Breton galettes

2nd December

We have some very lovely neighbours – two elderly couples who live in adjoined houses. The ladies are sisters and were born in the house nearly 80 odd years ago when it stood as one large house belonging to their parents. Standing in the grounds of this house is a small cottage; a partially renovated dwelling with one large room downstairs, which they use when they all want to eat together or if they want to invite guests to eat with them. Today we were all invited to their little cottage for galettes.

For the uninitiated among you, galettes are a savoury, buckwheat flour pancake which is fried on a large flat hotplate and then filled with all manner of delicious things. To finish them off, the galette and its contents are folded into a parcel. We are generally offered a ‘complet’, which consists of egg, cheese and ham, and then finished off with a generous blob of yellow Breton butter. (Now and again we buy readymade galettes from the local shop and make them ourselves, but ours are not a patch on Marie’s, because she makes her galettes from scratch to her own recipe and the filling is added whilst the pancake is still cooking on the hot plate. )

The conversation at these mealtimes ALWAYS gets round to the children’s education and whether they are working hard. I suspect they are slightly worried by the concept of home education, but they are too polite to say so. However, we are so used to the same questions being asked time and time again that we now know how to make the right noises to keep people happy.

As usual (this is a fairly frequent occurrence as our dear neighbours are very sociable), we all ate too much and felt too fat to do much this afternoon.

Ah well, such is life in Brittany!

One door closes and another opens.

30th November
To offset our disappointment at not receiving Ulotte the donkey yesterday, today at church we have been offered two female goats for free! We had been considering getting a couple of goats to start clearing the brambles in the lower field, so it was a welcome offer. They are mother and daughter and although the daughter no longer feeding, the owners have been milking the nanny-goat and so there is the possibility of having the milk and even having a go at making goats cheese (yum yum!). Have I really got time to fit all this in?

After much discussing, arguing and heartfelt consideration, we have finally decided that Big Face the pig is indeed going for slaughter as we originally intended. Tom is fighting our decision and declaring that he won’t eat a mouthful and we are cruel, etc etc, but this is what we originally intended and I’ve decided not to be bullied off the decision. The female needs to grow a little and so she will be kept until the spring. Wednesday is the day that our friendly local farmer is coming to do the deed. Thursday he will do the butchering and we are going to watch very carefully in the hopes that next time we can do that part ourselves. More on that after the event…

Dodgy Donkey Dealings!

29th November
We are in shock!
Today, we were expecting the delivery of the latest edition to our smallholding – Ulotte the donkey. At about half past two we had a phone call from the farmer and his wife who had got as far as the nearest town and were waiting outside the insurance office hoping that James might come and show them the way to our house. James duly went to collect them, and in no time at all we were unloading Ulotte into her new stable which James and Francis had put so much time and love into making. Next came the cup of coffee and the offering of a mince pie, as I had made a fresh batch this afternoon, whilst the papers were filled out to give us ownership of Ulotte. Then came the crunch. “That’ll be 800 euros please, “ said the farmer nervously (and obviously what he actually said was “C’est huit cent euros s’il vous plait.”. We both stood in stunned silence.

Let me explain… We need to go back to the time we first saw Ulotte. We had headed off, one dismal morning in October, to a livestock market in a neighbouring village. We were hoping to pick up some sheep, but when we arrived, it soon became apparent that this was a horse fair as the village square was filled with horses of every size imaginable. We were very taken by the Breton heavy horses which are similar to the English shire horses and used to be used extensively on the farms in days gone by, but we had no intention of buying one. However, James suddenly espied something that he HAD always hankered after; a donkey. He was straight over to stroke ‘Ulotte’ (as it turned out to be) and began to talk with the owner. After a few minutes he asked the price. “Cent euros,” (one hundred euros) replied the farmer. James commented that she was not at all expensive and continued the conversation. “Cent euros? Is that all she is?” he asked again, sure he must have got it wrong. The man assured him that Ulotte was for sale at 100 euros. Beginning to get excited now, James sought me out. (I was over by the miniature ponies which were the only ones I was not scared to get up close to!) I duly followed him to visit Ulotte and her owner and I made him AGAIN check the price. The children were with us and were all witness to the exchange between James and the farmer. The price was again confirmed as 100 euros. Well, who could resist such a dear little creature at such a good price? We shook on the deal and paid the farmer 50 euros as a deposit until such a time as she should be ready to leave her mother (she wasn’t yet six months old). So, you can imagine our shock when the farmer, having deposited Ulotte, written out all the paperwork and just about to take his leave, demands 800 euros for her. After a quick glance at me, which I answered with a shake of my head, James explained that there had been a mistake and that we understood the price agreed to have been 100 euros. The old couple didn’t express as much surprise at hearing this as you might imagine. “Mais non! The price is 800 euros.” We are usually careful to speak only in French in front of French guests as it’s only polite, but I must admit that at this point, James and I had a rapid conversation in English in which we agreed we would not, could not afford Ulotte at that price. James relayed our decision to the farmer who exclaimed in French “But what about all the paperwork we’ve filled out?” His wife then took up the mantle and asked us to perhaps pay in installments, but we were firm in our decision that we shouldn’t have her at that price. James gave them money to cover their petrol, his apologies for having misunderstood (had we?) and suggested he give the old farmer a hand putting Ulotte back into the horse box. So….have we been scammed? Were they trying it on? Did we really misunderstand the price after having verified it three or even four times because it seemed so good? We just can’t say for sure. We have noticed that many of the locals think we (the English) are loaded. In fact, on one occasion a French neighbor was selling his house and was keen that we should know he was selling as he thought we might buy it for cash! I suppose there are people who will ‘try it on’ all over the world, but it didn’t make us feel any better. Still, onwards and upwards! We will put it behind us and who knows; maybe one day another donkey might present itself.

