Month: September 2016

Harvesting walnuts

The last week in September already, and the fig crop is coming to a close. My disappointment is tempered by the fact that our walnuts are ripening.

The best indication that walnuts are ready is when the outer skins start to crack. At the point you know they are going to be easy to peel. OK, you will end up with fingers looking like you smoke fifty a day. That’s the tannin fighting back. But it will be worth it.

Once you have removed the green outer casings, you will want to clean the walnuts before drying them. Some people use wire brushes. I find that if I place the walnuts in a large bin, I can let loose with a pressure washer!

Once cleaned, lay the nuts out to dry in the sun, or in an oven.

I am already looking forward to making walnut sauce to go with pasta. It is incredibly easy to do, as the sauce doesn’t require cooking.

Pasta with walnut sauce.
Ingredients
  • 250g shelled walnuts
  • 40g butter
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • ¼ cup parmesan cheese
  • 2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley
  • ¾ cup olive oil
  • 1/3 cup cream

Toast walnuts in a non-stick frying pan for 5 minutes. Reserve 2 tablespoons of nuts. Process the remaining nuts in a food processer along with butter, garlic, parmesan and half the parsley, until the mixture is finely ground. Continue to process while adding olive oil, until a thick paste forms. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and stir in cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook your favourite paste. (Tagliatelle, linguine, and pappardelle work for me). Drain the pasta and while still hot stir in the walnut sauce along with the toasted walnuts and the parsley which you set aside. Enjoy!

 

 

Ban des vendages 2016 in Plan de Dieu

What is it?

Our village of Travaillan celebrated the ‘ban des vendages’ on Saturday. It seemed strange to me to be celebrating a ‘ban’ on something. However, it all became clear when I realised it was a shortening of the expression ‘lever des ban des vendage’ – the lifting of restrictions on harvesting the grapes. Since Roman times specifying the date of a vendage has been regarded as a public matter rather than something to be left to individual vignerons.

The communes of the Plan de Dieu

The evening started with speeches from our local mayor and representatives of all four municipalities that make up the Plan de Dieu appellation : the communes of Camaret-sur-Aigues, Jonquières, Violès et Travaillan.

How good will the 2016 vintage be?

Then the fun started. Local vignerons carried in baskets of red grapes and hand-pressed them. The juice was collected and the colour and sugar content assessed. From the cheers it was apparent that the reduced quantity of this year’s harvest would be outweighed by the quality. The recent drought conditions have assured that the 2016 vintage will have a high sugar content and that in turn will mean a high alcohol content.

The dates at which Plan de Dieu harvesting will commence were announced, with white grape harvesting preceeding the harvest of red grapes by one week. Everyone present then had opportunity to taste the freshly-pressed grape juice.

Coupo Santo

We were treated to the communal singing of ‘La Coupo Santo’ – the anthem of the Provence, which was sung in Provencal. It also happens to be the the club anthem of Toulon Rugby Club.

An opportunity to get to know local wines and their producers

Then on the serious businessof wine-tasting. The vignerons present brought out iced buckets containing bottles of their wines,  and everyone present was free to help themselves. Meanwhile plates and plates of food kept appearing.

The evening was  completed with a superb display of fireworks. Thankfully the mistral held off and there was judged to be no danger from errant fireworks.

What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday evening.