Vegetable swop!

A surplus of tomatoes, too much mint, eggs up to your ears?  You need the new site, established in November last year,  Troc Légumes www.troc-legumes.fr was started because the founder moved to live in à flat.  Hé had been used to eating fresh vegetables from the garden and he missed them.

On the site one can find individual producers who have a surplus of produce or plants and who would like to either swop or sell them at a really low price.  For example I searched in the Paris area and found someone who was willing to swop work in the garden or building work in exchange for vegetables or eggs.  Also organic eggs for sale at  20 centimes per egg.

Not only is this kind of trade economical and great for the environment (less purchases in the supermarket, less packaging) but à great way to meet other like-minded people.

Get clicking!

Foire d'automne 26 october - 4 november 2012

I took a trip to the Foire d'Automne at the Porte de Versailles in Paris today.  The event is open from 10h - 19h every day.  The theme of the show is 'Le Potager à Croquer' or the vegetable garden.  There are numerous seminars and free activities for all the family around the theme such as 'Coaching for Gardeners', 'Cooking seminars', 'Creating a vegetable garden' and many other interesting activities.  There was also a very interesting photographic exhibition entitled 'Des legumes et des hommes', featuring various personalities alongside the gardeners from the Potager du Roi at Versailles with their favourite vegetables.  The images were really fun and creative.

www.deslegumesetdeshommes.fr

of which I will post another time when I have more images.  The exhibition will also be installed in Bercy Village in the restaurant Chai. until 31 December.;;;;

I was pleased to visit the stand of the Association des Jardiniers de France, an association that has existed since 1876, is approved by the Ministeries of Education, Agriculture and Ecology.  For 44 Euros a year, one can become a member, receive newsletters and access to the line allojardin@jardiniersdefrance.com The aims of the Association are to offer  free lessons,  seminars, visits and plant sales.  You can contact the Association at www.jardiniersdefrance.com

There were a fewstands which I particularly liked the look of:-

Shooky hammocks look fabulously comfortable and perfect for a quiet corner in the garden in the summer or in the home if you have the space..

Hammocks from www.shooky.fr

These charming playhouses are easily constructed from solid wood pieces and can be constructed by the children themselves with a little help from their parents.  Better than those garishly coloured plastic houses that we see so often like a blot on the landscape beaming out like a beacon in the garden methinks.

www.macabane.eu

There were also plants and unusual bulbs for sale at very reasonable prices.

And some impressive displays of vegetables

On floor One there were various stands with disparate wares ranging from scarves, leather jackets, useful items for the kitchen, jewellery, make up, kitchen ware, useful inventions, bamboo filled pillows, quilts, nutcrackers, cosmetics, creams, perfumes, herbal teas, lights, decorations, Christmas cards, African masks, coathangers - anything you care to find.  To be honest, I did find some of the wares were a bit tacky but I came home with a candle sold by Marie Claire magazine in aid of education projects in developing countries and a gorgeous deep blue lacquered bowl made from a coconut shell.  Look carefully, there is unusual treasure to find.

I also really enjoyed visiting the 'degustation' area where all manner of food and drink products were on sale.  I particularly liked the free wine tastings and I munched on an excellent sandwich with Spanish cheese and Jambon serrano which was delicious!  A nice little day out;  Nothing as grand as the main Foire de Paris but a pleasant diversion for a few hours.

Thinking about Vegetables....

I'm not a great vegetable person.  Like eating them, not too successful, nor bold in growing them.  Very jealous of neigbour's potager next door, but then he's been in the business for nearly 60 years.  I keep telling myself 'I can learn, I can learn, anything is possible'.  Spring is the sort of New Year for gardeners, time when resolutions are made, promises to water, trim, make that tricky space look beautiful this year...and I find my gardening new year full of resolutions to 'grow my own' (veg that is).

To this end, last time I was in UK at WH Smith, I purchased an excellent, clearly illustrated and simply written book 'Grow Vegetables - Gardens, Patios, Roof Terraces, Allotments' by Alan Buckingham published by Dorling Kindersley.  I notice it has 4 and half stars on US Amazon, which is a good sign.

http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Vegetables-Gardens-Balconies-Terraces/dp/0756628903

http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Vegetables-Gardens-Balconies-Terraces/dp/0756628903#reader_0756628903

It is divided into sections:

1. The Perfect Plot
2.Vegetable Grower's Know-How
3. Cabbages and Leaf Vegetables
4. Root and Stem Vegetables
5. Peas and Beans
6. Salads
7. Fruiting Vegetables
8. Cucumbers and Squashes
9. Perennial Vegetables
10. Herbs
11. Vegetable Planner
12. Vegetable Doctor

I like this book for several reasons:-

* It has lovely photos, but they are not too 'arty' so it makes you think that it might be realisable that you too could grow some of those veg.

