The Farm Report

Here's a nice picture of a part of the vegetable garden today. It was a slow year because of the incessant spring rain and cool temperatures. We really didn't get things in the ground until June. We have a tractor plow the garden and this year, the first time we tried it, the tractor began to sink into the mud.
Now we have alternating heat and cool spells and very little rain but due to the all the rain this spring, there is still a lot of water below the dusty surface in the red clay earth here at la Sechere.
We have lots of lettuce, a type of romaine and another green heading variety called Souix. We have had lettuce everyday since the beginning of June and it looks like it will continue into the cold weather. I have well over 100 potato plants of the variety Spunta, which are a good all around potato and seem to store well. Potatoes are relatively cheap, but we miss having our own when the supply from the previous season runs out.
I wrote about the raspberries, because of the rain, we had a bumper crop, perhaps 20 kilos all told. I mentioned this to one of my favorite bloggers, History Mike, to give him garden envy. Check out History Mikes blog, he's on vacation in Spain and remote blogging his experience! Now the plants have all been trimmed back and the new canes are getting ready for next year. The raspberries made many pots of jam and there are many kilos frozen in the freezer.
The tomatoes are just beginning to ripen. There are 25 plants. They were late, but now I think we will see them make up for lost time.
The first planting of greenbeans are just setting flowers, perhaps I will be picking them next week. I have a line of 20 or so sweet corn plants and they also were late getting in and slow to start, but I should see corn in 2 weeks. Sweetcorn freezes well.
Then the green peppers and eggplants. They are producing and beginning to really kick in. there are leeks, artichokes, basil, oregano, celery, rhubarb from seed, parsley and some strawberries...I am going to replant my strawberry bed next season.
There are many pumpkins and potimarrons.
Then there is the zuchinni...courgettes...I think somehow we ended up with 8 plants.
A few we bought early in the season and then a few came from seed. After taking their sweet time to kick in, they are producing with a vengeance. What do you do with maybe 10 zuchinnis a day for months on end? Did you know that dogs like zuchinni?
I happen to love zuchinni.
I have many zuchinni recipes and here is one of my very favorites:
Tart au Courgettes (Zuchinni Pizza?)

First, you need a pie crust...and a shallow tart pan, perhaps 28cm in diameter. I always recommend the French variety with the removable bottom.
For dinner tarts, which basically are a form of fast food, it's a drag to have to make a pie crust. Here in France, puff pastry crusts are sold rather cheaply. You simply unroll them in the tart pan. They are wrapped in a piece of cooking paper which you can use to line the pan. Very simple, nothing sticks! You can also use another type of crust, such as Brise.
I unwrap the crust in the pan and prick it with a fork and precook it for 15 minutes at 325...It cooks the crust and it shouldn't get beyond lightly colored.
Meanwhile, I take aboout 200 grams of smoked lardons...You can use slab bacon cut into strips...maybe a quarter inch. I always boil the lardons for a few minutes to get rid of chemicals and impurities from the curing process.
Then in a heavy pan, I coat my zuchinni slices with olive oil lightly and begin to saute them. When they are lightly cooked, I add the lardons. They should cook together for a few minutes, nothing should get too done. This is best done earlier as I always have better results if I let the sauted ingredients cool before putting them on the crust.
So place the lardons and zuchinni on the crust and break one egg and one egg yolk into a bowl. Mix with say 4 table spoons of cream. Add salt and pepper. You could use yoghurt.
Pour this mixture over the zuchinni and then grate a little swiss cheese (ementhal or gruyere) on the top. Bake at 325 for half hour or so until the topping looks nice and browned...
This is one of my favorite things.