Play with me, play with me!

We were a little tired after the wine tasting and then did quite a bit of mowing in the really hot weather. Poppy spent the day in the sun asleep. Come evening she was keen to play, we were keen to sit down with a beer!

Who could resist that face though...

Visit to Chateau Sabazan vineyard

Lovely visit to a vineyard with friends. It is part of the Plaimont collective. This chateau grows and produces the wine onsite - which then allows the wine to have ‘Chateau’ in the name. About an hours drive from us.

Nice old buildings with stone walls (and Doug)

This is our guide getting some wine out of an oak barrel for us to taste. It has been in there 6 months and will mature for another 6 months before bottling.

This is the Chateau itself. Plaimont bought it some years ago, but it has a mad 95 year old lady who refuses to move out because she says they never paid her the money (it sounds like she didn’t get much money because it had to go to paying off all her debts). 

These vats are used to ferment the wine from the grape juice and also in various blending procedures.

As we as the wine straight from the oak barrel we tasted several different ages of wine. It was amazing how much it changed as it aged. It started off with quite sharp fruity flavours with the oak being quite a harsh woody taste and then mellowed and got more complex with age. Very interesting.

This years grapes are not quite ripe yet. We also heard about how they manage the vines, lots of work to make sure that they have the best flavour possible and the right sweetness.

We had a nice packed lunch with some more of the wine. Thankfully Liz was driving!

While the bees are away...

Doug is clearing round the bees are so they can get back to their hives and so the poor trees trying to grow there have a better chance. Much safer to do while the bees are away!

The hive you can see is empty, the bracken behind Doug there is taller than me - you don’t really get the scale of it in the photo.

Potato harvest

I have only dug up 1 row of the 12 as I think (hope) they will keep better in the ground - despite the voles.

I got nearly as many stones as potatoes!

Pretty good considering the voles are bound to have eaten some. Certainly more than were planted!

We had them with some wild boar from the freezer (given to us a while ago by a hunter I met in one of the fields) and other veg from the garden.

Blackcurrent Mini Morsels Recipe

For the pastry

130g flour

50g room temp butter

50g caster sugar

1 small egg

For the filling (or use jam as that is what it is!)

130g blackcurrents

130g sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

Lakeland mini morsel or similar small baking tray

Make the filling by heating the black currents with the lemon juice until soft and broken apart. Add the sugar and heat gently until you get to a set. You are basically making a very small amount of jam. Allow to cool thoroughly.

To make the pastry, cream together the butter and sugar until pale.

Add the egg and mix a little to break it. Add the flour slowly until the mix is a soft dough. You want it to mould easily, but not be too soft and buttery.

Divide the mix between the 24 holes in the tin and press down to the bottom. Use the poker thingy with the lakeland set to shape the pastry to line the mould, or just use your fingers.

Blind bake at 175°C for about 15 mins until lightly browned. No need for beans or anything.

Fill each shell with the the jam. Really full!

Reheat gently for about 5 mins at 175°C, you don’t want to boil the jam as that will cause it to overflow.

Finally Strimmed the Potager

All good intentions to keep it well mown this year to keep the voles away and help things grow, but a long spell of rainy weather put paid to that...

Finally got in there to strim to try to get it back under control

Dog inspecting my hard work

Runner beans have started

Now we need to eat them!

This is lamb bibimbap

This is runner bean, kale and bacon fried with onion and tomato on a slice of bread and a few slices of bacon. I’m calling it bruschetta.

These are giant brambles of our new thornless bramble plant. Very yummy and impressive size. Also with a few raspberries, pinkberries and blueberries and a little mint.

While I was strimming the potager Doug was strimming round where the bees normally are. It is easier to do while they are away.

Salmon Mini Morsels Recipe

For the pastry

100g plain flour

2 egg yolks

50g butter

1 tablespoon of cold water

Salt if you are using unsalted butter

For the filling

200g smoked salmon

250ml white sauce (béchamel sauce)

1 tsp french mustard

Some grated cheddar (depends how cheesy you want it... I use a lot of cheddar)

Pepper and salt to taste

More grated cheese for topping (I use cheddar)

Lakeland mini morsel tin or similar mould

Make the pastry by crumbing together the butter and flour, then add the egg yolk and enough water to bring the pastry together. Don’t over work it. Put it in the fridge to rest while you make the filling.

Fry the salmon gently in butter. When cooked break it in to smallish pieces.

Add the other ingredients and warm through.

Roll out the pastry and cut pieces that fit the tin. You can try using the plunger tool, but it is probably a bit stiff for that. Blind bake for about 15 mins at 175°C until lightly browned. You don’t need beans or anything (thankfully as that would be a faff!)

Fill each shell generously with the filling and top with cheese. You want it to be mounded above the level of the edge of the shell as it will shrink a little.

Cook for about 10 mins until the cheese browns a little at 175°C

Took them to a friends for nibbles with apéro. This was desert, made of layered pastry like a croissant - very yummy, and very impressive that Liz can make them!

Some live piano music

Bagnere normally has a piano festival in July. We have never actually made it to one of the events for some reason. This year they couldn’t have it as normal, but they had one outdoor free event. We went and it was excellent. We often struggle with live music, having had access to the best when we lived in London, but this was really really good.

https://www.piano-pic.fr/

We thought about going to a bar in town afterwards, but decided we had had enough of other people and we should head to our favorite bar a little out of town (our house!)

Peach Jam

Our peaches aren’t great for eating, but they make very good jam. Unfortunately the birds think they are good eating and often get a lot before they are ripe.

Walk above La Mongie

Going to La Mongie to do change overs of the apartment isn’t too much of a burden when we can go for a lovely walk afterwards.

I had the lens of my phone cleaned, but it needs doing again!

Wild blueberry

More food!

Beef and olive pizza

Healthy salad

This week’s bibimbap

Beef Thai red curry

Bacon egg and chips

Maybe the diet will start next week!

12 year wedding anniversary (a day early)

We have been married 12 years tomorrow. We are celebrating today because a Saturday is a better day for that than a Sunday.

We moved the cows to another field and the horses. Did some strimming and mowing. All just a normal day!

Then as summer has suddenly arrived we had a nice dinner outside cooked on the pig.

Horses happy with nice new grass

Venus doing a yokel look with a piece of straw

Beer and saucisson, pig warming up in the background

Pretty nice view

Pork chops with couscous and veg from the garden