In the distant past when we lived in London, my Saturday morning reward after a weeks work would normally involve a tasty treat from the excellent Maison Blanc on Hampstead high street. The cafe, pictured below is sadly no longer there but my favourite menu item “tarte fine a la tomate” has stuck with me …
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The Jerusalem Artichoke is in my top 5 of vegetables…which is a pretty hard list for me to pick as I can’t think of a vegetable that I dislike (maybe okra….) At the mention of artichoke, you maybe thinking of a globe artichoke – the large green orb of firm petals that looks mysterious to …
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Most of Europe basked in sunshine throughout April which got the rhubarb growing much earlier than usual. 6 days after I spotted the first growth we had usable stems! Following on from my goal last summer not to waste a stick of rhubarb, here is the first rhubarb recipe of the season. What is a …
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It’s cold here, really cold. I haven’t seen the outdoor thermometer go over -2 in over a week. The mornings are absolutely beautiful; the frost freezes all the bare branches of the trees turning them white so the whole valley looks like a winter wonderland. There is fresh snow on the ground from yesterday and …
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Basil for me is the smell of summer. I absolutely adore this wonderful aromatic herb and love to grow a number of plants so I can always cut it fresh to use, it makes a remarkable difference to both the taste and smell than using pre cut stems. Basil is mostly associated with Italian cooking …
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One of the first things we did when we moved to Chatel was dig up a 10m2 lawn (of monster weeds) to create a veggie patch with 8 raised beds. The beds were made from pieces of exterior walls of an old chalet that were abandoned in the back garden. We have no idea where …
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After the mammoth task of creating our kitchen garden, the first thing we planted was rhubarb and the same plant has treated us for 5 seasons with no signs of decline. Rhubarb is so easy to grow, I don’t do anything at all to it and it produces beautiful fat, red stems. The only small …
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If you have stayed at Chalet Cannelle you have probably eaten the eggs from our free range chickens and seen that they are completely spoilt. They sit on the doorstep waiting for treats and nibbles from the kitchen and regularly follow our guests to their cars in the hope of something to peck at. I …
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