The oregano patch

You know the story. I planted oregano in the vegetable garden years ago. The plants escaped and began coming up in the lawn. There they thrived and, for a good number of years, I've been harvesting and drying oregano for cooking.

Clumps of oregano in the lawn. They didn't like being in the garden plot just behind.

The oregano has enjoyed our wet spring this year and there's plenty to harvest. It takes about a day in the dehydrator to dry the cut stems, then I have to do the slow task of separating the leaves from the stems and picking out grass and other non-oregano plants. After that, the oregano goes into jars or zip-top bags and stored in the pantry until it's needed in the kitchen. Our oregano is fragrant and tasty when it's dried. Fresh, not so much.

An unusual view

I don't have a lot of photos of this view, essentially looking south from the north forty toward our neighbors' roof line. The north façade of the house isn't particularly interesting, and two big fir trees blocked most of the view. But now those two trees are gone and the view has opened up.

Looking south, with the tilleul (linden tree) on the right.

Wednesday was a grey, blustery, and wet day. American friends who are vacationing in Paris came down (by train) for a leisurely lunch. Ken and Bob know each other from grad school many (many!) years ago. It was fun to catch up and hear the two of them reminisce. The last time we saw Bob was at their home in the Boston area in 2012 and the last time we saw Norma was when she and Bob visited us the year before that. We wish they could have stayed longer.

Arty chokes

This artichoke plant volunteered last year, growing up from a seed that fell in the garden plot. The seed came from the cut flower heads that I dumped on the garden plot before disposing of them last fall. I think there may have been one or two flower heads on the plant last year. This year, there's this:

A rogue artichoke plant in the vegetable garden plot.

These aren't really edible. There's not much on them to eat and they're not worth the effort to get to it. But the plants are pretty and the flowers are striking, so I like keeping them around.

More from the back yard

This is a photo of most of the west forty with the south forty in back on the left. On the right is a little piece of the oregano patch. The vegetable garden plot is out of the photo to the right.

I removed the old grape vines that separated the north forty from the west.

Speaking the vegetable garden, it's going in late this year, if at all. We're waiting for the landscape guy to come and till it up. He's probably waiting for the ground to dry out a bit before coming over. No one wants to till up mud. I think the past couple of days would have been good, but I don't know how many other customers he has stacked up. So we wait.

Fromage de chèvre

We live at the intersection of three goat cheese appellations: selles-sur-cher, valençay, and saint-maure-de-touraine. The boundaries overlap some around Saint-Aignan and all three styles are readily available here. Needless to say, there are a good number of goat cheese producers around us and some of them set up stands at our local markets. I found this one at the cheese vendor in Saint-Aignan this past Saturday.

A coating of chopped fine herbs and tomato flavor this selles-sur-cher cheese.

This particular vendor has been at the St.-Aignan market for a while. Their name slips my mind at the moment, so I can't tell you anything specific about them, except to say that their cheese is good quality selles-sur-cher cheese. In addition to cheeses at the standard levels of aging (soft, medium, and dry) with a natural ash coating, they offer cheeses with a variety of flavored coatings. This one is chopped fines herbes and tomato; others include chopped shallots, spicy peppers, garlic, and more.

I never really liked goat cheese before I moved here. There's something about these cheeses that is different from those made in other regions. These are not sour or strong tasting. The softer cheeses (like the one in the photo) are quite spreadable. If you let them dry out enough, they can be grated.

It's growing again

Well, of course it is. The grass only slows down when the weather is hot and dry. And that kind of weather is but a memory this spring. We'll see what summer brings.

That's the back of our neighbor's house. She's there this weekend and she spent most of the afternoon on Saturday cutting her grass.

This is the north forty, about a third of it. Our neighbor's house is peeking through the trees, shrubs, and hedges. The squared-off hedge is in our yard, but just beyond it is a fence that separates our properties. The fence helps to keep the deer out and the dog in. On the right under the trees is the carport where the Peugeot lives.

My market trip was successful and I found everything on my list and more. I couldn't resist a bunch of radishes and we were out of mushrooms. I was early enough so it wasn't crowded and there were practically no lines.

The asparagus vendor often has a little joke for his customers. He greeted me with "Un beau matin d'automne!" A beautiful fall morning! And it was.

A touch of grass

I mentioned trimming the tall grass along the garden path stone border. Here's a visual. This section is under a tree, so the grass here is not as thick and tall as most of it was. But now it's all gone!

The last of the tall grass along the border wall in the south forty. Note to self: get rid of the moss.

I'm going in to the market this morning. I haven't been in a while. I'm hoping there will still be asparagus, but the season is winding down. It doesn't help that the weather has been so chilly and wet. Also on my list: strawberries, goat cheese, chicken sausages, and egg rolls.