SHE WHO HESTITATES GOES HUNGRY!

What I would like to know is how we in Australia, and in Adelaide in particular, came to have what we call a 'flat white' coffee. I have been away now for 3 weeks and a couple of days and despite a concerted effort to track down the perfect flat white coffee in England and France, have discovered that such a thing does not exist. Sure, the coffee in France is good, excellent even, but you can't get a flat white. At breakfast time it was usually cafe au lait being served. After that it was espresso. The list on offer in all the multitude of cafes I tried..... just for research, you understand.... was short: cafe (short black or espresso is what we would call it, in a tiny cup), cappuccino (which I think everyone knows), cafe au lait (short black with lots of hot milk, in a large cup) and noisette (a short black with a little hot milk, in a tiny or medium sized cup). The noisette was a good option, especially if I could get them to understand in my bad French that I wanted the milk in a small jug, so I could add just the right amount! My favourite coffee was actually at Teleri and Richard's in Gabian, where Richard, despite being from the UK (!!), made the perfect espresso and with the exactly right amount of hot milk to make me smile every time! He used Lavazza il supretto.

Our cafes in Adelaide are primarily run by Italian people and I do wonder if the flat white is an Italian  invention ... with just that right amount of agitation of the milk to thicken it, without turning it into cappuccino, but at the same time not leaving it thin.... and making the espresso strong and full-flavoured, with the double-roasted coffee beans that glisten, exuding an unmistakable aroma of richness and creating a feeling of anticipation, knowing that it will all culminate in a perfectly executed flat white.

There are 2 places I frequent in Adelaide that serve great coffee....Zuma's (in the Central Market) and Grimanldi's ( a cafe / restaurant on Greenhill Road opposite Burnside Village).

Of course all is forgiven in France because nothing compares with the French patisserie, where sweet delights are created, not merely cooked, and not only are a pleasure to behold but are so indulgently delicious that, although I have just had breakfast as I write this, I am dizzy with the memories of all the delicacies I have eaten as I researched the patisseries of France in earnest.

Then there is the boulangerie where one buys things made with yeast. This ranges from the quintessential French baguette, through a multitude of breads such as the epi, which are made to be eaten on the day and people are shocked if you suggest finishing off yesterday's bread! It is true what you see on TV.... French people out buying baguettes very early in the morning and riding home on their bikes with them in time for breakfast.

Of course one cannot forget the croissant. It deserves a paragraph of its own. Croissant dough comes in different shapes and sizes and can be rolled up with chocolate or raisins or several other things, and are all consumed for breakfast or later in the morning, on the whole. Since everything closes between about 12 and 2, you have to be quick to get your goodies from the boulangerie or patisserie and any decent shop will not have much left by the time the doors close and the bakers go out or go home for lunch! In the afternoon the range will be limited.

In Adelaide excellent croissants can be bought from Breadz'n'More at the market.... otherwise they are pretty ordinary, I find. In France they are generally excellent although I have had the odd one that is not, usually in touristy places. It is funny also how the restaurants and cafes will not serve you lunch after about 1.30!

So my suggestion to any would-be travellers to France is to get up very early, go out to the local boulangerie and patisserie and get your morning's food fresh, eat it immediately and be ready for lunch by 12.30! Save up for dinner....that requires another post of its own! Food comes first in France. He who hesitates goes hungry!

......I never hesitated....!!!

LE POTAGER D'UN CURIEUX

Every now and then I meet someone who inspires and amazes me with their passion for growing food and living in tune with their land. One such person is Jean-Luc Danneyrolles who is a gardener-philosopher who has started growing little-remembered plants and herbs,and lots of beautiful vegetables, common and rare. He sells his creations in the Apt marketplace on Sat. morning and opens his garden to visitors during the warmer months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He grows and sells seeds, flowers, plants and vegetables at his idyllic property in a lush, gently sloping valley, near Apt.

 

 

He grows everything without chemicals and is dedicated to a simple life, full of biodiversity and the love of slow....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He writes books and is part of many groups such as Slow Food etc.

There is a room full of his seeds which he saves and sells.

Everywhere there are artistic creations and, actually, he very much reminded me of Deb.

