Anticipating Provence

By on September 7, 2010 in France, Provence, Travel

It’s now just over 30 days until I fly to Provence, and I really don’t have anything I have to do to prepare except wait for it to be time to pack.

My new suitcase is waiting. I have a mental packing list I’ve gone over so many times in my head that I could probably be packed in 15 minutes flat.

I’m spending hours with Google maps, plotting routes for loop drives during my first week in Bédoin. I’ve gone back through all my Provence books and made notes of things that might be of interest. But mostly I wait.

I was fine with this being a solitary trip, but I’m absolutely thrilled with the news that my friends Pauline and Steve (Pauline and I worked together for several years on www.slowtrav.com) are coming to spend a few days with me in Lourmarin! It will be so much fun to see them! AND we’ll be getting together with Kevin, a slowtrav regular who owns an amazing B&B in Provence.

Also, I’d been thinking about a winery tour in the southern Rhone if I could find one that didn’t involve getting on a bus with a bunch of people and being herded to big wineries specializing in tourists where I would be pressured to buy wine I didn’t like. I hadn’t found anything with Google that looked like what I wanted but didn’t cost a fortune, but then I happened upon this story about the wine tours offered by Olivier Hickman. Perfect! I’ve been in touch with him and now I’m just awaiting word from him about his schedule for the week I’ll be in Bédoin.

(Note about the photo: This isn’t all of my books, by any means, just the ones that have accumulated on the shelf above my computer. The best of them all, Bob and Sue Winn’s Guide to the Luberon is spiral bound so it isn’t in the photo.)

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New look for my blog

By on September 4, 2010 in miscellaneous

I’ve been working for the past few weeks on a new look for this blog. I get bored with the same old look, plus I enjoy fiddling with how the blog looks and works as much or more than actually writing anything for it!

This time, after admiring Pauline Kenny’s new blog Slow Travels, I purchased a theme from Woo Themes instead of using one of the many free ones available for WordPress. Since it’s the same theme Pauline uses, it was fun to set it up so that I took advantage of its cool features without making it too obvious that I was copying her! The header photo and perhaps the colors will change occasionally according to season and my current preoccupation.

I also wanted to redo my look now because I wanted to set up a quick and consistent way to show photos and easily include photo galleries in each post, something I frequently want to do when I travel. The idea is that I can have a large photo at the top if I want one, one or more smaller photos wrapped by the text, then a gallery of photos at the end of the post. Clicking any of the photos will open the gallery so that you can watch the entire set in slide show format. (The slide show does not work if you are looking at the blog in a reader–you’ll need to go to the blog directly to get the full effect.)

I’d appreciate any comments you have about the new format, especially if you notice problems. I’m especially curious about whether it’s easy to figure out how to move through the slide show.

I’ve chosen my cats, Carlos and Lizzie, to illustrate this scheme, with photos showing their occasional bickering over territory around my desk. When I’m at the computer, Carlos is usually in his bed to my left, and Lizzie in her bed to the right. The beds shown in the photos here have been replaced with identical fleece beds to try to minimize the arguments over who has the best spot.

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Green beans — another August garden update

By on August 11, 2010 in Food, Garden

I don’t know whether green beans are tempermental for everyone or just for me. One year they’ll be wildly successful so I think I’ve got it all figured out, then the next year they’re not so hot.

This is mostly a not-so-hot year. I’ve switched over to growing all pole beans since I put up my two bean fences, because I find pole beans easier to pick than bush beans, and it’s a better use of my limited garden space.

This year I planted one whole fence (8 feet) in blue lake beans, then a couple of weeks later, I planted the other fence with four short sections, one each musica, rattlesnake, purple pole and french gold. The blue lakes and musica tasted good, but there haven’t been many of them, the french gold produced nasty tough little curly yellow beans, and the purple beans are good, but they’re very slow, and just now starting to produce a skimpy crop.

The rattlesnakes, though, are fantastic! Long, slender, sweet, juicy, and plentiful, they’ve produced as many beans in their little two-foot section as everything else put together. They lose their pretty purple speckling when they’re cooked, but it really doesn’t matter since they taste so good.

The seed came in a mixed packet with the purple pole beans from Renee’s Garden Seeds, so this week I pulled out the blue lakes and replanted using all the remaining rattlesnake seeds from the packet. Depending on the weather, I may or may not get a nice fall crop.