A Porcine problem.

23rd November

‘Big Face’ the male pig has had a reprieve.
After much pleading and arguing by Tom, we have come to an agreement. In a complete reversal of fate, the female pig is now the one going for slaughter, and dear ‘Big Face’ will live on as half of our breeding pair. Our original intention was to keep the female (who incidentally has no name) as a breeding sow, to use Big Face for meat and to buy another male to breed with her. Big Face is her brother and so we couldn’t keep them both for breeding. Thomas argued that he is by far the nicer temperament of the two and as we had grown so attached to him we should switch the plan. We had to admit that he had a point. We would all have been sorry to see him go. The only slight hitch to this plan is that the female is not yet big enough to go to slaughter and we may have to wait until after Christmas; so no Christmas ham…unless we buy one from the butcher of course.

The next problem is to find a way of separating them before she becomes sexually mature. I don’t think we have long! I am hoping that sometime this week we can get over to the field and rig up an electric fence and a couple of corrugated iron pens underneath the apple trees. They would love this as they have completely obliterated their ‘garden’ next to their pen which means they have no vegetation to munch on, except for what I throw them. Ok, so along with their pig granules I am throwing them copious amounts of apples, but it seems so much more natural for them to forage for themselves.

With regards to home edding, the children have had very little input from me this week as we seem to have been plagued by visitors almost every day. However, Thomas found plenty to do on his blog sites and websites which he is constantly creating and updating, and Francis, when asked, said he has been editing films. They are both also working on a new business idea which they are sure is going to make them loads of money! It’s something to do with games sites and graphics for games. They did try to explain it to me but I’m way behind them in this area so I can’t explain it to anyone else!

I can see why parents get worried about what their children are doing on line. It has more to do with the fact that parents don’t really understand what their children are doing on line which makes us nervous! The best we can do is to be as informed as possible, take a healthy interest in what they are doing (even when we don’t understand it) and then make sure that the children are aware of the dangers around. I’m always popping my head around the door and saying “Hi, how are you getting on/what are you working on at the moment,” and they are usually very happy to tell me, even if I don’t have a clue what they are talking about!

La grève and la garderie

20th November
Today in France the teachers were on strike (la grève). I always notice when this happens (which is all too frequently), not just because it is plastered all over the French news, but because numerous friends come sidling round ‘wondering what Elizabeth is doing tomorrow’, and ‘would she like a playmate for the day?’ I’m sure this is a phenomena experienced by many home educators who find themselves ‘babysitting’ for the children of friends and family when an unexpected day off from school occurs. Luckily for my friends I like children and yes, Elizabeth would welcome a playmate for the day. It doesn’t seem to occur to any of them however that we might actually be doing something. Goodness me, no… all we home educators do is sit at home all day watching TV, didn’t you know! Sometimes it feels a bit like a garderie (nursery) around here. On the positive side, Elizabeth got to practice speaking French whilst she had a lovely day playing with a friend. She is still so much more into ‘playing’ than anything else and it’s nice to indulge her.
James and I took the sheep granules that he bought yesterday over to the field and it certainly had the desired effect. We took and shook a big black bucket with a handful of granules inside and they all immediately came running. They didn’t quite go so far as to eat out of our hands but I reckon they will eventually.
Tonight James is going to ring the number of a man recommended for organizing the butchering of our pig. It’s a bit sad, but that was what he was reared for. Tom is still insisting he won’t eat any of the meat, but I reckon he will change his mind when it comes to it. I am trying to stay detached but I have got so used to him being in the garden and coming running when I arrive with the pig bucket. And of course his dear sweet face looking at me through the wire; and the way he snorts when he…..STOP IT KIM!!!

Have 'ewe' seen our new sheep?

19th November
Today we have added two more ewes to our flock. They are Texel crosses and very sweet. They seem friendlier than the other ewes and we were told that it’s because they were often ‘tempted’ by sheep grains bought from the farm shop. James rushed straight out to our local farm shop to get some because he is anxious that come worming/shearing/ feet attention time, he should be able to entice them to him easily. Gilbert the ram seemed perfectly happy to accept another two ladies into his harem and we left them happily munching on the windfall apples under the tree with Gilbert paying special attention to their hind quarters!

Pommes for the pigs and pomme crumble.

18th November
Despite the grim weather we had a really good day. I dropped the children off with their grandparents where they were to spend the day doing some French and maths and James and I were left to our own devices. For James, this meant working on a film project for a client’s website and for myself, I decided to get started on trying to use up some of the hundreds of apples we’ve collected. The orchard here has 13 apple trees, although 11 of them are cider apples. We have collected huge bagfuls of apples, most of which have been eaten by the pigs but the apples collected from the eating apple tree have been sitting waiting for me to do something with. Today I finally had the time to slice and cook the apples gently in a large saucepan with a little pinch of cinnamon, some sugar and some mixed spice. Then, I piled the soft steaming juicy pieces into freezer proof dishes and piled on generous helpings of crumble mixture. Viola! Four large spiced apple crumbles for my chest freezer. After a morning of hard labour in the kitchen, James treated me to lunch in a local restaurant. One of the good things about France is their cheap, all-in lunchtime menus. For 12.50 euros a head we supped on chicken terrine, belly of pork with a barbeque sauce and vegetables and then a selection of mini desserts with coffee. Add a very delicious glass of Cote de Rhone and we were satisfied, happy bunnies for the rest of the day.