The English Paysanne

It was  lovely to have Master C and Miss F back for a long weekend, they stayed till Monday so were put to work cleaning out the hanger, our Monday morning ritual during the winter weeks. With short breaks in between waiting to refill the tractor with cow poo brother and sisterly loved ended with fighting as usual, M C couldn't resist breaking the ice he found on a water bucket and of course what do you have to do with that ice - wind your sister up. Once the cows were cleaned the pigs were replenished with straw in their arks and cabins, easier said than done as the pigs love new straw which proves a tad difficult to get in their beds as you need to get in the cabins too a bit scary when you have four or five pigs trying to get in to help sort out the straw your putting in, they get very excited and in your face as their not small piglets any more plus the mud adds to making the whole manoeuvre that bit harder. Farmer J started to chop the wood...

  Eating pretty food for my birthday or getting my own back on snails with a vegetable mille-feuille with snails.     With the weather turning a tad hot hay cutting has started.    Major broad bean picking and processing with lots of beans eaten and frozen. The raspberries and soft fruit are starting to ripen, yummy. I managed to get a couple of photos of the piglets out in their enclosure, so cute these little piglets are growing very fast. Wallows have been made and enjoyed, if I was a pig I would of spent 24 / 7 in mud cooling down, had to settle for a quick cool when entering the cold room in between processing a pig this week. As I am getting older I am finding I can no longer thrive in hot weather and seem to be turning into a wilting rose so when rain finally arrived Saturday evening it was very welcome for today was far more pleasant with a coffee in Najac where the Sunday market has just begun for t...

We have a young couple staying in one of our gites for a fortnight, they stayed here last year with friends.  This time they have come on their honeymoon, we are very flattered that they wanted to stay at  La Singlaire 1  and hope they have a wonderful time. If we had known we would of done a honeymoon thing with bubbly and chocs. Even more flattering they took a meal last night, this is what they had. Starters of homemade pork pate with caramelised tomato chutney, our own air dried ham and saucisson that we made early in the year.  Main of pork cooked three ways, confit cheek, tenderloin and sausage meat stuffed apple served with potato dauphinoise, vegetable spaghetti and a Madeira sauce. Cheese course, regional Roquefort and a ewes milk cheese. Dessert wicked chocolate cake by Orlando Murrin found  here  With chocolate mint ice cream  made by infusing milk and cream with chocolate mint leaves before making the custard b...

A lot of protein has been processed here lately with butchering pigs, the beef coming back  and our first batch of chickens going off to the poultry abattoir. We have been busy chopping, packing, labelling and boxing up. Delivering, meeting and handing over produce as well as the everyday jobs of farm life takes up a lot of time. The veggie patch has been forgotten and housework neglected (apart from the Saturday mad clean at change over time of the gites).  It was felt that we needed to slow down a little so yesterday and today we did just that. The animals were feed and checked, jobs that had to be done were but that was it. We took it slow, went mushroom hunting (didn't find many). Had a snooze after lunch and I played around in my sewing room. Today, after an appointment in town with our insurance agent which took a bit of time as the computer kept on saying NO (we both thought of that little Britain sketch) we had a 17 € meal at the best rest...

At long last my frozen bag has amounted to 500 grams of wild strawberries, there's even some still left on the roadside, think i might leave them there till next year (well not those exact ones as they may be a bit dry) as dog walking was taken over in the hunt for the tiny red berry. Also I was lucky enough to be given scrumping rights (is that just for apples?) over a abundance of  redcurrant bushes and a blackcurrant bush which Miss F helped collect, now those redcurrants are fiddly little berries to pick, there must be an easy way surly? We must of collected around 7 kilos with our bushes as well, and still have one redcurrant to pick over in the veggie patch.  The blackcurrant bush has now finished with a bag of black berries full of vitamin C packed in the freezer (open frozen on trays which stops them all sticking together in a clump making it difficult to defrost a small amount), along with a stock of redcurrants and raspberries. Farmer J was even roped in to dest...

25 May Receiving English essentials from friends who visited the UK.

Saturday 4th May It's our daughters Birthday today. Happy Birthday Freya, shes now a big 22 year old who had to come home to have her birthday cake and smaller presents. (we had already waved off miss F, her presents and master C on Sunday as they headed back to the big smoke and student life). We had lunch in Villefranche at what we think is the best restaurant around, Cote saveurs  www.cote-saveurs.fr  It's furnished very tastefully and with an informal feel. No stern looks as you mop your plate with bread Here. To start with a muse en bouche of fois gras mousse on an apple jelly and a cheese soup, it was like eating a fondue - divine. Starters followed with  shellfish and smoked salmon on a thin slice of toast with a watercress sauce. Farmer J had quail on a blini with poached egg and peanut sauce, both tasted amazing and looked pretty good too. Main course we all had confit of rabbit wrapped in courgette. The food tastes amazing...

Pasty night Shortcrust pastry, beef, carrot, potato, swede and onion, not forgetting seasoning. Roll out the pastry as big as you can for farmer J, layer the vegetables and meat, seasoning as You Go.   Brush water Around the edges fold over and seal to keep it all in. Pop in the oven about 180 for About 45 Min's. Delicious wrapped up in a tea towel in front of the tellie!