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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Market shopping and butterfly spotting / Le marché et les papillons

Saturday is market day in Pézenas. It’s always fun but it’s especially colourful and busy in the summer. / Samedi est le jour du marché à Pézenas. On s’y régale toujours mais surtout en été.

We bought almond croissants for our breakfast and took them to the Café des Arts to eat with our coffee. Sorry, I forgot to photograph them! / Nous avons acheté des croissants d’amande et nous les avons apporté au Café des Arts pour les manger avec du café. Je m’excuse – j’ai oublié de les photographer!

Stalls line the long main street – clothes, sea food, charcuterie, olives, household goods ….

A fruit and vegetable stall in Occitan colours	Lots of cheese
and colourful terracotta pots to cook it all in.	Des tagines et des casseroles en terrecuite.

At home the garden was full of butterflies. There seem to be a lot of the this year. / Le jardin était plein de papillons. Il me semble qu’il y en a beaucoup cette année.

The butterflies love the lavender flowers. I haven’t identified these yet, except the Marbled white (top right). Les papillons aiment les fleurs de lavande. Je n’ai pas les identifié encore sauf le Blanc Marbré (en haut, a gauche).	Pairs of swallowtails were chasing each other around, too. I posted photos of these the other day.

First tomatoes! / Les premières tomates!

We ate the first ripe Yellow Pear tomatoes. They’re small – a variety of cherry tomato.

On a mangé les premières tomates mures Yellow Pear. Elles sont petites – c’est une varieté de tomate cerise.

Fire, water and the earth / Le feu, l’eau et la terre

Fire is part of the natural cycle of Mediterranean vegetation especially the garrigue, clearing the land of dead plants and making space for new growth. It is also very frightening and dangerous. On Monday we were on our way to Roquessels to buy wine and saw smoke on one of the hills near the road, just a couple of kilometres from Gabian. By the time we returned the fire had spread rapidly. We called the fire service as soon as we got home, but luckily they already knew about the fire. It took four hours for 80 fire fighters, 4 water-carrying planes and 2 small spotter planes to stop the fire, fortunately just before it reached the house in the photo below.

Le feu est une partie naturelle du cycle de la garrigue mediterranéenne. Mais c'est aussi dangereux et effrayant. Lundi nous avons vu de la fumée sur une colline près de la route de Gabian à Roquessels, à quelques kilometres du village . Sur notre retour le feu s'est étendu. 80 pompiers et 6 avions ont pris quatre heures pour l'éteindre. Heureusement le feu n'a pas atteint une maison dans la campagne.

Fortunately this house was saved.	The view from Gabian – a bit close for comfort.

The sea / La mer

The weather is hot but the sea hasn’t warmed up yet. It was only 16 degrees C at Le Grau d’Agde yesterday. Le temps fait chaud mais la mer n’a pas chauffé encore. Elle n‘était que 16 degrees C au Grau d’Agde hier.

In the garden / Au jardin

The tomatoes are growing well and one Yellow Pear is almost ripe. / Les tomates poussent bien et une Yellow Pear est presque mûre.

Peppers and apricots – we ate the first apricot this evening, the rest will be ready in a day or so.

A swallowtail butterfly on the lavender

and a dragonfly near the stream. It was bright blue, but the sun was so strong the colour doesn’t show in the photo.

The longest day of the year / La journée la plus longue de l’an

Just as we did on the shortest day of 2008, we had lunch in the garden. This time the shadows were a bit shorter but the coffee was as good. / Comme la journée la plus courte de 2008 on a mangé au jardin. Cette fois les ombres étaient plus courtes mais le café est toujours bon.

21.12.08

21.06.09

Paella

One of our Spanish friends in the village says that paella should be cooked out of doors on a wood fire. So that’s what we did today. / Une de nos amies espagnoles au village dit que la paella doit être cuire dehors au feu de bois. Donc, c’est ça que nous avons fait aujourd’hui.

Paella with mussels and chorizo / Paella aux moules et au chorizo.

Locusts / acacia-criquets

There are some things I find in the garden that I don’t photograph for this blog. Yesterday when I saw a locust on one of our aubergine plants I didn’t rush for the camera. I called Lo Jardinièr to come and squash it. Last year one of these huge insects at most of the leaves of an aubergine plant in one afternoon. I don’t know how we can deter them. One suggestion on the Internet was a mixture of chilli and paraffin, so I ground a couple of red chillis and mixed them with alcool à bruler (a spirit you certainly wouldn’t want to drink). I then painted this mix onto some of the leaves.

I hope it works. I’m worried that it may damage the leaves.

