Rouge de Roussillon which produces small but very tasty fruits.  We picked this year’s crop a few days ago – 49 apricots, twice as many as last year!  They are so delicious that we just eat them as they are, straight from the tree if possible.

Notre abricotier est une varieté tardive, le Rouge de Roussillon.  Il y a quelques jours nous avons cueilli la recolte de cette année – 49 abricots, deux fois la recolte de l’année dernière!  Les petits fruits ont beaucoup de gout, donc nous les mangeons directement de l’arbre si c’est possible.

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At the same time, a neighbour harvested peaches, so we have a box of them to eat fresh and to preserve.  I made peach granita with lemon juice, which is perfect in the hot weather we’re having.

Au mème temps un voisin a cueilli des pèches, donc nous en avons un plateau pour manger et pour conserver.  J’ai fait de granita de pèche au jus de citron – c’est parfait pour le temps chaud en ce moment.

 

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Courgettes, peppers and aubergines are fruits too  /  Les courgettes, les poivrons et les aubergines sont aussi des fruits

We couldn’t get our pepper plants, sown from seed, to grow this cold spring.  But now everything is catching up quickly and the plants we bought are producing peppers much earlier than last year. 

Les poivrons que nous avons semé n’ont pas poussé ce printemps froid.  Mais maintenant tout poussent très bien et nous avons des poivrons plus tôt que l’année dernière.

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The aubergines are growing well now too, if we can only stop the insects from eating them.  These striped beetles are a real pest. / Les aubergines poussent bien aussi, si on peut les proteger des insectes comme ces scarabés.

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We’re eating a lot of courgettes – as fritters, grilled on the barbecue and in cold courgette soup.  This is very easy to make and delicious: Chop three large courgettes and two sweet onions, cover with water, add salt and cook until soft.  Liquidise and chill.  Serve with yoghurt and chopped mint, or just a swirl of olive oil.

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And the tomatoes  /  Et les tomates

Apart from the Yellow Pear tomatoes, they’re not ripening yet, but some look close to it.  One of the earliest to ripen will probably be this Ananas, which we grew from seed we saved last year.

À part des tomates Yellow Pears, elles ne mourissent pas encore. Les plus précoces seront les Ananas que nous avons semé des semences que nous avons gardé l’année dernière.

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8 comments:

Drew said...

That stripey beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, is otherwise known as the Colorado beetle. Not a friend!
It will devour the potato leaves and eat the aubergine flowers. Afford it no mercy! They are a plague here in Nafarroa.

chaiselongue said...

Thanks, Drew, for the identification. We've seen it eating the aubergine leaves and we're killing all that we see. They hide from us, though!

Weeping Sore said...

I'm at that glut stage with courgettes - the green ones we call zucchini. I've done the bread, the raw "spaghetti" and the sautee. I'll give that cold soup a try. It looks delicious.

Rowena said...

The apricots are lovely, lovely, lovely. We are looking into getting a tree for the yard, but my husband is particular....he wants that specific type of apricot that used to grow in his grandfather's yard. Not the most perfect in looks, he once told me, the flavor was so sweet that nothing in the stores these days even comes close.

Thank you for sharing such beauties.

easygardener said...

I cannot get the hang of cold soup delicious though it may be - as with blue alcoholic drinks my brain says stop right now...what you are doing is unnatural :-)
Of course if we had long hot summers I would probably change my mind about the soup.

chaiselongue said...

Rowena: I can definitely recommend Rougge de Roussillon - the fruit are small and rather 'spotty' but the flavour is sweet and concentrated. But I'm sure you have similar varieties in Italy.

easygardener: I'm with you on blue alcohol, but cold soups are wonderful in hot weather!

MaryAthenes said...

Une bien belle recolte !
Que du bonheur !
Bises

summer fruits said...

wow great delicious fresh fruits i like it