Stuffed Vine Leaves

Even though vines abound here, there doesn't seem to be a local version of the Greek dish of stuffed vine leaves. They are easy to make and delicious, so every year since we have lived here I have pickled grape leaves in brine and made dolmades in May or June, when the leaves are at the right stage to pick – about the size of my palm and big enough to contain a teaspoon or two of filling, but not too old and tough that you end up with a mouthful of fibres.

 

Obviously, you need leaves that have not been sprayed with pesticides. I never spray our vines so I can happily use our own homegrown vine leaves. 

Ingredients

60 vine leaves

200 g coarse salt

2 litres water 

150 g white long grain rice

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

500 ml chicken stock, warm

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

8 dried tomato halves, finely chopped

1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped

1/4 cup mint, finely chopped

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

A splash or two of white wine (not more than 1/4 cup)

Salt and pepper

Juice a lemon, and cut the rind into chunks

Method

1. Snip the stem off at the junction with the leaf.
2. Boil a pot of water and plunge the vine leaves in, leaving them stand for a couple of minutes then draining.
3. Carefully separate the leaves one by one and lay them in piles of 10, smoothing each leaf out as you go. [The leaves are ready to use at this point, but I usually brine them and store for at least a few days before continuing.]
   
4. Roll each pile of 10 leaves up into cigars and tie with string. Pack them into preserving jars.
   
5. Boil the water and salt together.
6. Once the salt is dissolved and the water boiling pour the brine into preserving jars to a level of about 2/3 full.
7. The 'cigars' float so pack as tightly as possible, and if you have such a thing, put a glass disk on top to weigh them down. If not, improvise as best as you can (baking paper, small dish...) and make sure the brine is topped up and the lid sealed.
8. Sweat the onion in the olive oil for about 5 minutes.
9. Add the rice grains and stir them around so they are well coated.
10. Add the stock and cook on low heat for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. It's ready when most of the liquid has been absorbed.
11. Take the rice off the heat and mix in the pine nuts, tomato, herbs and spices.
12. Mix in the juice of a lemon and some white wine.
13. Season to taste and leave to cool. [Can be done the day before you make the dolmades.]
    
14. Unroll a vine leaf cigar and spread a leaf out on the bench.
15. Put a teaspoon or so of filling in the middle of the leaf and shape it into a cylinder shape with your fingers.
16. Fold the bottom of the leaf over the rice, then fold in the sides of the leaf, then roll from stem to tip so it forms a log shape.
17. Place in a shallow baking tin, packing them in quite tightly.
18. Repeat steps 14-17 until all the leaves are used. You can arrange them in two layers.
19. Pour boiling water over them until they are almost covered.
20. Scatter the lemon peel over the top, drizzle with some olive oil, and cover with foil.
21. Heat the oven to 160C and cook the stuffed vine leaves for an hour.
22. Allow to cool completely in the refrigerator before serving.

These are always a great success with my French friends, and some of them await the dolmades season with eagerness now they have been introduced to the concept. 

Thanks to Ken Broadhurst for the stuffing recipe [link].

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Uluru

Uluru is probably the most recognisable natural feature in Australia. It is now managed by the local indigenous Australians, the Anangu, for whom it is a sacred site. It is a gigantic lump of 550 million year old sandstone right in the middle of the desert. The nearest town is 470 kilometres away.

I highly recommend visiting Uluru, but because of its isolation I don't think all that many people do -- certainly not in comparison to those who visit Sydney anyway. Fewer than 300 000 foreign tourists visit every year, along with 1.7 million domestic tourists. Sydney by contrast receives 4.1 million international tourists per year.

Au Lapin Agile

 Au Lapin Agile ('at the Agile Rabbit') is the Conservatory of Living French Song (chanson), describing itself on its website as 'the mythic Lapin Agile, doyenne of the Montmartre Cabarets, reviving our heritage every evening'.

They also nuture and present new talent. There is no sound system, no lights -- just the raw performance. Audience participation is more or less encouraged, as is conversation, since you can hear each other speak.

