Monday 20 July 2009

Aubergines!

Following our problem with too many courgettes a couple of weeks ago, we now have another nice problem – a lot of aubergines!  /  Suite à notre problème de trop de courgettes il y a deux semaines, maintenant nous avons un autre bon problème – beaucoup d'aubergines!

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They’re difficult to photograph … / elles sont difficile de photographer …

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but on five plants we have about 45 aubergines of different sizes.  /  Mais sur cinq plants nous avons vers 45 aubergines de differents grosseurs.

They’re the tastiest we’ve ever grown and we’re eating them fried, frittered, barbecued and puréed to make baba ganoush.  Now that the tomatoes are ripening we’ll be making jars of ratatouille or chichoumeille to store for the winter.  /  Elles sont les plus savoureuses que nous avons jamais cultivé et nous les mangeons poelées, grillées, en beignets et en purée pour faire le baba ganoush.  Les tomates murissent maintenant donc on va faire la ratatouille ou chichoumeille en bocaux pour garder pour l’hiver.

DSC07501 The cherry and yellow pear tomatoes look good in a bowlful of Occitan colours!  /  Les tomates cerises et jaune poire sont bonnes dans un bol plein de couleurs occitanes!

 

 

Last week I picked our first Borlotti beans to add to a salad (the recipe is on the Mediterranean cuisine blog).  I think I picked some of them too early, though, as the beans hadn’t developed their speckled appearance.

La semaine dernière j’ai ramassé les premiers haricots Borlotti pour ajouter à une salade (la recette est sur le blog de la cuisine mediterranéenne). Mais je les ai ramassés trop tôt,

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The pods should look like the one above rather than the greener one below.  / Les cosses doivent être comme celle au dessus, pas plus verte comme l'autre.

One thing we won’t be doing with any of our produce is wasting it or throwing it away.  Our friend Drew who comments on this blog sometimes has sent me a link to a horrifying collection of photographs on the Guardian website which show some of the food which is thrown away every day.  What a terrible waste!  Anything we can’t eat we give away, freeze or preserve in some way.  One photo which made me exclaim out loud showed tomatoes, courgettes and peppers thrown out by an organic shop in Sussex - ‘Why not make ratatouille?’ I shouted at the screen!  I think that especially when you grow your own food you value it more because you know the effort that has gone in to producing it.  But it’s ingrained in me – my ancestors on both my parents’ sides of the family were poor country people who couldn’t afford to waste food.  I still have my great-grandmother’s wooden bread board with the words ‘Waste not’ carved around the border.

9 comments:

doo-dah said...

lovely looking vegetables, especially those aubergines.
In the middle east they judge a cook on how many ways they can cook aubergine so it sounds like you're doing well there!

Woodland Fay said...

Oh, I do wish I had your problems!!
Gone a tad mad with our borlotti beans this year, of course, it's not a glut problem as the dry so beautifully. Off to check out your bean recipe, always brilliant. Ditto re food waste, I just don't understand it, but then again I do spend three or four hours in the kitchen daily, I guess these people don't have the time to cook. Well, make time and stop watching TV shows like Big Brother, it's eating your brain! Many regards from drizzly London F

chaiselongue said...

doo-dah: thanks, but I think I have a few more ways to learn before I can equal a middle eastern cook with aubergines!

Woodland Fay: it's the first time we've grown borlotti beans. If we have enough we may try drying them, but don't think we will. Quite agree about TV - much better to spend the time cooking!

Jan said...

I'm not growing aubergines as we always get given enough to keep us going :-) I've tried Borlotti beans this year, but they're not doing very well as the flowers are being blown off!

Audrey said...

Moi c'est les tomates qui marchent trop bien !!lol

easygardener said...

That is a very impressive aubergine crop! I'm battling with lots of courgettes, cucumbers and French beans at the moment. We are not having sun for long stretches here so the tomatoes are slow to ripen.

MulchMaid said...

Hello! I've just found your delightful blog and I really like the dual language concept.

You have some lovely "eggplants" as they're called in the states. I planted the Japanese varieties (mine are "Ichiban") which is what it looks as though you have there. I hope I get enough from my five plants to make baba ganoug, with some leftovers for grilling!

LadyLuz said...

Such a lovely haul and I envy you your beans.

Same situation here - a glorious glut which is being made into stuff for the winter. Just made a fab baba ghanoush.

Great idea for your g.gran's choppng board.

MaryAthenes said...

superbe recolte !
Bises