** UPDATE: this burnt the leaves, so I won't do it again. The best way to get rid of pests - locusts, beetles - is to squash them individually, we've found.

J’ai mis un mélange de piment rouge et alcool à bruler sur les feuilles d’aubergine dissueader les acacia-criquets de les manger.

And a butterfly / Et un papillon

Lo Jardinièr found this Red Admiral butterfly which stopped just long enough for him to take this photo.

Courgettes and cucumbers / Les courgettes et les concombres

It’s a nice problem to have – what can we do with all our courgettes? Yesterday we picked 1.7 kg. I’ve stuffed some with meat and some with olives and onions, I’ve stewed them with some of last year’s preserved tomatoes and we’ve had fried courgettes, courgette fritters and stuffed courgette flowers. Luckily, we really love courgettes! And the cucumbers seem to grow as you look at them.

Garlic grown from bulbs I bought in the market last autumn and planted around a terracotta pot watering system. / L’ail cultivé du ce que j’ai acheté sur le marché en automne.

And a sunflower in the sun / Et un tournesol au soleil.

Another beetle update / Mise à jour des scarabées encore

The beetles were back this morning.  We put one in a jar and I took it to show our neighbour.  He immediately squashed it and confirmed what Gintoino said, that they attack cabbages.  So the others have now been squashed.  They were pretty but they had to go.

Notre voisin a confirmé ce que gintoino a dit – les scarabées attaquent les choux.  Il a écrasé le scarabée que je l’ai montré et nous avons écrasé les autres.  Ils étaient beaux, mais ils devaient mourit.

I’m pleased with our garlic this year, grown from bulbs I bought in the market last autumn and much better than last year’s.  It’s delicious chopped fresh on salads or the heads grilled whole on the barbecue.

L’ail est bon cette année. C’est delicieux cru est frais avec les salades ou les têtes grillées entières.

Garlic fresh ……..

grilled ……

and eaten.

Wildlife in the garden / Faune au jardin

a dragonfly /  une libellule

and a marbled white butterfly / et un papillion marbré blanc.

But amid the sunshine and days spent enjoying meals in the garden, a reminder on the Guardian food blog today that there are ‘no gourmets in Gaza’ because the Israeli blockade is preventing basic food and fuel from getting to the population, including three quarters of a million children who are the most seriously affected.  According to Alex Renton’s post the UN says that

more than 10% of children are so malnourished their growth has been stunted. This proportion is growing rapidly. Anaemia due to lack of protein is another persistent problem – affecting 65% of children and 35% of pregnant women.

An inhuman collective punishment for an entire people.

Beetles update / Mise à jour des scarabées

Most of the beetles have disappeared, just a few tiny ones remain, and the Borlotti beans look fine and are growing fast. / La plupart des scarabées sont disparus et les haricots Borlottis sont biens et poussent vite.

Maybe these beetles were good ones / Peut-être ces scarabées sont bons.

The haricot beans are growing well too / Les haricots verts poussent bien aussi.

A salad from the garden today: courgette, cucumber, Lezignan onion, garlic and oregano, and today’s harvest of courgettes and beans. / Une salade du jardin aujourd’hui: courgette, concombre, oignon de Lezignan, ail et oreganum, et la récolte d’aujourd’hui: courgettes et haricots verts.

And something I can’t post on the blog – last week we heard a single cicada in the almond tree in the next garden. Since then we’ve heard their summer chorus all around the garden and in the plane trees along the roads.

Les cigales ont commencé à chanter.

If you haven’t heard them before listen to the sound here:

Cicada / cigale A group of them in a line of trees make a very loud noise! It’s the sound of the south which they are said to make when the temperature is above 26 degrees C.

Good or bad? / Bon ou mauvais?

I found these beetles on our Borlotti bean pods. They didn’t seem to be eating the beans. Does anyone know whether they’re good or bad?

Est-ce que vous savez si ces scarabées sont bons ou mauvais?

The bees are good, I know, and so is the lavender / les abeilles sont bonnes, je le sais, et aussie la lavande.

And the oleander flower are lovely, smell wonderful but the whole plant is deadly poisonous / Et les fleurs du laurier rose sont jolies, il sent très bon, mais le plant entier est vénéneux.

The garden in June / Le jardin en juin

Today has been the hottest day of the year so far, over 30 degrees C at midday, so how is everything doing in the garden? / Aujourd’hui on a eu la journée la plus chaude de l'année jusqu'à ici. Donc, comment va le jardin?

The leek flower has finally come out / La fleur de poireau s’est finalement ouvert.

We hope it will provide us with a lot of seed / Nous éspèrons que cette fleur nous donnerons beaucoup de semences.