Basic entry, which gives you the show and a drink, is €28. You can also eat there, but I don't think many people do. The space is distinctly intimate. I've never been inside but I've been to places with a similar ambiance, including our own Bar le Caravage in Loches.

Au Lapin Agile was opened, as an inn, under another name, in 1860, but its heyday was the early years of the 20th century, before the First World War. It became one of the bohemian hangouts and a real cultural institution. Its rather curious name comes from the iconic sign depicting a rabbit in a red scarf  and brandishing a bottle of wine, leaping out of a saucepan. At the time the sign was painted by André Gill the place was called the Cabaret des Assassins, but from the moment the sign was erected everyone spoke of going 'au Lapin à Gill' ('to the Rabbit by Gill'), which ultimately became 'au Lapin Agile', which is pronounced the same.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Valerian

Valerian Valeriana officinalis (Fr. Valériane officinale) has been used for centuries in Europe by herbalists as a treatment for minor sleep problems. Scientific studies are divided about its efficacy over a placebo, and it does seem to be more effective taken fresh rather than as a dried powder. Personally, I'm a bit of a fan of it as a sleep aid when I have a migraine, but the smell is quite off-putting. 

A Valerian plant just coming into flower, surrounded by lots of seedlings.

It grows wild all over France, in damp woodland, grassland and along water courses and ditches. Usually about 40 cm tall, it can reach 2 metres. It is the root which contains the active substances, but the medicinal strength varies enormously, depending on growing conditions.

The quite distinctive leaves.

The plant is also cultivated in Anjou, just to our west, for the parapharmaceutical industry, and a lot of improvement to the selections grown has been achieved in the last few decades, increasing the quantity of active ingredients by more than 25%. About 50 hectares, two-thirds of French production, is under cultivation in Anjou.

'True' Valerian is not to be confused with Red Valerian Centranthus ruber, which quite by chance my fried Rosemary blogged about today [link], a great plant to have in the garden, very hardy, very attractive to insects such as Hummingbird Hawkmoths, but with no medicinal properties that I know of.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

chm -- now that you mention it, I had heard that French name for Red Valerian, but had forgotten it.

Monster Molluscs

The other day when biodiversity surveying at La Gendronniere I came across some really huge molluscs. These two pictured are both the largest ones of their species that I have ever seen.

Roman Snail Helix pomatia (Fr. Escargot de Bourgogne).

Roman Snails are widely distributed, all over France, except for Brittany, Corsica, and a few other coastal areas. This is the species that is most likely to be served up to you on a plate in a restaurant if you order escargots. It's a protected species in the wild, with strict seasonal rules about when and how it can be harvested in France, so the ones on the menu have come from Eastern Europe (Hungary and Poland mostly). It is completely forbidden to collect them from the wild in April, May and June. At other times of the year, specimens of more than 3 cm diameter may be taken. Many of the wild ones get an extra layer of protection because they occur on Natura 2000 sites, with active conservation management plans to ensure their survival. Natura 2000 is a European network of core breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species, and some rare natural habitat types which are protected in their own right.

They live in forests and open habitat, gardens and vineyards, and occur naturally anywhere there is high humidity, calcareous soil and cool temperatures. This one was photographed in the potager (kitchen garden) of the Chateau de la Gendronniere. Individuals are not very mobile, never moving more than about 6 metres from where they were hatched. They are vulnerable to the land being drained or cleared for cultivation, and to over harvesting. Their diet is mostly fresh green plants, but also some decaying plant material. They need the soil to be high in calcium in order to make their shells. The snails become sexually mature from 2 years old and can live as long as 10 years.

Ash-black Slug Limax cinereoniger (Fr. Grande limace).

The Ash-black Slug is the largest species of land slug in the world, occasionally reaching a whopping 30 cm when fully extended. This one was big, but not that big! I photographed it on a path along the edge of woodland at the back of the Chateau. They are a forest species, quite susceptible to changes in their habitat. Although widely distributed, they only occur in very favourable undisturbed habitat, so they are quite localised. They eat algae, fungi and decaying plant material. They are very variable in appearance, and often much darker than this one, without the stripes except for a pale keel along their back. When in doubt about a big dark grey slug's identity you need to turn it over. If it is an Ash-black Slug its foot will have a clearly delineated pale central stripe.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

Mary -- good to know of a fellow slug appreciator :-).