I googled the bean to see whether it would be hard to find more seed for next year, and found that they are valued for hot and humid conditions in the south, and they are often grown for dried beans. Hot and humid is certainly not what they encountered here, but they were clearly happy anyway! One source said the name comes from their habit of forming a coil when they are fully mature.

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Tomatoes — August garden update

By on August 11, 2010 in Food, Garden

Normally I have a love-hate relationship with August, when I have an abundance of tomatoes but it’s too hot to pick them after 8 am. This year it’s all love-love, glorious tomatoes and lovely summer days in the low 80s!

A few days ago I picked 29 pounds! I’d been letting the full-size tomatoes stay on the vine until they were completely ripe, but it was still a surprising large one-day haul for my 6 cages of two plants each. I made a huge pot of tomato soup using this recipe. I have 10 quarts in the freezer. I also gave a bunch away, but we still have huge bowls of them on the kitchen counter and we’re eating tomatoes every meal and for snacks.

I’ve only had two tomato hornworms this year.  I saw minor damage from one about two weeks ago, but I could never find it and the damage stopped, so I assume a bird got it or something.  I spotted  the second before it did much harm and dispatched it to the trash.  I’m sure there will be more before the season is over!

With one exception, I’m very pleased with the varieties I’m growing this year.

Sungold cherry tomatoes, my longtime favorite, taste as good as ever but don’t seem quite as productive as they have in past years. Maybe this year’s unusually cool weather has slowed them down a bit.

My new red cherry tomatoes, sugar snacks, are wonderful. They’re not quite as sweet as the sungolds, but with a more pronounced tomato flavor. They produce lots of long clusters of plump fruits that never seem to split. I’ll definitely plant these again, since they’re far more satisfactory than the sweet 100s I used to grow.

The big beefs have been wonderful, HUGE beefsteak tomatoes with perfect color and flavor. I picked one a few weeks ago that was 1.3 pounds! These make the best BLTs, meaty enough that they don’t make the bread soggy, but still juicy and sweet.

Carmellos are a nice mid-size salad tomato that I always grow when I can find the plants. They’re as good as ever this year, although the size of the fruit seems more variable than usual.

I had one success with my two experiments, pruden’s purple and persimmon. The persimmons are big tasty bright orange tomatoes that I would happily grow again. The pruden’s purple has produced two huge mushy flavorless tomatoes, kind of an anemic pink, with blossom end rot and serious cracking. That variety will NOT be invited back!

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Aubergine revelation

By on July 11, 2010 in Food, Garden

Gratin with onion, eggplant, peppers, fennel, summer squash, tomatoes, herbs and cheese

Sometimes bitter, sometimes tasteless, but almost always slimy, especially deep-fried with a greasy coating, eggplant has always been right up there with beets and okra on the short list of vegetables I really, really dislike. I even hate the name “eggplant,” although I love “aubergine,” the French name.

The plants are attractive, though, the fruits beautiful, and I’m a sucker for attractive plants with beautiful fruits, so that’s why I have eggplant on hand in spite of my dislike for it.

I’ve been reading the blogs of Ken and Walt, Americans who live in my favorite part of the Loire Valley in France, for years now. (They live only a few km from the place where we love to stay in the Loire, so we were lucky to spend some time with them on our last visit in 2007.) I have always marveled at their blog posts about the wonderful food they cook, so I paid attention when Ken commented on my recent post about my eggplant problem and suggested a gratin recipe.

I was starting with too big a gratin dish and too few eggplants, so I when I roasted the eggplant slices ahead of time, I also roasted a couple of thick-sliced sweet Walla Walla onions, two big red bell peppers and one yellow one, and a couple of fennel bulbs. Then I layered it all into the gratin dish: onions first, then eggplant, chunks of roasted pepper, a generous sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves, grated mozzarella, then fennel, a few summer squash, and a layer of thickly sliced tomatoes. I topped it all with more mozzarella, more thyme, and a drizzle of olive oil. After an hour in a 400-degree oven, I added freshly grated parmesan and lots of torn basil leaves, turned off the oven and let it continue to cook down for another 30 minutes or so as the oven cooled off. With a crusty baguette and glass of rose, it was dinner.

Now. Given those ingredients, this couldn’t be bad, but I fully expected to pick out the eggplant and eat the rest. Instead, the silky–not slimy–slightly sweet flesh of the aubergine was my favorite part of a really delicious dish!