The olives are growing – these ones on our Lucque tree, the first year it has had olives on it.

Les olives poussent sur le Lucque. Ces sont son ses premiers olives.

We have beans on the haricots (Beurre and Purple King) and the Borlottis (left above). / Nous avons des haricots verts (Beurre et Purple King) et Borlotti (gauche).

The peppers and tomatoes are growing / Les poivrons et les tomates poussent ….

and the grapes /

et les raisins.

The garlic heads are small but better than last year / Les têtes d'ail sont petites, mais mieux que l'année dernière.

We’re eating courgettes every day and I stuffed some of the flowers with mint to cook on the barbecue. / On mange les courgettes tous les jours et j’ai fait des fleurs de courgette farcies à la menthe.

The stream from the spring is still running well, so we have plenty of water – we hope it continues. / Le ruisseau de la source coule bien toujours, donc on a beaucoup d’eau – on éspère que ça continuera.

Any failures? Well, yes. The pepper plants we grew from seed haven’t grown well at all and we’ve had to buy plants. Everyone here says the same. A lot of our bean plants, especially the climbing ones have been eaten by birds as they germinated. We’re protecting the new sowings with straw now and that seems to be working.

Rosé wine saved … but the battle for non-GM rice goes on / le vin rosé sauvé … la bataille pour le riz non-GM continue

Good news today – that the European Union will not after all allow rosé wine to be made by mixing red and white wines. The winemakers of France, Spain and Italy have been campaigning against this in order to preserve the traditional method of making rosé with red grapes and taking the juice from the skins early in the process.

De bonne nouvelle aujourd'hui – l'Union européenne a decidé de ne permettre pas le mélange des vins rouges et blancs pour faire le vin rosé. Les vignorons de la France, l'Espagne et l'Italie ont fait campagne pour garder la methode traditionelle.

We drank to this in the garden at lunchtime today with a glass of rosé from the Domaine des Pascales in Gabian.

And now the battle to preserve non-GM rice / et puis la campagne pour garder le riz non-GM….

On the Indian Earth blog today emmani has posted a photo-journalist piece about rice which links to the Greenpeace Hands off our Rice petition and campaign. GM rice would be detrimental to the way of life, livelihood and nutrition of people all over the world. This is an important issue so please take a few minutes to read, listen and, I hope, sign the petition.

Definitely not GM …

Our first St Pierre tomato / la première tomate St Pierre.

Green / Vert

There’s a little more hope for the environment today – in the elections for the European parliament Europe Ecologie, the greens in France, have more than doubled their number of seats to 14 and their percentage of the vote to 16.28%.

Un peu d’espoir pour l’environnement – Europe Ecologie avec 16,28 % et 14 sieges.

An early pagan fire / Un feu païen d’avance

This pagan lighting of huge bonfires, especially in the Midi and in Catalunya, usually takes place on 24 June, midsummer day and the saint’s day of St John.  This year in Gabian we celebrated a couple of weeks early, by the river last night.  It was a beautiful evening with dark clouds clearing away and the setting sun lighting up the village.

The Occitan flag was held up by a young fire service volunteer while 150 of us sang ‘Se Canta’ – an Occitan song, almost an anthem.  Then we had a meal of couscous and mergez (lamb sausages) cooked on a wood fire and quite a lot of red wine.  Later the bonfires were lit.  The tradition is that you jump over the fire, but these were a bit high for that!

Cette année à Gabian nous avons fêté la fête de St Jean en avance. Près de la rivière nous avons chanté 'Se Canta' – un chanson occitan. Puis nous avons mangé du couscous et des mergez grillés au feu de bois. Finalement, on a allumé les trois feus.

 

It was a full moon too.

La lune a été pleine à la fin de la soirée.

 

 

 

In the garden today, the leek flower is at last beginning to open / la fleur du poireau est enfin à la pointe de s'ouvrir.

And we picked our first cucumber and two Lezignan sweet onions / et on a ramassé le premier concombre et deux oignons de Lezignan.

A few notes on 1 June / Quelques notes le 1 juin

After a thunder storm and a lot of rain yesterday the garden looked good in the sun today.  / Après des orages et beaucoup de pluie hier, le jardin est beau aujourd'hui.

The dwarf haricot beans Purple King are flowering – lovely mauve and purple colours.

Les haricots nain Purple King fleurissent – des couleurs jolies mauve et violette.

 

And we ate the first courgettes of the season / et on a mangé les premières courgettes de la saison.

	Straight from the plant, to the chopping board and onto the grill with some red onions which are beginning to bolt but taste delicious grilled whole like this.