Apples in the Touraine Loire Valley

Apples are the most popular fruit in France, with each French person eating on average 16 kilos of apples annually (followed by 12 kg of bananas and 10 kg of oranges). The three most popular eating and culinary apple varieties in France are Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Reine des Reinettes. In France there is no prejudice against apples that are not red, and sweet, not too acidic apples that retain their form when cooked are preferred.

Organic pasturised apple juice.

When people think of apples and France they normally bring to mind Brittany and Normandy. But these north-western provinces are principally growing cider apples, and not so much the sort you crunch into as a snack. The Loire Valley on the other hand has just the right climatic conditions for growing dessert and culinary apples and there are many commercial orchards here. Many apple orchards in the Loire Valley press, pasturise and bottle their own juice too, but there is no tradition of cider. The apples from the Loire Valley are eaten fresh, or cooked into tarts and purées.

Homegrown apples, from left Reinette grise du Canada, Reine des reinettes, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Melrose.

The supermarkets stock half a dozen widely popular varieties, but at the farmers markets there are dozens of varieties. The producer will happily tell you what the characteristics of each of the varieties are – sweet or sharp, crunchy or soft, juicy or dry. Each variety has a different use. Don’t be afraid to try new varieties – you will be in for a treat if you take a bite out of a Pilot, a Cybele, or a Chantcler, or have a spoonful of home cooked Reinette grise du Canada purée.

Apples and mushrooms foraged in the forest.

The old varieties of apples may not be so reliable commercially, but many people cultivate them in domestic gardens. An organisation called the Croqueurs de Pommes (‘the apple crunchers’) is on hand, with branches all over France, to educate the public about how to grow and graft apple trees. 

Pressing apples into juice at a village food fair.

One reason there are so many apple orchards is because in the first half of the 20th century wine making was not profitable. At the end of the 19th century, winemakers were desperate to solve the killer fungal disease brought by the phylloxera root aphid. Within decades production was back up to pre-War levels, due to the introduction of phylloxera resistant root stock. However, consumption was slowly declining, there was an ongoing labour shortage, and the wine being produced was mostly not very good. Thousands of vines were grubbed up in the Touraine Loire Valley, with government incentives for winemakers to change their production. The apple orchards are a legacy of that farming transition. 

Homegrown apples. Reine des reinettes on the left, Red Delicious on the right.

Favourite Locally Grown Varieties: 

 The Reinette grise du Canada is a large, ugly, malformed apple with typical yellowy green russet skin with light brown scales all over. It is a variety that originated in England around 1800, under the name Golden Russet, then was introduced in Normandy to become much more popular in France than it is in England. It keeps and cooks well, and is even nice for eating raw, so long as you peel them. This apple is very fruity and aromatic, with a good balance of sugar and acidity. It fluffs up a bit when cooked but retains its shape.

Homemade Tarte Tatin.

Reine des Reinettes is a soft sweet apple when eaten fresh, an old local Touraine Loire Valley variety, yellow, streaked with red when it gets exposure to the sun. It is widely regarded as indeed the queen of French cooking apples, favoured by many big name chefs. They go soft and wrinkly quite quickly in storage, so are mostly cooked.

An organic orchardist at a farmers market, with an old apple variety that he has been unable to identify.

Golden Delicious, an American variety known simply as Goldens in France, is ubiquitious, and being sweet and crisp, by far the most popular apple here. After the Second World War men returning to their family farms in the Loire Valley were actively encouraged by the government agronomists to plant Golden Delicious orchards. The climate in the Loire Valley suits the variety extremely well, and it is highly productive here. Outside of France they are greeted with scorn and derision because of their pallid unappetising appearance and their tendancy to go disgustingly floury if they are picked too early and cold stored, as is normal for supermarket supply chains. Fortunately, a fresh mature Golden Delicious is a completely different creature to one purchased in the supermarket.

