Lamb Tails from the Keeping Kitchen.
If wishes were beggars, horses would ride… or be careful what you wish for.
This little cook wished for lambs a couple of years ago. Lamb is quite dear here in France. Why? No idea!
So I decided to grow my own. After all the grass at Camont is lush and green all summer. And we already had chickens, ducks, cats and Bacon to tend. What could be so difficult?
The two little lambs were cute. CUTE they were, with black lunettes de soleils spots and meaty haunches… and voracious, challenging and naughty. Eventually they made more work than sense for us here at Camont once they passed the gamboling spring lamb stage. Fences were destroyed, gardens were attacked, and even Bacon was butted into submission. Salvation came in the guise of a good neighbor.
M. Gimbal has a thriving canal-side flock of sheep just down the country lane at Brax. I went to ask him for advice on slaughtering the sheep and returned instead with a promise. He’d take Margot & Marguerite (ewes of the prized Causse de Lot or Quercy breed) in exchange for some lamb meat later. A deal was struck to great satisfaction on both sides. That was 2 years ago. Time moves slowly in France.
Yesterday, returning from the UK with a thousand emails to answer, a book proposal to finish and a garden overgrown by spring rains, I found a refrigerator full of lamb. Yes, a whole lamb- butchered and ready for wrapping and freezing. Just one small thing. My Very Limited Freezer space is already packed. So I consulted my handy “How to stuff a lamb in a jar…” guide. Read More
Spring Market inspiration. Open your eyes!
Why go to the market?
I mean the local farmer’s market, of course.
Fresh, simple, direct- a bargain.
Inspiring, colorful, nurturing- satisfaction.
Diverse, diverting, fun- amused.
All those words pop into my head when I think of the many very good markets I can throw a Gascon stone at from Camont. But versatility is reason I stay faithful to one of my first loves in this area, the little true producer’s market nestled under the unattractive eaves of the Chat d’Oc strip mall on the Avenue des Landes. Not only can I buy just picked old-timey vegetables out of neighboring market gardens, get a great baguette at l’Envie de Pain (thanks Pierre & Valerie!), take my weekly beekeeping lesson from Narcisse, pick up some house paint or maybe get a blood test at the Laboratoire and get Bacon groomed, I can also wash my car at the best carwash in town! It’s a full service strip mall French style… with wine.
What the Chat d’Oc lacks in French country charm it makes up in seriously good content. Here’s a sample of what I picked up yesterday before our MAGYC Day Cooking Class with Michelle & Rochelle where we started with a little fresh herb soup we drank as a hot cocktail. Read More
Seed-to-Pantry thinking… plant now!
Not too late to plant some seeds. A little patch of fraises des bois planned under the watchful eye of the Scare-Hen.
May Day ~ Mayday ~ M’aider: in a pickle
May Day. All is quiet this early morning but the vast aviary outside my kitchen door. In France, this first seasonal holiday, Labor Day, is the promise of Summer to be. Although it still smacks of worker’s right and labor issues, waving red flags or lily of the valley, it is just a very quiet day in the Gascon countryside.
Mayday- Mud! The famous Garonne River Fog is late this year; it has rained, rained, rained these last two weeks. So much rain now that with the soggy bottom clay silt soil holding moisture like a sponge, the promise of a clear sunny sky later makes morning fog. My own little micro-climate at Camont alongside canal & river is good for the garden…if I could only get to it though the muck.
This week’s market also shouted “Mayday” with a rouge abundance of rhubarb, strawberries, peppers and early tomatoes. Instead of pique-niques, boat rides, country walks, and gardening, I’m sticking close to my Keeping Kitchen and brewing up some seasonal treats- micro batches, single jars, starter vats. Here’s the list from the market booty…
Weekend Breakfast-at-Camont. Asparagus & HAM
It begins here, with two good ingredients.
Ham- Eric Ospital’s Ibaiona brand from the Basque Country.
Asparagus- local, just picked and carried to the market so fresh it snaps.
This week, my Kitchen Godmother, Vétou Pompele, came by for weekend breakfast (a decidedly not French event) and asked me what I would make for her.
I grabbed a copy of my first cookbook that chronicled my early days sailing on the Julia Hoyt and said,
“Your Asparagus and Ham dish, of course”.
She had forgotten about what was long one of my favorite dishes. It’s easy. When you cook everyday, EVERY DAY, that’s a lot of recipes under the bridge. We have both forgotten half of the wonderful dishes we cooked together over years of sailing the canals and rivers of France on the Julia Hoyt. This was always one of my Spring favorites, because unlike my life BF (Before France), asparagus is a once a year event, a few scant weeks of spear-ful delight. Read More
