Enchanterelled

Fresh mushrooms, sliced, sauteed in a little olive oil with finely minced garlic and finished with crème fraiche was the star of my vegetarian lunch today.

I have meat in my larder including the southern French version of jamon crudo plus a cured sausage that looks like it’s old enough to vote.  But, the veggies here are so fresh and have much more flavor than those on our grocery shelves in the US, so I often wind up eating a plate of them sans viand.

A local told me to shred carrots and mix them with oregano and a dash of wasabi powder no less.  The finely chopped oregano and a dash of hot sauce in place of the wasabi really enhanced the flavor of the dish.  

On the wine tasting front I was invited to dinner by an American couple who have owned a house in one of the small villages near here going on 8 years.  They had invited another couple.  The husband, Danielle, brought a bottle of his wine.  He produces about 450 bottles a year from his vines.  He actually went to school in his sixties to learn how to make wine.  Judging from the quality of the bottle from his 2015 vintage that he shared with us, he received an ‘A’.  The wine was a blend of grenache, carignan, and another local varietal.  Both the carignan and the other varietal were new ones for me.

Sights along the road during my walks still catch my eye.  You can see below the difference in how some care for their vineyards here.

There is the occasional colorful bug.

The fennel plants continue to grow and fill out.

And walks through the small villages produce some eye catching color.

Look at the sign on the tree.

Now for a closer look.  See how the tree has enveloped the sign.

  

Here is another frequent sight in the villages.  I finally had to ask what they are.  If anyone can tell me you get a star.

Remember the photo of sour cherries hanging from the tree a few posts back?  Here they are transformed into a lovely sour cherry preserve to top my toasted baguette.

On a final note, I have changed gites.  The one I rented the previous week could have been featured in “Gite Beautiful”. However it sat over a mile outside the small village of Embres and Castlemaure on a single track narrow road.  If you met anyone coming the other way it was problematic.  Some stretches had a drop off of several feet and backing up became precarious.  Then too the WiFi signal was virtually non existent.

I am now ensconced in a gite in the village of Fraisse des Corbiers.  It is the same village where the mayor raises goats and vends her cheese.  To be politically correct, two small rounds of her product rest in my fridge.  And speaking of fridge that brings me to the last item in this post.

When the owner showed me this apartment the refrigerator was turned off and the door standing open.  When I arrived to take possession the refrigerator door was closed and turned on.  He pointed to the bottom of its door and explained (in French, but it needed no translation) that the fridge gasket was a bit problematic.

 and I needed to keep a rock leaned up against it to keep it closed.