New season local apples come onto the market in September, and are good quality until March.

Because apples have been grown in the Loire Valley for millenia, naturalised trees can also be found in the forests. Usually the fruit on these ‘wild’ trees isn’t very good for eating raw, but they can be great for making apple jelly.

Apple purée is a pantry ingredient in French kitchens. Most people keep a jar of it on hand to make simple desserts. Every supermarket sells family sized jars of it.

Tarte Tatin: The best known Loire Valley recipe using apples is Tarte Tatin. This popular dessert is the benchmark for culinary apples in French minds. Apples that pulp and/or are highly acidic are not popular. In France the supply of sugar has historically been disrupted and unreliable, so French cooks prefer not to rely on adding much sugar to desserts. Therefore, naturally sweet apples are more popular. For tarte tatin you also need apples that retain their shape when cooked, so varieties such as Reine de Reinette and Reinette grise du Canada would be the choice for making this and many other traditional French apple desserts.

There seems to be no question that the Tatin sisters created the recipe in the 1880s and it became the signature dish of their hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron in the Sologne (the area between Blois and Orléans). They called the dessert Tarte Solognote. It seems to have been the famous Parisien restaurant Maxim's who dubbed it Tarte Tatin in the 1930s.

The original version seems to have been made in a cast iron Dutch oven, in the same way as one makes damper, by putting the pot in the coals and covering the deep sided lid with coals too. The sisters used the still popular old Tourangelle apple variety Reine des Reinettes , and the apples were not peeled (I peel mine). The tart is traditionally served warm, unaccompanied by custard, cream or icecream. The original recipe contains no spices or anything other than apples, flour, butter and sugar (and that is how I make it).

Traditionally the tart is an upside down shortcake, which is made by putting a layer of apple chunks on the base of a dish with plenty of butter and sugar to form caramel. Then a simple pastry is laid over the top, the ensemble baked then turned out so that the caramelly apple layer is uppermost for serving. (French people look away now…) To be honest, if you are nervous about turning the hot tart, there is no real need to do so. Just cut and flip each portion as you place it in the serving bowls, or leave with the pastry on top. It will taste the same either way. 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

Carolyn -- yes, we drive past that orchard often. It's owned and run by the Croqueurs des pommes, the association I mentioned in the blog post. They've tended to move their activities down our way more since their President lives in a village near to us.

Pré de la Forge -- I'm going on what the guy who planted our orchard told me the tree was.  

Jean -- I think French people use apple compote as a quick and easy dessert.

chm -- Simon has never mentioned apple jam, so I assume he didn't encounter it in Korea.

Driving Through Le Louroux

Le Louroux is a charming small village, with a stonkingly good medieval monastic fortified farm on one side and the largest hand dug lake in Europe on the other. The lake is now a nature reserve, great for bird watchers, gentle walkers (flat, so not too much huffing and puffing required) and some nice wetland flora.

 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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Jean, Mary -- I'm delighted you enjoyed the video. Thanks for taking the time to let us know! We appreciate it.

Mackerel Rillettes (Rillettes de macquereau)

Rillettes is a paste eaten on bread. Traditionally it is made with pork, or sometimes goose, but rillettes made with some sort of oily fish is also popular.

 

Ingredients

6 peppered smoked mackerel fillets (or poached fresh mackerel and lots of freshly ground mixed peppercorns, or canned mackerel), flaked and mashed with a fork

1/2 a shallot, finely chopped

2 tsp grain mustard

4 gherkins, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp white wine

2 tbsp thick cream

Zest of a lemon

1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. Use as a dip for batons of kohlrabi, carrot, celery and peppers, or spread on slices of baguette.
   

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

Jean -- I like it with and without the gherkins.

chm -- I've no doubt you would like it. Another one to pass on to your chef LOL.

Lesser Wanderer

Lesser Wanderer butterfly Danaus petilia.

A migratory species which is native to Australia and neighbouring tropical countries. It is closely related to the internationally famous Monarch that migrates from Mexico to North America.

