Careful Tiger......!

It's New Years day and winter jasmine, daffodils and roses are flowering in the garden at Orchard Gites!
The unseasonally mild weather has the wild life confused too.... not only are the red squirrels out and about but there was a sighting of the rare Normandy tiger in the potager a few days ago. Usually shy and timid, mid-winter hunger has forced this hungry creature out from his lair to forage for sustenance. Sadly not very good timing as it is now hunting season in this neck of the woods and spit-roast tiger would be a welcome addition to any huntsman's table.

Fungus Foray

If you go down to the woods today...

be sure of a big surprise...........you might find some tasty treats...In the gloom of the forest we bumped into.........
a frenchman with a basket full of.......... little mushrooms like this .............

which he said were very tasty (hmmm. Those little one's look like toadstools to me!).
Nevertheless, it narrowed down the search a bit as we had been picking anything that looked plump and juicy. (We were consulting our mushroom guide book I hasten to add!)

Of course, looks can be deceiving so .................

The pharmacist confirmed what the frenchman in the woods had told us...... that the common chanterelles and the larger girondelles were really good to eat. In fact I think we could have sold them to several of the customers in the shop who were keen to know where we had found them! Sadly, we were told that we couldn't eat these..........They all looked pretty good to me, but in amongst them was a poisonous boletus, which because it had been in the basket with the others, may have tainted them so we were told to throw them ALL away!
The moral of this tale of course is, 'Never put all your mushrooms in one basket'!

Krispy Kreme comes to Normandy

Fortunately my neighbour passes by a Krispy Kreme shop on his way to catch the ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre.

We are all standing by the gate waiting for him when his car makes that final turn along the windy lane to La Foucaudiere!

Julia has the coffee pot on and the girls have the plates on the table in a flash....

Which one's your favourite?

Bed and Breakfast for horses!

On Monday our first equine guests came to stay. Three lovely horses spent the night in the orchard - not only did they trim the grass but they kindly left some manure for the vegetable plot. A whole barrowful - thank you horses!

French Apricot Jam

Sometimes it's worth paying a little bit more to get just what you want. This year's batch of apricot jam has turned out just right thanks to the special sugar I used, rather than my usual more frugal option of ordinary granulated sugar. I followed the recipe on the bag and the result is deliciously fruity.

Apricot Jam Recipe
950 grams of washed and quatered apricots
1kg of Jam Sugar (I used the French brand of 'Teva' sugar but any similar sugar which has added pectin will be fine)
several apricot kernels. The skins can be removed by blanching in hot water

1. Mix the fruit with the sugar and leave to stand until the sugar has dissolved. I left it overnight.
2. Pour the fruit and syrup into a large pan and bring to the boil, stirring to prevent the syrup burning.
3. Boil for 7 minutes. Count the time from when the jam is properly boiling. Stir whilst the jam boils but beware as the hot sugar syrup can splash out !
4. Skim off the foam and pot into sterilised jars.