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Au jardin hier: I dug all the yellow onions (Stuttgarter Reisen). Since all my potager neighbours seem to have done so this week I figured I had better do it now. Then I weeded the beet bed (chard and beetroot). Then I dug a bed over so it is halfway prepped to take something else -- I'm thinking coriander, green beans and leeks. What do our veggie gardening readers suggest?
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A la cuisine hier: That French summer classic tomates farcies. I also did stuffed red peppers. The stuffing was a commercial pack of pork meat with parsley and garlic. I added more parsley and garlic, some rosemary, a slice of chopped veal liver, salt and the tomato flesh.
There has been a minor scandal regarding beefheart tomatoes recently in France. Apparently, French supermarkets have realised that French consumers really like heirloom tomato varieties such as coeur de boeuf (beefheart), but these varieties aren't supermarket friendly. So industrial market gardeners have developed a hybrid tomato with a thicker skin that looks just like a beefheart. Unfortunately it doesn't taste of anything. To show I was up to speed with all of this I quizzed the Organic Amazon about her beefhearts and was assured they were the real thing.
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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Sainfoin Onobrychis viciifolia. This legume with lovely salmon pink flowers was once grown as a fodder plant. Its English name is the French for 'sound (as in healthy) hay'. The scientific name means something like 'vetch leaf that makes donkeys bray', a reference to how much donkeys love to eat the plant.
3 comments:
All your plantings should do fine. And, hey, the ground is soft and moist right now. I'm also planning to plant mooli radish (daikon), Spring Hero cabbage, and carrots, possibly an early (short season) variety of pess... Well, not planning exactly, more in hope than expectation that I might get all of them in!
I lifted my Stuttgarter Reisen because they had thickneck - caused by too much rain after a long dry period. They started to grow again and looked really healthy, till they began to fall over. They haven't matured properly so no papery outer skin, the necks are soft and squidgy, and they'll start to rot pretty quickly, They also split into two or three, like giant shallots. I'm trying to dry them out, but I reckon we'll be eating a lot of onions pretty quickly.
PG: Thanks. Likewise, planning means hope more than expectation. I might have time tomorrow, but otherwise it will be the end of the week, after it's been scorchio for days.
My Stuttgarter Reisen were in good nick, although not huge. No splitting but they had started to fall over so I knew it was time to lift them. The aged orchard neighbour had the splitting problem last year.
Did you have an absolute downpour yesterday late afternoon? I drove home from Chenonceau through it, from Loches onwards. It cleared up just in time for samba-ing through town with the flaming torches, watching the world cup on the big screen at the plan d'eau and fireworks. A rowdy time had by all.
According to the rain gauge we had 28mm yesterday. The weather station said 20.7mm but we think it's got lichen! The millstream is up and cloudy, and the moorhen is rebuilding her brooding platform like a Trojan.
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