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UPDATE -- RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

chm -- no I don't think they are Gondwanan. The wind can carry these migrant species far and wide. Australia has a resident population of Monarchs too, which I believe were blown across the Pacific. Island hopping of course, and arriving in the 19C. I think the fact that they are so light is what makes them such wide ranging migrants.

 

A Montmartre View

 

Montmartre is on a hill so lots of the streets slope, and Sacré Coeur is in the background.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

Simon -- yes, we have several English friends in the same situation. It's very frustrating.

Some Mystery Buddhist Caterpillars

I photographed several of the caterpillars I came across whilst biodiversity surveying the Buddhist chateau estate La Gendronnière on Tuesday. A couple of them were easy to identify, but a couple come under the heading of 'I feel I should know what these are, but I don't'. Luckily I'm not in charge of surveying Lepidoptera at La Gendronnière, just flies. Also luckily, Jeroen Voogd, a Dutch entomologist, has come to my rescue on Facebook and identified the ones I didn't know. Here are the photos, for all you caterpillar appreciators out there.

Mullein moth Curcullia verbasci (Fr. La Brèche) on its food plant Great Mullein Verbascum thapsus (Fr. Molène bouillon-blanc). This one I knew without having to look it up. It is distinctive and of course, the host plant helps.

Twin-spotted Quaker Anorthoa munda (Fr. l'Orthosie picotée) on Milk Thistle Silybum marianum (Fr. Chardon marie). A widespread species, one of the Noctuid family of moths which I would never have been able to identify without Jeroen's help.

Blossom Underwing moth Orthosia miniosa (Fr. l'Orthosie rougeoyante) mooching about on bramble but heading for the oak seedling which is the food plant. Thanks again to Jeroen for identifying another nightmare Noctuid.

Lackey moth Malacosoma neustria (Fr. Livrée des arbres), which is so distinctive I identified it easily after looking in the field guide.

Another Blossom Underwing moth Orthosia miniosa (Fr. l'Orthosie rougeoyante) lurking about in a sneaky random way on a plant it doesn't eat, Mouse-eared Hawkweed Pilosella officinarum.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

chm -- one of the great miracles and mysteries of nature that's for sure.

Colin and Elizabeth -- the Lackey especially is lovely, but they all have wonderful markings.

Biodiversity Surveying at the Chateau de la Gendronniere

The Chateau de la Gendronnière is just outside of Candé sur Beuvron and has been the most important Buddhist retreat in France for decades. I'm part of a small team doing a biodiversity survey for them on the 80 hectare estate, which of course is run on sustainable, organic principles so that the estate is as far as possible self-sufficient. Here are some pictures I took on Tuesday 17 May.

 

Prairie/bocage habitat on the estate. There is almost certainly a fawn hidden in the grass, as when we approached, a Roe deer bounded away.

Vane trap hanging in a large oak tree. This will capture flying insects, mostly beetles and flies, that we might not see lower down.

Broomrape Orobanche sp (Fr. Orobanche), a plant that latches on to a host plant's roots and parasitises it.

The fairy longhorn moth Adela reaumurella, a female. There were several species of Adelidae (fairy longhorn moths) in abundance, everywhere on the low hanging leaves of trees and on brambles.

Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula (Fr. Orchis mâle).

Common Valerian Valeriana officinalis (Fr. Valériane officinale). This is the medicinal plant used to aid relaxation and sleep.

Carpenter bee Xylocopa sp (Fr. abeille charpentière) resting on Phacelia in the potager. It was quite cold and although there were many bumble bees buzzing around, quite a few were resting.

Cuckoo spit, a foam produced by the larva of the Red and Black Froghopper Cercopis vulnerata to protect itself. There was cuckoo spit everywhere on low growing plants, and the adult bugs too.

A pepperpot tower in a corner of the garden.

My colleagues Valentine, the intern, and Christian, the beetle expert, head out with a beating net and a sweep net respectively.

The ablutions block.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

Colin & Elizabeth -- I don't think I've ever seen so much cuckoo spit, or so many of the adult bugs as at this site.

