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Visiting the Gardens at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons. Part 2 – Ponds, Herbs, & Saving Our Heritage
Raymond Blanc, talking about his beloved mother. “She instilled values which I have stuck by throughout my career – fresh; local; and seasonal ingredients and made with the art of giving. We picked ours from the garden and they were all organic as they are here today at Le Manoir gardens. I did my apprenticeship as a gardener before becoming a cook!” Last week in part one, we’d arrived in the carpark and taken a stroll down the infamous lavender path, having our first glimpse of the beautiful, honey coloured Manor House. Made our way past the croquet lawn and guests sitting on the Orangerie terrace, drinking in the afternoon…
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Visiting the Gardens at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons. Part 1 – Le Manoir, Lawns, Lavender & Vegetables
“I absolutely love gardens! Way back in 1984, the first thing I did at Le Manoir was create the vegetable garden which would provide for my kitchen and for our guests. Now we have 11 different gardens and a 2,500-strong heritage orchard! Each is inspired by my travels, my childhood, my papa’s garden, books I have read and the wonderful people I have met over the years.” Raymond Blanc. Created in 1984, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons is the fulfilment of Raymond Blanc‘s personal vision – to create a hotel and restaurant in harmony, where guests will find perfection in food, service and welcome. I can only start by saying how…
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Pear & Raspberry Cake – Gluten Free
We grow two most delicious desert pears ‘Louise Bonne of Jersey’ and ‘Beth’. Unfortunately, with pears, they all ripen within a short period of time, usually around a fortnight, so a cake beckons. We are lucky enough to have a long south facing boundary in the garden, where we built a wall. The fruit trees grow along the wall. A Plum and Cherry are grown as fans and a Fig as an espalier. The Apples and Pear trees are grown as cordons. This means a single stem planted at a 45-degree angle. We get more than enough fruit off them grown this way, with the big benefit of not having…
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Tomato Sauce – A Very Simple Recipe
Transform your homegrown Tomatoes into delicious Tomato sauce for the freezer! Tomatoes were the first edible crop that I grew and once I tasted that first homegrown tomato I was hooked! I’ve grown tomatoes every year since, which is now more years than I care to remember. I initially only had the tiniest vegetable patch and I only had enough space for four tomato plants. Although they were outside, they were against a south facing wall, but I still struggled to get them all to ripen before the end of the season. I dreamt of having a greenhouse and growing enough tomatoes to make tomato soup. Well dreams sometimes come…
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Simply Delicious Cauliflower Cheese – Recipe
I love cauliflower cheese! I only have to hear someone mention it, and I crave it until I get chance to buy a cauli and make it. This has led me to make a larger portion and freeze it in batches. That way I can satisfy my craving instantly. Well at least when it’s defrosted! Having these portions ready made has recently resulted in making one of our favourite dishes, even better! In the summer when our courgette plant is producing so much fruit we can hardly keep up with it. We make so many different dishes with them, including courgette cake. One of our favourite dishes though, is vegetable…
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Courgette & Cauliflower Cheese Vegetable Lasagne – You’ll never want a meat one again!
Can be gluten free If you grow your own summer squashes, then you too will be desperate for new things to do with them. They certainly are prolific croppers. Over the years we have used courgettes and other summer squashes in more and more inventive ways. One of our favourites is to use it in Courgette cake which we eat for breakfast with yogurt, it’s really good! But we have a new favourite! I speak to you as a meat eater when I tell you that this vegetable lasagne is far, far better than a traditional beef lasagne! If this dish doesn’t convert the most ardent carnivore to eating at…
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Food from Flowers – With help from our little friends
Have you ever stopped to notice the flowers that become our food? A lot are small, some are insignificant, but others are as beautiful and spectacular as any ornamental flowers we grow. Fortunately, however small and plain they are, the insects that pollinate them don’t miss them. They busily fly from one flower to another, getting their reward of nectar and pollen, unwittingly pollinating the plants. The big majority of our food is reliant on our busy, buzzy, little friends doing this service for us. As they pass pollen from one flower to another they fertilise the plant and so allowing it to produce seeds. As with everything in life…
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Brandywine Tomato Salad – It’s too easy to be so delicious!
This tomato salad is so simple, that it’s hard to believe quite how delicious it is. The reason for this is the ingredients! I came across this tomato variety years ago when I read James Wong’s book ‘Grow for flavour’. As the title suggests, it’s all about growing food for flavour above anything else. I’d always liked the idea of a large beefsteak tomato, but they always let me down on the flavour front. Brandywine on the other-hand are absolutely delicious, packed with flavour and very few seeds, making them less wet. They are not always the most attractive looking tomato, and they can grow to quite enormous sizes. The…
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Mid-summer – Full Borders and lots to Harvest
One of the things I love about mid-summer are the flower borders full to bursting! They’re simply packed out and filled with colour. But even more importantly, it’s the most productive time in the kitchen garden. The food side of the garden is by far the most time consuming, it doesn’t stop with just growing your own food. At this time of year it’s a constant job picking the fruit and veg, then more importantly preserving the excesses that you can’t eat straight away. The Greenhouse In the greenhouse the gherkins have been going mad for a few weeks now. The best way to preserve these is to pickle them.…
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How to Pickle Gherkins – The quick & easy way
You won’t believe how good these are! This is only my second year growing gherkins, but now having discovered how gorgeous homegrown pickled gherkins are, whilst I’m lucky enough to have a garden, I’ll be growing them! I’ve always enjoyed bought pickled gherkins on a burger and I also use them to make tartar sauce, but these homegrown ones are in a different league of scrumptiousness! It helps that they are so easy to grow. The seeds are large, making them easy to handle. They germinate quickly and once they start growing, you’d better make sure you’ve got something for them to grow up, as they romp away. Little yellow…
