It's Cyclamen Season Again

This year, for the second year in a row, our annual cyclamen photos come from the grounds of the chateau-hotel la Domaine de la Tortinière at Veigné just outside of Tours. Their park has the best display of anywhere we know of in the area. It must be a real treat for guests who are lucky enough to stay at this time of year.

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Orchard News: I picked Reine de Reinette and Melrose apples, Black Hamburg grapes and hazelnuts. The grapes are absolutely perfectly ripe and you can smell them when you approach the vine. The bunches are small but the grape berries are the largest we have ever had. I dug some baby leeks, picked a few herbs and a few straggler tomatoes and strawberries.

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A la cuisine hier: Pickled Pears, a mixture of our own Doyenne de Comice and Louise Bonne d'Avranches from the potager gardens at the Chateau of Villandry. The quartered unpeeled pears are cooked in a pickling liquor of red wine, red wine vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, bay leaves, pimento and orange peel, bottled and sealed when hot. They can be served with game, charcuterie or strong cheese.

Fruit Cobbler, made with a luscious mixture of apples, pears, strawberries and blueberries and topped with a sort of sloppy scone dough. All the fruit is homegrown except the blueberries, which came from my excursion to pick blueberries in the Sologne a couple of months ago.