Cherries in the Touraine Loire Valley

Cherries are one of my favourite fruits, but I never lived anywhere that they grew well until I moved to the Touraine Loire Valley. They absolutely thrive here and many people have one in their garden. I have eight in my orchard. They also grow wild in the forests, and are a part of the indigenous mix of broadleaf decidous species in natural woodland here. 

Homemade cherry jam on a slice of boule for breakfast.

There are two basic types of edible cherry in the Loire Valley – sweet, known as bigarreaux; and sour, known as guignes. They are two different species, with the sweet ones particularly having various varieties and cultivars. A cherry tree is known as a cerisier if it produces sweet fruit, a guignier if it produces sour fruit, and a merisier if it is a wild tree in the forest.

The cherry season is brief, May through June, but if it is a good year I will be picking several kilos a day and having to think of ways to process them. The two most common uses for cherries in a Loire Valley kitchen will be the simple traditional dessert clafoutis, or a cherry liqueur made by macerating cherries in sugar and alcohol (this is super popular with my non-French friends and family, and can be used to make a version of the popular aperitif kir). I will also make coulis and confiture (jam), and a sweet spicy sauce for use with meat. And then there is pie, sponge and crumble, syrup, jelly and compote.

Burlat is the earliest widely known cherry variety in France and opens the season of sweet eating cherries, signaling the return of summer. It takes its name from Léonard Burlat, who grew the first one from seed. Bright red, heart-shaped, it is sweet and juicy with a texture not too squishy, not too firm.

Next to ripen are the sour cherries known as guignes here, but called griottes in many places. The name griotte comes from the Provençal word for bitter. Guignes very juicy and pleasantly acidic, sometimes with a touch of bitterness. They are rarely eaten fresh, but make excellent eau-de-vie, preserves and vinegar, and provide a sweet'n'sour foil to charcuterie(cured meat),magret de canard (fat duck breast) or fromage de chevre (goats cheese). My friend Christine tells me that in the old days when people made them into a liqueur they were set out in glass jars in the sun, but her granny always said the proper way to do it was to put them out in moonlight! Both Christine and I blithely disregard Granny and just leave our jars of cherries in sugar on a kitchen bench for about six weeks until the cherries have all shrivelled up and released all their juice and flavour into the sugar.

One of the most popular bigarreaux is a variety called Napoleon. Not often seen at the market, it is widely grown in people's gardens. It can be recognised by its big yellow heart-shaped fruits, spotted with scarlet. It is generally left alone by the birds, who don't realise it is ripe. Its juice is colourless and flesh firm, with a strong skin giving a satisfying mouthfeel when you bite into one.

There is a lot of confusion over cherry nomenclature and ancestory.

From my reading I have established that griottes, or Morello cherries, are small dark sour cherries, derived from wild Sour Cherry Prunus cerasus with dark flesh and red juice, so our guignes are not the same as griottes. However, true guignes are soft sweet cherries with coloured juice derived from wild Sweet Cherry P. avium, just as the firm sweet bigarreaux are. I think what we have in the Loire Valley are actually amarelles, which are sour cherries having pale red fruit and colourless juice, bred, like the griottes, from P. cerasus. 

Homegrown sour cherries.

The little guignes are thin skinned, fragile and sour, with translucent scarlet skins and yellowy flesh. They have a natural spiciness which gives jams and sauces a certain zing. The bigarreaux are large and sweet, with quite tough skin and firm flesh.

Wild Sour Cherry is a woodland tree, smaller than wild Sweet Cherry and a more reliable cropper that bears at a younger age and can be pruned harder. It is also self fertile, which means that seeds come true, unlike Sweet Cherry, which requires another nearby tree to cross pollinate with. Wild Sweet Cherries (merisiers) are one of the first forest trees to blossom, and as they are tall trees covered in lacy white flowers you can spot them from quite a distance.

Honey bee on cherry blossom in our orchard.

Homegrown sweet cherries.

