September continues it's mellow decent into Autumn and the vegetable plots keep giving, as do the fruit trees. The quantity of fruit this year is truly breath taking and means a lot of sugar, a lot of peeling and a lot of finding new recipes. One I was particularly pleased with was for slow poached quince, which could actually be done in the slow cooker, thus keeping surveillance to a minimum while it did its thing. From solid and unpalatable to meltingly soft, spiced and delicious in 9 hours, while the house was filled with tantalising aromas. There is a batch in the freezer, another third became the most luxurious crumble we have ever had, and a third we just scoffed as we could with ice cream.
Many more quince were chopped up into small pieces, boiled a long time and strained, to be made into 11 pots of ruby amber quince jelly - quite the prettiest of the jams and jellies I make!
Tomatoes are also having a good year, a very good year. You can't really give them away at the moment, so have to do something with them. I've made hot tomato gloop, I've made tomato sauce, now I am making tomato purée which takes up less space in the freezer. I think there are about 2 kilos of chopped tomatoes of various varieties in this pot, being cooked down.
During the week I also cooked up a delicious cristophine gratin for supper - we have now had 5 individual fruits off the vine and there are another 10 that look like they will make it to edible size before the frosts, which is pretty amazing.
But it's not all cooking and preserving - every September there is a massive brocante or antiques fair at a local down called Durtal. Obviously it stopped for Covid but before then it was the biggest such event of the year around us, and an absolute "must visit". The roads and squares of the town would be stuffed with people and stalls with all sorts of tat; as well as the established restaurants and bars, there would be extra drinks and food stalls, including an oyster bar; and in my memory, every year it was hot and sunny.
Covid has made a difference, as has Brexit. For a couple of years there were camera crews from the BBC and Channel 4 doing shows, but no longer. There were no British traders with stalls, and few British voices to be heard around the town. There were fewer stalls and no oyster bar, and not all the restaurants were open. The weather was good - sunny and not too hot, but on the other hand I got stung by a hornet, so wasn't too impressed. There was still a fair amount of tat of course!
Durtal itself is a beautiful but forgotten little town on the River Loir (the small boy version, not la Loire), with a massive chateau in the centre of town, dominating the river crossing. There are handsome old buildings wherever you look, and also the occasional heron...
Well I had better go and finish making that tomato purée now, but then I need to copy off all the photos from the trail camera, so next week there should be fox, deer, badger and perhaps boar action to entertain you. Have a good week.
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