* It is really comprehensive and detailed and tells you everything in very simple english, without patronising.  This is why I like Delia Smith's cookbooks too after all these years....but I digress.

* It list loads of vegetables that you can grow and it makes me think I could do it too.

* It tells you step by step how to sow seeds or plants, routine care, harvesting, what can go wrong and then reccomended brands.  This is where we fell down last year with the courgettes.  We had our first ever and it was huge and kept growing.  Dear readers, the problem wasn't that we couldn't grow the darn thing but I wasn't sure when to harvest it, whether it was ready or not, we hesitated, not wanting it to go mouldy nor pick it before it was good to eat. I don't have this problem with tomatoes, we've been doing this for a while now and you can see with your own eyes what a ripe tomato looks like.  Anyway, this book tells you when to harvest so I have high hopes.

* It is pragmatic.  I quote " Space versus time: the history of vegetable gardening is littered with unkempt, overgrown plots started with the best of intentions, but abandoned when the time to maintain them can't be found.  There's no way of divorcing how much space your vegetable plot occupies from how much time you will have to spend on it.  To put it bluntly, the bigger your patch the more time it will take.  SO DON'T KID YOURSELF - be honest about how much time you can devote".
I like that, don't kid yourself.  Told you it was pragmatic!

* I also liked the advice about growing vegetables on a terrace or in pots.  Really helpful for balcony or small plot owners.

So, my conclusions, without kidding myself?  I will go for tomatoes again, they are so useful and money saving and I'm getting to know what to do, although my 'pinching out' technique is not perfect yet.  Spring Onions, Lettuce, perhaps Roquette and Chilli Peppers.  Not too much but something satisfying.  I'll be consulting this book regularly and, bien sür, my knowledgeable neigbour who knows even more than this book can mention....Watch this space!

Raised beds for vegetables

It's the time of year when dreams of having a vegetable garden happen - I was in the garden centre recently and everyone seemed to be walking out with vegetables, fruit trees, seeds.....If you want a great start, prepare the ground well.  You could do worse than think of creating your own raised beds.  Here's some ideas:-

http://happyfarming.com/2011/07/09/raised-bed-designs/

Tomato Tally

Here's our first tomato, which appeared in late July.  The crop has been really disappointing this year, no where near last year's bumper crop.  I still pick every day, but instead of a good bowl full, I'm lucky to get more than 10 tomatoes a day.  I was even considering buying some today so I can make a tomato salad for dinner tonight.  I planted mine at the usual time and my neigbour who planted early (May), his crop is over  now.  I'm hoping mine will go on well into September, we'll see.

Here's a lovely tomato salad recipe:

2kg tomatoes (mixed types, some large, some small, different colours work well)

1 'gousse' of garlic
4 fresh spring onions
flat parsley leaves
Sauce
5 dessert spoonfulls of olive oil

3 ds of red wine vinegar

Wash toms, dry, cut into rounds, put in seive and add some salt, leave to drain 30 mins.  Peel garlic and onions, press garlic and chop onions small, put in a salad bowl with olive oil, vinegar, pepper and parsley.  Add tomatoes, mix, serve freshly made.

Good with fish or meat

Apologies if I've infringed someone's copyright.  I cut this receipe out of a French Sunday supplement a few years ago and have been using the recipe ever since.  Enjoy!

Global warming produce

http://www.bbccountryfilemagazine.com/feature/country-matters/british-olive

Acting on an urge to grow his own food, Mark Diacono purchased a 17 acre smallholding in Devon, (Otter Farm) England.  Banking on a changing climate and global warming, he decided to plant warmer-weather produce.  There's a long article about him on the link above.

In an article in the Observer, he gives his advice on how to grow remarkable fruit and vegetables:-

1.  Choosing what to grow: Make a wishlist.  Dream.  Forget limitations.  Let flavour be your guide.

2. Grow what you most like to eat: Follow that wishlist.  That's why we grow cherry tomatoes in the main - we love eating them, they are delicious and expensive in the shops.

3. Grow what you can't buy: Supermarket peaches, nectarines and apricots are picked early to keep them firm so their sugars stop developing.  They never have the taste of one just picked from the tree at the right moment.  Equally, asparagus, sweetcorn, peas and carrots taste sublime from the garden.

4. Grow something unexpected.  Mulberries, salsify and quinces don't do well in the supermarket system.  He also suggests a subterranean pear (yacon), sweet lemony oca or Egyptian walking onions.