We once had lunch with friends at a local Ferme Auberge (a farm with a restaurant where the menu must be made from 70% ingredients raised on the farm). We laughed when we saw the dessert – a simple bowl of fresh dark cherries. We told the patron that we had spent the last week picking 30 kg of cherries from our own orchard. He said that he had that quantity in the freezer alone, and that his grandfather had planted the trees. Then he went off and fetched an alternative dessert of generously sized crême brûlées in attractive hand made bowls. Naturally we ate both cherries and crême brûlée.

Cherry varieties from left: Giant, Napoleon, amarelle. Coins from left: Australian 50c, British 10p, 1 euro, US dime.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

chm -- yes, I think clafoutis probably did originate in Limousin, but it's well embedded in Touraine, and many other places, now. There is a tradition here of making eau de vie with cherries, but the old people with the licences to do so have died out, and no one now does it as far as I know.

Gaynor -- the birds will profit though.

Road Workers Hut

 

This little stone hut, curiously situated over a roadside ditch, can be glimpsed as you whiz past (on the D58 between Manthelan and Reignac sur Indre, from memory). It dates from the early 20th century and was built to provide shelter and storage for the Départemental roadworkers.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

UPDATE -- RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

chm -- yes the same function, although the particularity of these roadworkers huts seems to be this vaulted bunker style rather than a tile roof.

Far Breton

 

Far Breton is a traditional dessert from Brittany, and related to the better known Clafoutis. Far Breton is a bit more egg custardy, a bit less pancake battery than Clafoutis, and has prunes rather than cherries.

 

Ingredients

25 prunes, stones removed

1/3 cup apple juice or cider

500 ml milk

2 eggs + 2 egg yolks

75 g sugar

60 g butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

2/3 cup flour

Butter and flour for coating the baking dish

Method

1. Gently heat the prunes with the apple juice until the prunes absorb most of the juice.
2. Cover and leave the prunes to cool (you can do this the day before). 
3. Put the milk, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, butter, vanilla, salt and flour into a jug and mix with a stick blender.
4. Put the batter aside to rest (you can do this the day before).
5. When ready to bake put the oven on to heat to 200C.
6. Grease a lasagne dish with butter and dust with flour.
7. Distribute the prunes evenly over the base of the dish.
8. Stir the batter then pour gently over the prunes.
9. Bake for 50 minutes.
10. Cool, then cut into 8 servings.
    

Yum 

 

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

Diane -- We are fine. Let me know how the recipe works for you.

Pré de la Forge -- yes I've no doubt other fruits work very well too. 

Lisa -- oven temperature corrected now.

Wollemi Pine

Wollemi Pine Wollemia nobilis is a living fossil, discovered as recently as 1994 and only growing in the wild in three remote locations in a National Park 150 kilometres north-west of Sydney. It is a member of the Araucariaceae family which includes Monkey Puzzles and Norfolk Pines, but is the only living example of its genus. Related plants have been found as fossils.

A young Wollemi Pine photographed by me in 2003, in a protective cage to prevent theft in the Botanical Gardens, Canberra.

 

The wild trees have been cloned and are now propogated under licence as part of a funding scheme for their conservation. Happily they've turned out to be extremely resilient in terms of temperature tolerances and will take quite cold weather, so are thriving in botanical gardens from Inverewe in Scotland to Melbourne in south-east Australia. There is one in the gardens of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Only about a hundred individuals survive in the wild, and they are slow growing and extremely long lived. 

The species is threatened by virtue of the small size of its population and lack of genetic diversity. They are vulnerable to infection by the waterborn mould Phytophthora cinnamomi, an aggressive tree pathogen which is believed to have been introduced to the wild population by unauthorised human visitors carrying it in the soil on their boots. The wild trees also had a close shave during the dreadful 2019-20 bushfires, but the specialist team of firefighters sent in to save them were successful.

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UPDATE -- RESPONSE TO COMMENTS

chm -- I didn't know there were so many species in New Caledonia. There are a good half dozen in Australia. But it's not a big family even so. The most interesting thing is the distribution, as they are one of the families that survived after Australia split from South America. So they are Gondwanan in distribution.