I’ve made vegetable gratins before, but my results have always been sort of ho-hum. I think the difference this time was roasting the vegetables ahead of time for more flavor and using more cheese instead of just a perfunctory sprinkling of parmesan.

Thanks, Ken! The recipe will be fun to play with all summer, varying the herbs, cheese, and selection of vegetables. Whatever else I do, next time I’ll use more eggplant aubergine.

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July Garden Update

By on July 6, 2010 in Food, Garden

After a very slow start, summer weather has arrived and my garden is finally starting to produce. I’m getting about a dozen a day of each variety of cherry tomatoes, the sungolds and the sugar snacks, but none of the large tomatoes show any color yet. The plants are loaded with big green fruit, so it will be fantastic when it finally happens.

For the past few days, I’ve been collecting three or four green beans a day and adding them to a bag in the crisper drawer waiting to accumulate enough for two servings. I’m tired of waiting, so tomorrow night’s dinner menu will feature a tiny helping of perfect little beans.

Only one summer squash so far, the beauty you see in the photo above. I may carve it up and serve it with the beans.

The eggplants, on the other hand, are producing like crazy, especially the plant with the little purple ones. I’d love suggestions for what to do with them all, because I don’t normally use them except in ratatouille.

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In honor of summer: Sungolds!

By on June 22, 2010 in Garden

My first ripe tomatoes of the season

My Sungold tomatoes have started to ripen. They are orange cherry tomatoes, so the three brightest colored ones are fully ripe. Or make that two, because I had to eat the one on the far left right after I took the picture. This is three weeks later than normal, and the plants went in three weeks later than they usually do. I didn’t expect that time to be so precise. All of my tomato plants are now LOADED with fruit, some full-size, although I don’t see any others ripening just yet. It’s going to be a good year!

My blue lake green beans are reaching the top of their trellis and blooming, and the four other varieties I planted a few weeks later are growing like crazy. The Spanish musicas are especially fast and have almost caught up to the blue lakes. It’s fun to see the differences between the four bean varieties side by side. My peppers and eggplant have a few small fruits, and the summer squash has a bunch of flower buds.

Summer is really here!

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October in Provence!

By on June 21, 2010 in France, Provence

Gordes on a gloomy day in October 2005. This is the last time I was in Provence in the fall.

I’d resigned myself to the fact that trips to France were no longer an option because my husband’s lung disease just won’t allow it anymore, but a few days ago he suggested (again) that I go by myself or with a friend. This time he struck a nerve. I thought about it for all of five minutes before my mind started spinning with possibilities. A few days of furious googling and emailing and my plan is set, accommodations are booked and plane ticket purchased. All that remains is to rent a car.
View My October Provence trip in a larger map

I’ll fly to Marseille in early October for 2+ weeks.

The first week will be in Bédoin in the northern part of Provence. We’ve only been in this part of Provence for brief daytrips, and I’ve wanted to spend some more time exploring the area for a long time.

I found this nice little house right in Bédoin almost immediately and bookmarked it while I went back to see what other possibilities there were. It was soon obvious that this would be my first choice. It has everything I hope for in a rental:

  • Central location in a small, but not too small, village with great daytrips in every direction
  • A reasonable kitchen and sitting area with a real sofa, not a futon, and tv
  • Outdoor space with a view (a balcony AND a rooftop terrace!)
  • A separate bedroom
  • Laundry facilities
  • Wifi
  • Even a garage, for pete’s sake!

I’ll spend the second week in Lourmarin. I didn’t have to think about this one, because I’ve been wanting to return since the day we last left in May 2007. I also knew exactly where I wanted to stay, an apartment overlooking the cafes of the Place de l’Ormeau in the center of the village. I’ve never seen the apartment but I spotted it on the website of the owners of two places we’ve stayed before. It’s Le Loft, the second one down on the page.

This one meets all the same requirements except the garage, which isn’t really a requirement anyway. I’ll have a fabulous view of cafe life from the windows, and the cafes just downstairs take care of the outdoor space.

Normally, I can spend weeks researching and dithering to choose a location, accommodations, and dates. I decided four days ago to do the trip sometime this fall, emailed back and forth with the owners of the accommodations to get the availability dates to line up the way I needed and everything was done in three days.

I still can’t quite believe it’s happening, but I am as excited as I’ve ever been about a trip!