5. Challenge your tastebuds.  If you don't like something in the shops, you might find the home grown version delicious.

6. Grow food that's expensive to buy (hence our cherry toms) or asparagus, purple broccoli.  You'll save plenty of money.

7. Think seasonally.  Don't ignore fruit, greens, salads and nuts from other parts of the year.

8. Quick return.  Enjoy quick and easy successes with cut and come again salad leaves for example to give you confidence.

9. Go for diversity.  Don't plant too much of one food.  Go for a broad range and a mixture of varities.  You'll find a big difference between varieties of the same fruit or veg.  Some might be easier to repeat next year for example.

10. Aesthetics.  Foster your own sense of the beautiful, give your patch importance.  Park your chair and have your morning coffee near your crops, feel the pride!

11. Get catalogues.  Look through all the catalogues you can find, go to someone who knows what they are doing (a neigbour for example).  Remember what you are reading is a menu, just that the service is a bit slower than in a restaurant!

12. Be realistic about your time.  Start slow, don't take on too much.  There's a lot of difference between four tomato plants and six crops.  Take on what you can cope with and add more crops when you get more experienced.

Thank you mark Diacono for those words of wisdom!  If you'd like some more of that wisdom in book form, buy 'Veg Patch: River Cottage Handbook No 4' from Amazon.

Scores on the doors after September

I can hardly believe it myself but the tomato plants are STILL going strong, looking a bit more brown and certainly they have stopped growing, but there are still producing tomatoes, incredible, what an investment!

The scores on the doors at the end of September are:

Small one                393
Medium one             33
Mummy                   385
Daddy                      44
*Unexpected one      52

*I planted some seeds way back in March/April from a packet of chilli peppers.  They grew nicely in the pots, I thinned them and planted them in the garden all over.  So we now have a good crop of chilli peppers?  No!  They turned out to be largeish cherry tomato plants instead!  What a surprise.  I watched them as they grew and knew that the leaves were a bit similar in both plants but then the leaves started to smell of tomatoes, and lo and behold little green tomatoes began to form. 

The great thing is that they have matured much later than the plants that we purchased, so we have a longer tomato season.

In the supermarket, a pack of organic cherry tomatoes costs nearly 3 Euros and there are about 20 in each pack.  Thus, we have saved around 300 Euros in tomato costs.  This is enormous!

Final scores on the doors in mid October I expect.  It's a close race....

Scores on the doors after August

Returning from a week's holiday I was a little nervous to see if the weather had been really hot back in Paris and, as a result, if all the tomatoes had quickly ripened and fallen off. I hate wasted food!

Luckily (for us), the end of August was pretty dire in Paris so I was able to pick and use over 200 tomatoes which had just perfectly ripened. The scores have changed, Mum was racing ahead and has been overtaken by young whippersnapper - just, it's close - and he's still got more to come! Scores at the end of August:

Mum 223
Dad 21 (but they're big ones remember)
Young whippersnapper 225
Eldest whippersnapper 32

Eldest is sore and disappointed he's done so badly but he's pragmatic and hasn't yet refused to eat the winning produce. Oh the politics of home growing!

I still feel great that we haven't had to buy one single tomato this summer and the plants are still going strong.

Trim your basil!

If your basil plants are getting flowers on them - cut them off - now! Yes know they are pretty but you don't grow basil for the flowers. If you don't cut the flowers off and stop them developing, you won't get any more of those delicious leaves coming through. Get your scissors out! Snip snip.

Tomato scores

Mum: 8 (cherry toms)
Dad: 0 (but there's lots of big juicy green ones waiting to ripen)
Young whippersnapper: 2 (cherry toms)
Older whippersnapper: 25 (very small early fruiting plant)

Watch this space for the latest scores! I suspect older whippersnapper might regret choosing an early fruiting plant as the others go on long into August, but we'll see)...........

Cherry picking

We had a great crop of cherries this year and gave bowls of them to neigbours, friends and teachers. My youngest absolutely loves them and pesters me to buy them at the market now. Ours are called 'coeur de pigeon' because they are small and shaped like a heart. My friend Lisa has a huge cherry tree that fruits large deep red cherries at the end of June and we'll be invited to pick our own. Looking forward to that. Once she found two policemen climbing up her wall and stealing their own bowl of cherries!

And on the vegetable front, we have produced our first tomatoes this year, 5 in all - hurrah! It's the Red Robin cherry tomato plant which is a dwarf variety - small and bushy, really suitable for a terrace or a pot. They are delicious and we're waiting with anticipation for the rest of our crop.