summer veggies - a dream

summer harvest

In the summer we expect an abundance of fruit and vegetables in our well-tended gardens, after months of hard work, lots of care, adequate mulching & watering and mostly a lot of waiting.

When the harvest is not quite as copious as expected we tend to find the faults in outside factors:
- the soil where the newly created vegetable patch is located is too poor
- the compost used as natural fertilizer has not broken down enough
- the growing season started later than normal
- there was frost even after the Saints de Glaces, the indicator of the last frost in May
- etc. etc.

This year I have decided to blame the drought, the lack of rain, for the last almost 3 months. Then I took a nap this afternoon, and in my dream I entered a very lush (hence not organic Provencal) garden with ripe lemons & grapefruit (in the summer? I think not!), loads of zucchini growing on a stalk (in a dream anything is possible), plenty of tomatoes, etc. This was a very nice dream. So I am taking this as a sign to not give up on my vegetable garden yet, with its small growth of vines for potential pumpkin, 2 tiny aubergines the size of a deflated tennis ball, the tiniest cherry tomatoes and the sunflowers with their drooping heads.

I shall go out tonight and water again, from a very shallow basin with very green water. I must admit that I have broken down in a way and allowed a pump run with electricity to fetch the water and abandon the Robinson Crusoe method of hauling a small bucket on a rope, with maybe 1 liter per dip....

Happy summer gardening
and don't forget to get your patch ready
for fall planting!

Claudia

Wise Words

One minute of consciousness

Found this quote today and thought of the story we had posted a while ago, about the fishermen enjoying the sun.

The Dalai Lama was asked what surprised him the most; he said:

“Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”

Our personal thought of the day....

Happy, relaxed and sunny greetings from La Vudèle, Provence

Claudia & Jim

the summer garden season has begun

Life and its summery joys

What a joy it is to eat the first tomato from our own garden! OK, they are small cherry tomatoes but nevertheless are we very proud of our result!

And the zucchini are also waiting in line to be harvested where 'waiting in line' may not be the right word as they tend to be ripe around the same time.

My test run with the summer garden behind the house, to see if roquette and lettuce will not bolt so quickly, is going well; roquette has already blossomed so I guess it's too warm and sunny there, as well.

The fields of wheat in front of and behind our house have just been harvested, leaving the fields with big rolls of hay - a pretty sight.

The lavender is now in full bloom, and we get a whiff of the enchanting scent wafting past our door is simply sensational!

And so each season has its charme, with summer being the best one!

Happy summer months to everyone!

from Claudia & Jim

The New Year

Good morning to the world, and
good morning to another sunny
but cold winter's day in Quinson, Provence!

 
Life at La Vudèle is absolutely amazing, and every day offers a different experience. We sat down yesterday and looked back at the past year, 2010,which was our first full year up here, at 550m altitude, in lavender country.

The garden is very dormant, after this season's very successful olive harvest (we managed to bottle 15 liters which we sell in our little shop at La Vudèle) but this is also the time to trim some of the trees, like the prune tree the other day. Or the fig tree this coming week.

We started a chambre d'hotes, with one spacious double bedroom which, once the bed finally arrived, was booked every night, and our table d'hotes having been very much in demand. But because we want to offer fresh food we always ask to reserve 24 hours in advance. As for this coming year during the summer months we are going to ask for a minimum stay of 2 nights; a chambre d'hotes, even with only one room, does involve a lot of work because the guests are part of our daily lives and hence can and should expect personal attention.

For two years in a row we volunteered at the same farm in the Drôme as WWOOFers, at Ferme du Pescher. For Jim it wa a great experience to not only learn something new but to also improve on his cheese-making methods. For 2011 we are considering a cheese-making farm with cow's milk, maybe in the Jura? We love Comté.

Due to Claudia breaking her arm in December of 2009 we didn't do any big walks or hikes this year but rather focused on our new neighborhood, enjoyed sailing on the lac Saint Croix on Jim's sail boat, met more people here in the area and all in all spent a lot of time here at La Vudèle.

The vegetable garden was a big success, especially after we started watering more often. We have our own 'source', a bassin which collects rain water so we do use natural resources but at the same time it is completing the cycle locally. And since we don't use any kind of fertilizer, not even so called organic ones, our soil is very clean. We started a compost which is now dormant in the winter but which we have used a little bit on feeding the various vegetable plants. For next year we want to try more variations but definitely loved our own fresh courgette, aubergine and tomatoes! And if all goes well we'll have some Provencal artichokes this coming summer.

We traveled to the Netherlands several times, to visit Jim's elderly mother who is turning 90 this year! Usually we stay with Jim's friends in a small town about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam but close to his mother's care home; this way we get to enjoy a family atmosphere at Hilly and Dirk's and at the same time are close to the attractions, museums and, yes, shops in A'dam.

We also went to Germany in October, for my father's 70th birthday. Thanks to my uncle's buddies he started his own tomato plantation on the balcony but too much watering (as much as 5 times a day) and the use of Blaukorn chemical fertilizer his tomato harvest was abundant but the taste very watery. O well, maybe more luck this coming year, without the fertilizer and more patience ;-)

1.1.2011 also marked the day Claudia's cosmetics company C'etrange was officially registered in France! This means that in the coming months we will be busy setting things up, finding new suppliers, creating a market here in France, etc.

And Jim wants to do a lot of work inside the house, making it more chic and modern, lots of painting, taking out of old tiles and putting in two new bathrooms, one of the guests and one for us. I think we should wait until 2012 with the new kitchen ;-)

All in all this coming year will be filled with exciting projects but at the same time with tranquility here at La Vudèle.

New Year's Day at La Vudèle

 Happy 2011 to everyone,

Claudia, Jim & Willem the cat

WWOOFing ... again in 2010

The joys of volunteering 

at an organic farm in France

Like last year, we decided to spend one week at the farm La Ferme Du Pescher in the Drome (26), to help with the various activities at the farm.

Claudia worked with the vegetable farmer Olivier by attaching the growing tomatoes to string which in turn is attached to a flexible metal string, to allow it to be adjusted to the new growth. Likewise with the cucumbers. Unlike last year whn we had had an abundance of vegetables and fruit to choose, from only courgettes, carrots and lettuce were ripe enough to eat. Just as delicious, though, fresh out of the ground!

Jim again helped with the production of goat's cheeses; he is almost an expert by now and was able to relieve Florence, the main organizer at the farm, by taking over her work for the week. He noticed the difference in the milk compared to last year; a natural product it undergoes fluctuations just like any other, and the cheese tasted a bit different as well. Florence is very proud of her blue cheese, an absolute delicatesse!

Another WWOOFer, Darcy, came to the farm the day after us. A naturally curious young woman from Northern California it was fun to pull weeds together, as this work is meditative and allows the helper to either let his/her mind drift or engage in interesting conversation.
In an evening session Jim also taught her how to "roll the cheeses",  an important part of the cheese-making process

The weather was ok but not as we expected: instead of sunshine and lazy time on the sun deck (we were WWOOFer Luxe this year and got to stay at the Gite Panda) the gusts of wind kept us indoors most of the time. This also meant that there was less of the spirit of last year which had been created by all these different people around, visitors, guests staying in the various rental accommodations, helpers, friends of the family, etc. This year it was one farmer less, Dani, who had moved further south and sold his house to Belgians who had not arrived yet, and - possibly due to the weather, not many guests.

Nevertheless it was a nice experience, to see Florence, Olaf, Juliette, Olivier and Nicolas again and to engage in worthwhile activities in this beautiful part of the world.

Happy WWOOFer greetings 

from

Claudia  & Jim