THE SOURCE

There is one very special occurrence common to all three of the homes I have stayed in here in France; something I have never heard spoken of in a similar way in Australia, and something that  I personally find the most attractive aspect of life here....it is the source.The source is a beautiful word and means a spring or the beginning of a stream and here at Mas du Diable, high up in the mountains, it is in a cave under the house..... a deep hole in the natural rock that fills slowly with pure spring water and is pumped direct to the house when you turn the tap on....icy cold, almost crisp and so sweet. All the houses around here were built in the last 800 years and have a source. In fact there are 3 here on this land; one for the house, one for the garden which fills a small dam and one spare!

The photo at left shows Rachel at the entrance to the cave which houses the source.

 

The photo at right shows the face of the rock and the hole, left rear, with some stone steps winding up to a door, just out of sight, where the original inhabitants would have come down from the house with a bucket to collect water without having to go outside. Now there is an electric pump on the right that does the job.

The photo at left is the hole with the crystal clear water....so clear that I thought it was empty when I looked in, until I put my hand in and felt the water....

 

 

 

 

At Gabian, in the little square, there is a fountain where the water flows down from the source, and people would come and collect water from it, in buckets that could rest on a special frame still in place today. It flows simply by gravity and has done for 1000 years!

 

These children are playing around the fountain on their bikes.

 

Water for the village homes also comes from the source and when there is excess, the gardeners at Teleri's plot can use the water for their vegetables.

 

 

We also visited this nearby allotment which had a wonderful series of trenches and sluices that the gardeners used to run water down very well defined channels between the rows of vegetables.....some of their construction was ingenious and it seemed that everyone had their own method of making use of the water coming from the source.

 

Ian's place is actually called Les Fontenelles and also has a relation to a spring and I am looking forward to a visit to the source when I get back there on Tuesday.

It is so lovely to experience the ways that people over the centuries have made their homes at water sources, securing the viability of the villages and the inhabitants into the future. There are springs in the hills around Adelaide but somehow the history linked to these water sources here in France is quite awe-inspiring.

MAS DU DIABLE..... C'EST INCROYABLE

I am here at Laura and Rachel's 12th century farmhouse way up in the Cevennes mountains, accessible only by a long, rough, switchback 4WD track. The house is the most ancient man-made thing I have ever seen and is breath taking outside and also inside. The 8 hectares of land is steep and terraced and the vegetable gardens lush and productive. Laura and Rachel work very hard to make this house and garden so beautiful... puts me to shame when I often complain about the slope at my place! 

Laura has some very interesting vegetables like ground tomatoes, long beetroot and a tomato plant covered in vicious spines, as well as prickly pear, a yellow fig and so many different capsicums and chillis I lost count.

 

We picked the beetroot and I cooked Jamie Oliver's recipe for baked beetroot, to go with the roast chicken we had for dinner. We also had Laura's delicious yellow butter beans - so good..... It's a hard life here in France!

 

Of course there are and will be more photos......here.

 

 

 

 

AT HOME IN FRANCE

Food in France is a serious business and there are vegetables gardens everywhere; in yards, in plots and allotments and food growing is central to the lives of these rural communities that I am visiting. I don't know about in the cities but compared to small Australian towns, French towns are a wonderland of food for me.

This ancient little village of Gabian has a boulangerie where Richard goes to buy fresh bread every morning. I asked him when it opens and he said maybe 6am...he has never been there when it hasn't been open in the morning. It closes about 12.30 and then opens again about 4, full of more fresh bread for the evening meals. Sundays they make patisseries and the townsfolk can be seen wandering home with boxes of cakes and goodies for after the Sunday family lunch.....sadly I won't be here on a Sunday!The bakers are a young couple with a baby.

There is a little general store, run by a friendly woman, and apart from essentials she keeps small amounts of local fresh foods like eggs, meat and cheeses you would only find in the central market in Adelaide, like roquefort and Saint Nectaire which we had last night and was superb. For AU$8, Richard bought a quarter of a round of this. Amazing!

Yesterday was market day in the square with just about 5 stalls....vegetables, kitchenware, clothes, fish and a van displaying, as Teleri said, everything you can do with a pig! We bought some Spanish chorizo which was like nothing I have had before as it had lots of roasted capsicum and pieces of smoked pork and was soft and aromatic and I ate far too much of it at lunch time while waiting for the paella to cook on the garden charcoal BBQ. See the photos.



