Abundance

I have chosen my title after making a walk in the forest with some friends. The idea was to find what was still edible in the fall in a wild forest. We shared information and learned to recognize readily available plants. We did find enough edible greens to make a salad and even some fruit (rose hip and wild apples) and a spice (juniper fruit for the sauerkraut). There is so much to learn about what is surrounding us. I would like to share more on this topic and I might try to include new plants in following blogs.

Chestnuts

Fall is for me synonymous for chestnuts! This year the chestnuts were amazing and I had a good harvest but I waited too long to process them all: resulting in losses.... I was able to make

6 jars of chestnut cream. I also boiled some them and stored them in the freezer. Chestnuts can be included in the preparation of a roast or a casserole, it gives a really nice "nutty/fall" touch to a meal.

How did I realized the chestnuts were getting bad? Well, before processing chestnuts, you should always put them in water. The chestnuts that are floating are bad and you have to discard them. About 2 weeks after my harvest I decided to process everything I still had left... but after all said and done, I didn't have much work to do because lots of them were floating. I went on the internet to research how I could have prevented this "horrible" loss. I learned the following: in order to be able to store chestnuts for a long period, one has to soak them in plenty of water for about 7-9 days changing the water every day. Then let them dry completely on a rooster. This may last up to 2 weeks. The room has to be exempt of humidity! After this, the chestnuts should keep well if stored in a dry and well vented place.

Main floor

On rainy days, Mike spends most of his time inside, preparing the main floor of the house. The floor has been covered with a membrane before installing the insulation. We have made a good investment by buying a special wood stove that will serve 3 purposes: heating the room, heating the water for the floor heating system (assisted by our solar panels) and offering the possibility for complementary cooking. It is ordered but not yet delivered so more on this special wood stove "installation" on the next blog.

In July 2018, we have had flooding along our house (see blog Aug 2018 Liquid of frozen water: what is better? ). We had no damages inside our house but the rock retaining wall "holding" the road behind our house collapsed. Last week, the artisan finally came to repair it. This work is made possible through the Community so no extra cost for us. And the result is quite nice ;) This wall will be a nice add-on to the little garden we will be creating at the far end of the house.

Talking about that garden, this is also where the fosse septic has been placed. Mike is surrounding the fosse with a wall which will (eventually) have a metal railing. We will be able to grow a climbing vines such as a wisteria. He is creating a terrace which will offer us a bit of privacy.

Recipes

Fall is the time to start the fermentation of the white cabbage. The recipe is easy: for each kilo of finely grated cabbage, I add 10 gram of coarse salt. Mix well and let sit for about 30 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, I break the cabbage cells down, releasing his natural water and allowing the salt to do it's work. When the cabbage seems to be "wet", I then start filling clean jars, leaving about 2-3 cm on the top. I cover the top with a cabbage leaf to help the grated cabbage to stay submersed in water. Then the fermentation process begins: 1 week (or longer depending of the inside temperature) at room temperature (20 degrees) and then 3-4 weeks in the cellar. After that period the cabbage is ready to eat but it will be tastier as it ages. For the spices I used juniper berries, mustard seeds, fennel, coriander seeds and cumin seeds (or caraway). Each pot with a slight different mix. Coming February, when the weather will be wet and cold, we will enjoy savory homemade Sauerkraut meals to keep us warm.

I am also trying the 44 liquor recipe.

What is it?

You need one organic orange, 44 coffee beans, 44 sugar cubes and 1 liter fruit brandy. Let marinate 44 days. don, forget to agitate occasionally. Easy enough! It will taste like Grand Marnier, yummy!

The garden

At the moment, my broad beans are ready to plant outside. during the end of November, I soaked them for 1 night before seeding them in individual pots. I prefer doing them in pots because of last year's experience where my beans were eaten by a mouse of another little creature. I do have to start "re-designing" the gardens for next year (rotating crops) but the ground for the broad beans is already defined and ready.

In November, I also did plant about 100 cloves of garlic coming from our garlic harvest of this year. Luckily, we still have enough left over to cover the period until next harvest.

In the picture you can see the turmeric plant and a ginger plant (front). The turmeric has not flowered yet so I am not expecting any yield this year. But the ginger seemed to be doing really good. After a couple of cold nights, those plants were dead. Unfortunately, no yields either for the turmeric nor the ginger. I did cut the leafy parts and re-planted the roots. Next year hopefully better results.

In the fall last year I had put leaves in plastic bags, closing the bag well and forgetting about them. When I saw the leaves this fall, I thought of my little experiment and went to look at the composting result. I have created amazing mulch for the garden! So happy with the result.

This year, I doubled my leaf harvest and, by next year, I will have more mulch to continuously amend our gardening soil.

The container is getting an addition. The right part will be used by me. It will my special room where I will do the seedlings. There is a sliding door leading to the room and lets lots of light in. In that room, there are stairs, leading to the inside of the container. This will be a dry room where I will be able to keep my seeds, gardening books, logbooks etc... Along that "building", we will attach a rain water reservoir and plant some bushes. The left side will stay open like a carport for the riding tractor and other equipment. Call it "luxury"!

Chickens

We are ending our season with 21 chickens. We started with 8 so we cannot complain. End December I will start culling the roosters: there are 2 that could be ready by then, the rest will follow slowly. I don't like this part of the game but we need to keep a good balance in our flock.

Happiness and friendship

The last period has been filled with really interesting people, events and meetings. I am trying to create a network which will resemble 'us', and I think I am doing really well. I love our life here in the South of France and we welcome you all to come, one day, and experience La Peyrère with us.

Until then, I will keep on posting.

Until the next blog, we wish everyone a wonderful New Year 2020 !