Seedsavers - Kokopelli's work at risk

The French seedsaver organisation Kokopelli, based at Alès, is dedicated to preserving biodiversity in seed varieties and to helping sustainable agriculture in developing countries. They've lost a case against a commercial seed producer with the result that they will have to pay a huge fine based on the number of varieties which they stock. Anyone who appreciates the value of traditional varieties of plants and can see the benefit of biodiversity and preserving the ecosystem from destruction by big business, as far as we can at this late stage, should support Kokopelli. To sign their petition 'Libérons les semences' [Free the seeds] go to http://www.univers-nature.com/signez/?code=cat

The English-language website about their work is:

http://www.kokopelli-seed-foundation.com

New broom

Wild broom growing on rough ground near the garden

Wild orchid

The first vine leaves

Reservoir at the top of the hill, full for the first time this year
but swimming not allowed

Gabian, from the hill near the gardens

Potato update : 4 weeks since we planted the potatoes, the day after the last full moon, and it looks as though they are coming up more quickly than last year, with most of them now good-sized plants. Is it the influence of the moon? There are other variables - we've had more damp days this spring, more rain and these days have been interspersed with days of hot sunshine, making ideal growing conditions. But I'm willing to believe the moon has had some effect.

Rocket soup and a swallowtail

All through the winter we have some kind of warming soup for lunch almost every day, but this one seems more springlike. Most soups are easy to make, but this one is especially quick and easy. I cut, wash and roughly chop a panful of rocket (it shrinks a lot when it's cooked). You can use the quite thick stems that grow when the rocket is bolting and going to flower, as ours is at the moment, as well as the leaves. Add a chopped sweet onion, a little water and some salt. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Liquidise, reheat and mix in a couple of tablespoons of crème fraiche. Once you've added the crème fraiche it's best not to let it boil again as it may curdle. It has a beautiful dark green colour and a good flavour. Serve with a swirl of extra crème fraiche.

Swallowtail butterfly

Yet another sign of spring yesterday when this butterfly was attracted to a bright patch of aubretia on our wall. Whenever we approached it flew off, but it always came back to the purple flowers until Lo Jardinièr managed to get this photo of it.

Chemical strawberries

Yesterday I discovered a blog - La Vie Verte - with a horrifying post and video link about the chemical industry and pollution in Huelva in southern Spain.

I haven't seen many locally grown strawberries in the markets and shops yet. It will be a couple of weeks before the stalls are piled up with punnets and crates of the delicious garriguettes. Strawberries from Spain have started appearing. They're not very tasty at this time of year, but a couple of weeks ago I gave in and bought some to stew with sugar and eat with icecream. This morning they were there again, with their origin marked as Huelva, España, but I wasn't tempted. I shan't be buying anything grown in Huelva again!

Bay trees grow like weeds in our garden. We have one we planted, but also several others which have just established themselves in uncultivated bits of ground. A favourite way of using them we've discovered is to thread them onto skewers with quartered onions, brush with olive oil and barbecue them. The bay flavour seems to go particularly well with onion. We'll be doing this a lot over the coming weeks as the weather gets better and we'll be eating in the garden more and more.

There were good things on the market stalls as well as the polluted strawberries this morning. We bought some very good mackerel and some local asparagus. We ate the asparagus with a stir-fry of slices of entrecôte steak and spring onions (in the pan for just a few minutes as both were very tender), deglazed with Banyuls vinegar. Banyuls is the naturally sweet wine which comes from around Banyuls and Collioure, south of Perpignan.

New plants and oysters

The plants in our spring kitchen window - a jumble of daffodils, cyclamen and pansies which have brightened the view for weeks - are coming to an end now, so in yesterday's cold north tramontane wind and bright sunshine we went to buy plants to put in pots by the front door. We're lucky to be near Mèze where Pépinière Filippi specialises in plants for a dry climate. Unlike some garden centres which tempt us with plants which need too much water and would grow better in a more northern climate, Filippi suggests that we fill our gardens with plants which thrive here. If you can't get to Mèze, their website www.jardin-sec.com gives a lot of very useful information if you understand French. Even if you don't, the plant names are in Latin and the pictures are excellent. We bought a Gazania rigens, a Lantana montevedensis and a Rosmarinus officinalis var. repens, all recommended for growing in containers. On the way back we stopped at De la Terre à la Terre in Montagnac - another good place for Mediterranean gardeners, although it concentrates more on trees, olives, citrus and palms. We bought this unlabelled shrub with pretty pink flowers:

Does anyone know what it is?

Oyster beds near Bouzigues

We made a detour to Bouzigues for lunch. Bouzigues is an oyster village - the whole place is devoted to producing and selling oysters, with a few other shell fish - clams, sea urchins and mussels. There's a line of cafés and restaurants along the shore of the Bassin de Thau, a salt water lagoon separated from the sea by a thin strip of land. We went to our favourite, Chez la Tchèpe.

You sit at plastic tables in the sun, choose your oysters from crates on the counter and eat them with a glass of Picpoul while you look out at the beds where the oysters grew, only a couple of hundred metres away. Picpoul is the white wine made from grapes grown in this small area between Pézenas, Bouzigues and the sea, whose slight piquancy makes it the perfect accompaniment for sea food.

Choose your lunch . . .

Mediterranean links - a virtual network

Bougainvillea in Cadaqués, July 2007

Colin and Carol, who garden just the other side of the Pyrenees from here near Figueres, kindly asked me to write a guest post on their blog. You can see their colourful and informative blog at
http://mediterraneangarden.blogspot.com

In our friend JM's blog - http://gabian-village.blogspot.com - you can read another view of life in Gabian (in French), with excellent photos.

I'm discovering a new community . . . thanks to all!

Dydd Gwŷl Dewi Sant - St David's Day

Cornel Cymreig - daffodils