frontdoor foraging in the garden-at-camont
“You could plant a stone at Camont and it would grow!”
I think of Vetou saying this 20+ years ago as I first started gardening at Camont. First a swath of English-ish border plants lined the pathway to the canal: poppies, roses, lavender…
Next, Jhon Corbin- artist/matelot/friend, created a wine bottle border sculpture- Camont Woman-that filled in over the years with day lilies, delphinium, and more roses…
Until she was rousted from her slumber and the front path was ‘landscaped’. Sort of like trying to dress this old woman in a business suit of pine bark. Uck, it looked bad and didn’t work…
Over planting years came next. Weed-invaded textile ripped up, trees re-introduced, a jungle grew of crabapple, rosa banksiae, magnolia, almond, fig…
Are you getting the picture? Wild. Sauvage. Growing like stones… Read More
Wednesdays at Welbeck: Charcuter-ish! Committed or Involved?
You know that old Chicken and the Pig joke?
What is the difference between involved and committed?
In a ham and egg breakfast, the chicken was involved, the pig was committed.
I love that joke. It conjures up the very differences that help define ‘artisan’ to me.
So in my capacity as Head of Butchery & Charcuterie at the School of Artisan Food on the Welbeck Estate, I sent out that joke as an invitation to several involved and committed British Charcuterie companies to join us here at SAF for a day of meaty talks about “the emerging state of British Charcuterie.” At least that’s how I described it. The response was strong, the turn out was epic and as 18 people (with a few special guests dropping by) came together around our Butcher’s Table, it was clear that there is indeed a new British Charcuterie movement strongly afoot. Look who showed up…
it’s all about the buzzzzz: NEW working grrls-at-Camont
Oh Honey!
Beekeeping-at-Camont, Round 2.
A couple summers ago I trapped? caught? coaxed? a wild swarm to move into my waiting hive- la ruche. I savored the summer apiarist antics while discovering the sweet taste of Camont, letting the garden wild up, and learning from my favorite beekeeper- Narcisse Ferronato.
The winter was hard, the swarm was fickle, bee mites attacked and the bees were all gone by the spring. Like many new things I’ve attempted- making charcuterie, growing a garden, and driving an 85 foot barge- you don’t always get it right the first time around. Part of the ‘getting it right’ (or just getting it done) & part of growing up (and older) that I’ve practiced at Camont is learning that once is for dilettantes. Pros work, create, and practice all the time. (Sorry, but cooking once a weekend doesn’t make you a chef!) So at the end of last year, I took my sorry/sad/empty ruche to Narcisse’s small bee farm underneath the Chateau Madaillan and left it with him to over winter for some loving care. Today I picked it up- 3/4 full of fat honey and healthy bees and ready to welcome them back to Camont’s bounty. I am ready to begin again and really learn to keep bees. So what’s bloomin’ at Camont?
Jambon de Bayonne en fête! A Basque Country road trip with Kate.
What’s red and green and red and white… and ham all over?
The Foire au Jambon in the colorful Basque port of Bayonne.
A memory of a Bayonne surfaces from a long ago road trip looking for marine goods along the Atlantic coast for my barge, the Julia Hoyt. Rope, cord, and lines I was searching. I drove along the river port of the Adour outside of Bayonne in the very southwest of Southwest France looking for some fishermen, a working boat or chandlery. The newly fitted nose of wooden fishing boat peeked out of an over-sized hanger; I braked for a quick look inside. Yes. Men working with wood and fiber glass, paint and canvas. Ocean going small fishing boats. Sturdy, serious and hard-working. The boats and the men. I knew they would know. I have a nose for these things.
I thanked them for the directions to the Co-op Maritime in St. Jean de Luz, I turned to say au revoir and stopped dead in my foodie tracks. Although the Captain in me was looking for cord, the Cook in me spotted a treasure trove of maturing hams hanging from every square foot of rafter space. A boat yard/charcuterie shed? Welcome to Baiona!
Happy Easter from the Critters-at-Camont
Friday roars with Thunderstorms that strip the Cherry Tree and carpets the grass in pale petals.
Bacon left his latest love bunny out in the storm.
The Easter Pig heralds ham for chocolate and the four coqs crow a rainy morning.
Saturday south we drive to Bayonne and the fresh salt breeze that dries mountain hams.
Sunday will be sunny and warming through Espelette and the Pyrenees homelands.
Spring beginnings for new month long Charcuterie-at-Camont courses, limited spaces available for October.
