Hello friends and campers! Gourmet Girl Denise here from Le Petit Saint Barnabé in Mouliherne, France.
It’s a blustery day here and my fruit trees which are loaded with fruit are whipping in the wind! I sure hope they will hold on to their fruit. I have cherries, two types, white peaches, nectarines, pears, apples, and figs. What a bounty! They don’t call the Loire the garden of France for nothing. I will be making lots of jam this year if the birds and the deer leave me some fruit.
My English expat friend Gerard was over not long ago and noticed that I had purchased some milk from the local supermarket. He looked at me in disdain and informed me that the milk I had purchased had UHT in it as an additive and was not healthy, even though it was organic. He promptly took me over to a barn only two minutes away from my house that was painted with multi-colored cow heads,
opened the barn door, and served himself to a liter of organic, fresh milk from a huge stainless steel barrel. He placed 70 centimes per liter of milk, about one U.S. dollar per liter, in a small box. Yes, it is the ‘honor system’ at this dairy. He then filled a bottle with water and cleaned the area under the stainless vat where some milk had spilled and away we went with our whole, organic, un-adulterated and delicious milk! I came back a week later on my own to refill my liter bottle and went through the whole process again myself. This time I met the dairy owner, Laurence. Here he is getting ready to fill the vat.
And here are some of his cows!
Needless to say, I will never be buying milk from the supermarket again! It is by far the best milk I have ever tasted. I know some of you might be thinking that whole milk it too fattening, but I find that the less human hands have touched a product the better.
In other news, I have purchased my first beehive! I am so excited about starting my own hive.
Now I just have to lure a swarm into the box. It has to get a bit warmer for bees to begin to swarm, so I have to be patient. Here is a pic of what I hope to have by next year, taken during my beekeeping classes in Santa Barbara.
So life is good here at Le Petit Saint Barnabé. I am looking forward to all of the recipes that I will be trying out with my organic fruit, milk, and honey. What’s your favorite recipe using these three ingredients? Let us know here.
Cheers, and keep on camping and cooking!
Denise, Gail, and Lindsey