For the Love of Food

While we were away we stayed with family in the south of France, of course it goes without saying that our time with the family and little grandies was the highlight, we also had a fabulous time enjoying the food flavours of France in summer. Most days we would stroll to the local bakery for fresh baguette or two then onto the local food market, we ate at home and relished in beautiful fresh food purchased daily from a local source. Perhaps because it was summer in France and we had left a rather chilly winter behind but our taste buds seamed to be almost jumping out of our mouths we would both stand salivating at rows of fresh summer produce. And not just because we were on holiday we also enjoyed 2 hour lunches, I think the French can teach us a lot about reducing our stress levels. For example almost without exception our food was sourced daily so obviously full of the best vitamins and minerals. The lunch meal is the main meal allowing a heavier lunch to digest well before night time. Wine and often a stronger spirit is consumed with their meal then finally the last part of meal time was a very short strong good quality coffee and that folks is an everyday practise, no body was drunk or sleepy by the end of lunch because the one or two wines were with the meal and the coffee was the kick start back into afternoon work, we kiwis on the other hand start early eat lunch on the go and then straight back into work and finish the day off with a heavy meal just before bed time. There really are quite a few flaws in this practise. This whole food experience has made me think a little differently about what I want to grow this season, I'm thinking more about pairing foods up and growing successive crops for as long as I can and by having a succession of crops I will also be reducing garden waste, and believe it or not this is an exciting time of the year because we can forward plan, change things up a bit and try new concepts, I just want to crake into it, my first plan is to grow a lot more different varieties of Tomato to use in my French recipes oh and more basil. I want to learn how to make my own cheese too.