Sunday 30 August 2009

Moving on (towards autumn) / On avance (vers l’automne)

Maybe it’s because our last visitors of the summer have left, or because the nights are cooler and the days not too hot to think about working in the garden, with temperatures down from 37 to 32 degrees, but we’ve started to prepare for autumn.

Peut-être c'est parce que nos derniers visiteurs de l'été sont partis, ou parce que les nuits deviennent moins chaud et on peut penser de travailler un peu dans le jardin - les températures baissent de 37 à 32 dégrees – que nous avons commencé de préparer pour l’automne.

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It was time to cut down the sunflowers and save the seeds to use in cooking and for next year’s plants. / C’était le moment pour couper les tournesols pour garder les semences pour cuisiner et pour les plants de l’année prochaine.

Lo Jardinièr began to prepare the ground where they were for sowing Cavalo Nero Kale and lettuces. / Lo Jardinièr a commencé de préparer la terre pour semer le chou frisé Cavalo Nero et les laitues.

Vendange (grape harvest)

The vendange began here a couple of weeks ago. The white grapes are picked first, at night to keep them cool. So every night at this time of year there is the constant sound of tractors going out to the vineyards in the early hours of the morning. Now the red grapes are starting to be ready for picking.

La vendange a commencé ici il y a deux semaines. Les raisins blancs d’abord, dans la nuit pour les garder frais. Maintenant les raisins rouges sont prêts.

Our grapes are ripe too. They’re bigger and sweeter than last year, but still quite small because the vine is young. / Nos raisins sont mûrs aussi. Ils sont plus gros et plus doux que l'année dernière, mais ils sont toujours assez petits parce que la vigne et jeune.

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It’s good to pick the grapes growing above your table and eat them straight from the vine.

C’est bon ramasser les raisins qui poussent au-dessus de la table et les manger tout de suite.



Peppers / les poivrons

We haven’t had many red peppers this year – as soon as they begin to ripen the snails eat them. We’ve had some good green peppers though and yesterday we grilled a perfect red one on the barbecue and ate it with goats’ cheese. Today we added two green peppers to a chicken paella.

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Aubergines – good news and bad news / Les aubergines – des mauvaises nouvelles et la bonne nouvelle

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New flowers / nouvelles fleurs
DSC08453 new aubergines / nouvelles aubergines DSC08461 and a locust eating the leaves – until we killed it / et un criquet qui mange les feuilles.

And a lizard / et un lézard

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6 comments:

CityGarden said...

can I ask you something? Did you eat sunflowers seeds as snac? I am not sure if people eat sunflower seeds in the same way we eat them in Greece

chaiselongue said...

CityGarden: yes, we do eat sunflower seeds here. I've eaten some of these myself, but I find them a lot of trouble for a small amount of kernel inside the hard shell of the seed!

Jan said...

They're just starting to harvest the grapes here, but down in the valley from us where it's a bit warmer and things are more advanced.

CityGarden said...

we bake seeds (with the hard shells) in oven with salt first. We used to say that when you start to eat an amount you don't stop until they finish :P

(I asked you because I remember some folks which live in Germany to buy many Kg from Greece because they couldn't find in Germany. Here you can find them in shops baked already)

Michelle said...

Snails eat ripe peppers, that's the first time I've heard that, they seem to prefer different things here. That's one of the few pests that I don't have a lot of in my vegetable garden. Sowbugs on the other hand - all over the place. Pretty lizard, I have a lot of them in the garden also - good thing, they eat lots of bad bugs.

LadyLuz said...

Love the sunflower seeds in bread. Those locusts, the blighters, have just stripped one of my chilli plants. The cats chase them but they're wily!

There's an award for you on my blog, with apologies if it's not your kind of thing.