Bees and borage

Bees love borage - two years ago I sowed some in the vegetable patch and of course now it's there to stay - and spreading all over the garden. As the bees love it so much and it gives, I believe, a lot of nectar, I will leave it there until the flowers are finished and then clear it out. I love the blue and it sort of helps take the eye away from the weeds!

Generous friends

My husband came back the other day with boxes full of seedlings. He works sometimes for an English lady not far from here and she is an amazing gardener. This year she has a surplus of seedlings and instead of throwing them out she threw them, metaphorically at least, into his car. But not only that - she took the time to write instructions for each lot. And better still, clearly knowing how instructions tend to go missing (the washing machine does wonders for instructions in back pockets!) she wrote them on the boxes! Tomatoes, celery, brassicas, chard (which I'd forgotten to sow this year) - not to mention a huge bunch of beetroot and some rocket.

I potted on some of the tomatoes and they are very happy in the greenhouse until they are big enough to go in the garden - we also need to clear a space for them but that's in hand. The rest of the seedlings are waiting outside the kitchen next to the hosepipe so they get a decent water quota in this hot weather. They will be planted out when they've grown a little bigger. I've also asked Max to build some sort of frame over which I can put cabbage white proof netting - I am DETERMINED not to eat any more caterpillars this year! A huge thank you for your generosity.


I'm excited about the tomatoes (Gardener's Delight). For the past two years we've had a pretty measly crop of tomatoes and with the wet weather just about gave up. Hopefully this year the weather will give us a couple of dry days at least and with all the tomato plants in the garden we should get a decent crop. Quite apart from using tomatoes in salads I love having too many as they get cooked up and frozen for future tomatoe sauces. I also try to make a few pots of tomato ketchup - you will never buy ketchup again once you've tasted home made...even my children say so!
You can see a couple of melons growing next to the tomatoes in the greenhouse - we bought four at the local market and as an experiment I planted two in the greenhouse and two outside. No prizes for guessing which ones already has little tiny fruits on them.

My family and other vegetables

Only my husband could send his 15 year old son into a sex shop without realising what he was doing. They were in Angers collecting some upholstery supplies for me and Ralph got bored (there's only one person working in the shop and it can take a VERY long time). So he told Ralph to go and check out the toy shop 50 metres away. It didn't occur to him to wonder why there would be a toy shop in such an out of the way place - he of all people (he used to be in the toy business) knows that there are few enough left in the town centres; and of course Ralph didn't think - he is after all 15. Off he went and in he went. The French don't like using anglo words very much so the very fact that this was called a Toy Shop should have been a clue in itself but of course Max hadn't really done the thinking and the name of the shop had been partially hidden behind another sign so he'd missed the rest of the sign, "Votre Espace Coquine", altogether.

Which brings me to the potatoes. We've started digging the Charlottes. A little early but with every plant there are at least six enormous orange slugs. At the end of the line we turned around and there was an army of them marching off in disgust. However, this afternoon I dug the ones out of the flower bed and there wasn't a slug to be seen. Why the flower bed? Well, the soil is very poor and it just seemed a good way to break up the soil and get lots of lovely manure in there all at once. I'll plant it out again in the autumn so it looks nice next year. We still have about eight more slug lines of Charlottes to go. These are in the new veg patch and quite a way from the moat so perhaps the frogs haven't come up this far. Also, the chickens don't go in there because of the electric fence - next year we'll plant potatoes outside of the fence.

Anyway, they all need storing so I was back in the workshop afterwards making my potato sacks. They are about 45cms x 60cms and after filling them we store them in a cool and very dark shed. I bring them into the kitchen as I need them and store them in the big vegetable rack covered over with a large feed bag - again cutting all light. This last is considered eccentric by the family but on the whole it prevents them from going green.

I've also been dealing with some of the garlic. Max rigged up a rack in the barn (see below) where we've put most of it but I suspect that some won't store for too long (they'd started bolting) so I've taken the smaller ones and any others that looked a bit ropey or had bolted and roasted them. I then put them into jars in olive oil. Oh, yes, delicious! Well, ok, they won't store for long either but at least we will have enjoyed them!

Onions - how to store surplus

Last year I had too few. This year I probably still have too few but they are beginning to bolt - produce seed heads - which means they won't store very well. Even this family can't get through enough onions to avoid mould so what to do?