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Summer fruit tart

By on June 17, 2010 in Food

Browsing my favorite cookbook (Patricia Wells, At Home in Provence), I noticed her recipe for an apricot-honey-almond tart, one of the few recipes in the book I’ve never tried. I came home from the farmer’s market a couple of days ago with only two apricots, but I also had a couple of peaches, a couple of plums, and a basket of strawberries, so I used them all.

I LOVE this tart! The crust and cream filling are not terribly sweet, and the fruit flavor is intensified by the time in the oven. It would be good with any single ripe summer fruit or any combination. Here’s my adaptation of her recipe.

Mixed fruit-honey-almond tart

Equipment: One 9-inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom

The Crust

Unsalted butter for preparing the pan
8 tablespoons (120g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
A pinch of fine sea salt
1 1/4 cup plus 1 tbl (180g) unbleached all-purpose flour

The Cream Filling

1/2 cup (12.5 cl) heavy cream
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons raw full-flavored honey (I used sage)

1/4 cup finely ground unblanched almonds (ground in the food processor with a teaspoon or so of flour to keep it from turning to almond butter)

Fresh summer fruit, pitted and halved but not peeled, to equal about 1.5 pounds (750g)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375.

Butter the bottom and sides of the tart pan.

For the crust, combine the butter and sugar, then add the extracts, salt and flour and stir to form a soft, cookielike dough. Do not let it form a ball. Transfer the dough to the center of the tart pan. Using the tips of your fingers, evenly press the pastry onto the bottom and sides of the pan. It will be quite thin when you finish.

Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until the dough is slightly puffy and set, about 12 minutes.  (Don’t overcook now, because the crust will go back in the oven for another 50 minutes or so.)  Sprinkle the almonds on the crust. (This is to prevent the crust from becoming soggy and it tastes good too.)

Meanwhile, prepare the cream filling by combining the cream, egg, almond and vanilla extracts. Add the honey and whisk to blend.  Her recipe called for a tablespoon of superfine flour to be whisked in as well. I didn’t have any, so I skipped it, and it worked fine without it.

Starting just inside the edge of the crust, neatly overlap large chunks of fruit (I quartered the apricots and cut all the other fruits to about the same size). Make concentric circles, working toward the center, and fill the center with the remaining fruit.

Pour the cream filling evenly over the fruit. Place in the center of the oven and bake until the filling is firm and the pastry is a deep golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. The fruit may shrivel slightly. Remove to a rack to cool.

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Best garden tour ever

By on June 7, 2010 in Garden

Permaculture garden on the side of the river levee. The summer squash are already producing, and look at that fennel!
(Photo by Dave Larzelere)

The very best garden tours take you to real people’s real gardens, where you can talk to the gardeners who created them and do the work. The tour I attended yesterday may be my favorite of all time. Just five gardens, but incredible variety!

First, the permaculture garden created by Holly. The large mixed ornamental/edible garden with terraces on the side of the Sacramento river levee just vibrated with life and fertility. I loved to listen to Holly – she’s incredibly knowledgeable about permaculture, but even more than that, she seemed so attuned to that space and those plants that she knew exactly what they needed to thrive.

Mine was second, then Elizabeth’s back yard garden. I loved it. She had curving beds carefully situated throughout the back yard to take advantage of sun and shade and lots of wonderful plantings and whimsical accents. I also really liked her outdoor dining area–so comfortable and inviting that I just wanted to plop down and stay.

Dave’s large garden was a revelation to me. He chooses beautiful, vigorous, waterwise plants and just sets them free. He has a deep backyard with a winding path through the middle and a riot of beautiful plants, such as huge purple butterfly bushes, that have been allowed to spread and intermingle in a completely natural way. This whole approach made a deep impression on me. I doubt that I’d ever be able to relinquish control that much, but I just love the beauty of what he’s created. And I’ll definitely think twice before I pull up a volunteer next time.

One of Karen's two large, beautiful koi ponds.
(Photo by Dave Larzelere)

Finally, Karen’s garden was amazing. She grows all edibles — bananas and kiwis and avocados and every fruit tree imaginable, plus she has gorgeous koi ponds in the backyard, a freestanding music/band room that she built herself for her own rock band and her sons’ bands to practice, a beautiful mosaic-tiled sitting area in front (she did it herself), murals she painted on the garage wall and a “Monet” mural she’s painting for the garden gate, a beehive, a bat house, and on and on. She’s a whirlwind of creativity.

Karen's beehive. She attended beekeeping school to learn how to care for them!
(Photo by Dave Larzelere)

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