There is always a lot of discussion about food and when other gardeners walk by at the allotment, there is an exchange of food news and it is wonderful. My spoken French is pretty bad but I can understand the gist of what is being said and yesterday I loved being shown around the plot next to Teleri and Richard's and hearing the enthusiasm in the voice of Antoinette as she told me about her dozens of haricots verts (green beans) plants, the cabbages, tomatoes and her new ginger plants, all the time apologising about how poorly it all was when actually it was amazingly abundant!

Suddenly she decided that Richard should dig out a couple of cherry seedlings growing next to her large cherry tree and take them to plant in their garden. There were no ifs or buts about this. She had decided they needed cherry trees and have them today they would! So they were promptly removed and we pruned them as she indicated and took them and planted them straight away. People - gardeners in particular - are always so keen to share and to give, the world over, and in every language.

We took the scenic route home....as if it is not ALL scenic!!..... and viewed Gabian from the top of the hill, up a windy path, which couldn't be called a road, and looked out as people have been doing here for a thousand years......

Today we went to the beach and I swam in the Mediterranean Sea.... a little cool and cloudy but a lovely experience and a beautiful drive. Plus lunch right on the seafront.... then we had to get back in time to catch the seafood van which comes every Thursday and Saturday from 4 to 4.30pm. Today we bought oysters for aperitifs and mussels, which I am going to cook for dinner.

Where do I live, again?

AN ANCIENT SETTING FOR MODERN DAY LIFE

Here I am in Gabian, in the centre of the village which dates back over 1000 years.... incomprehensible to most Australians, I would think. The photos say it all. Streets so narrow you have to walk single file, roof tops of tiles seemingly just piled up thicker and thicker to stop leaks, everything at odd angles and stone so mellow and worn it is hard to believe it is not a movie set! Everything is in French and Occitain, an old local language.

Chaiselongue and Lo Jardinier are wonderful and have even made limoncello for me! We spent some time at their plot which is perched up quite high with a view across a valley to hills covered in olives, a few vines and some enormous power lines....ancient setting for a modernday life.

The village clock chimes every half hour all day and night but so far I haven't even heard anything during the night and have slept like a log, even with my windows wide open and the clock only just down the street. It is incredible to stay with people who love growing their food and cooking it as much as I do and even want to go for a walk on the beach with me on Thursday .... sadly I won't be able to take my mother's dog but the neighbours have one!

There has not been a drop of rain anywhere I have been since I left home! It is warmer than I thought....I should have brought more short-sleeved shirts. The seedsavers people will think it funny to see me in my regular Adelaide gardening clothes and hat....I only wish I had brought my ho mi !!

See more photos here.

I used blogger to do this and I apologise for it looking so bad.....

Spring At Nirvana

Kate, Its good to share your adventure, your words at least as your pictures are so s-l-o-w to load (20min= half a picture) But I’m willing to sit through a slide show or two on your return to see them! I guess I should expect such a slow connection since I live in the slow lane. However it is frustrating after a long day weeding the berries.
Spring has arrived with a population explosion. These cute little fluff balls are hatching everywhere I don’t recall such a success rate for many years, there may be a message about season in this also I have a hen sitting on a batch of eggs and these are due to hatch in the next week.
The main orchard jobs at this time of the year are weeding, composting and mulching the berries. This short season will be on us all too quickly. Today on the answering machine is an order for Christmas raspberries. It’s also an important time to put the biodynamic preparations out and reconnect with the land after winter. It is also be time to dig up the horns and compost preparations as well as making some more barrel compost and casuarina tea.
Ting has been helping out each Tuesday. Yesterday we weeded a couple of vegie beds while waiting for the valley to dry out a little after a heavy dew, organized a couple of beds for Ting to grow some vegies with out water restrictions before helping Quentin string up the hops, it was then back to weeding the berries before stirring some barrel compost and putting it out on the gardens and orchards. Tomorrow the gardens and orchards will receive their 500 and the valley berries will have their turn Thursday& Friday.

Once the berries are organised I can spend a little more time in the gardens, however all the seeds planted August are up and have been potted up (Some for Kate) So all the tomatoes ,capiciums, eggplant and cucumbers are ready to be transplanted into their permanent beds next new moon. Regular monthly planting have continued to ensure daily harvest.