I have been leant a couple of books recently and completely by chance I found a little note saying that you can chop up onions and freeze them in plastic bags. Just like that! So we pulled the first lot and my wonderful husband and equally wonderful 15 year old peeled and chopped and then bagged. I did help - I put them in the freezer; but actually I was weeding at the time so I'm forgiven!

As I've only just put the onions into the freezer I don't know how well this works but when I use them I'll let you know if there's a problem. Can't think that there will be though.

Just to be clear - according to the book (sorry - can't remember which one but it could have been "Preserved") you don't need to blanch them; simply chop or slice them and then freeze as they are. When required cook from frozen.

Obviously it would be sensible to freeze them in small bags as a half kilo of chopped onion goes a VERY long way...

Broad Beans

One of the great things about growing your own veg is that your "fussy" children start eating vegetables they otherwise turn their noses up.

One of the disadvantages of growing your own veg is that your "fussy" children suddenly discover the delights of vegetables they didn't previously like.

Both statements are true! I love broad beans but my children didn't. Notice the past tense! Now they go as soon as they are cooked. The ones in the shops tend to be not fresh and also much bigger in the pod. I pick mine quite young and tender. There is no comparison.

The biggest problem with broad beans is black fly but actually I tend to ignore it. It comes, it devours and it finally goes away leaving horrible rubbish on the pods. But let's face it: we're not eating the pods and the beans inside are not affected. I do rinse them under the tap but then they are boiled - and as far as I'm concerned a little bit of dirt just adds to the flavour (I hope!).

So this picture is the third lot I've picked in two weeks and finally I managed to get some into the freezer for future enjoyment. The picture shows the pods in all their black fly glory. Just remember...it's what's on the inside that counts!



I've included the honeysuckle because it smells fantastic. We brush past it as we go from the car to the kitchen, disturbing the bees but absolutely loving the smell.

Freezing potatoes

Last year I experimented freezing potatoes and I've been meaning to post the results. I tried two different systems and both have worked well:

1) Mash potato: I cooked and mashed as normal and then bagged cold mash potatoe, about 500gms per bag. To reheat I thaw and then heat the mash gently in a saucepan allowing the water to evaporate. If it then gets too dry I add either water or milk (I know, a bit silly allowing it to evaporate first but that seems to be the only way). The important thing is to mix it really well.

2) Roasting potatoes: Couldn't be easier. Peel the potatoes and parboil them. Then put them into bags and freeze. Roast them from frozen. The only thing you have to deal with is the fact that in the freezer they will stick together and so you have to separate them as soon as possible once they've started cooking. Also remember that the water on the outside of the frozen potatoes will make the hot (really hot) fat spit more so be careful.

I will be repeating this again this year - honestly, you can't tell the mash potato has been frozen and the roast potatoes are crunchier.

More Pigs

Last year we kept pigs for the first time. It was a great success and hugely enjoyable. Whilst dispatching them bought a lump to our throats we had always treated them as a practical exercise - we looked after and fed them and in due course they would return the favour.

The meat is excellent. I now know that I had forgotten what flavour in meat was. When we were getting low on sausages (they went quickly!) I bought some from the supermarket and mixed them in with our own without telling anyone. Ralph guessed with the first mouthful what I had done and I was duly reprimanded; but the fact remains, there is no comparison.

We still have plenty of pork in the freezer but it is going down fast. As we don't go away in the summer it works best for us to collect the young piglets in the spring and raise them through the summer. They are then slaughtered in the autumn which is also better as it is cooler by then. So at the end of last year I contacted a breeder and ordered two more piglets - this time they are Gloucester Old Spot/British Lop and again they are lovely.


They are very different in character to the Berkshires - less gentle and more demanding when they see us in the veggie plot which is just next to their field, especially if we are picking strawberries which they love. They dig much more too - we couldn't believe that in just two weeks they had turned most of the field. Every few weeks we extend their pen so that they have a new patch of grass and they love it. They run up and down the grass, they roll in it and occasionally they stop to eat it. The next day it will look as though someone's been over it with a lawn mower. By day four it's a muddy patch with perhaps just a thistle showing.

Our friends no longer look astonished and tell us we are mad when they see the pigs for the first time. They are too busy enjoying the rewards.