Naked Ladies and Debutantes

I have been away awhile…needed a break and there was LOTS to do.  We needed to bring our BOYS (6 of them) in from their pasture  and get them cleaned, trimmed and ready to meet the girls. 100 of which were also brought in from different barns and pastures.

One of the BOYS, one of 6 Rams.  We also got a new young ram this year.  He is penned up.  He will despense his new teenage energy soon enough.

Two tango and 2 shear in less than 1 minute.  300 were pampered this way, spa treatment.

The BOYS will meet about 250 of the girls up in the high mountain pastures of Artzamendi. About 50 of these will be flirting for the first time, Debutantes.  They are usually the first mated and conquered.  It is true what they say about the naivete of the young girls and the boys waiting for them, wanting only one thing. Competition sometimes gets fierce among the BOYS, but there is enough time and energy to go around.  It is Springtime and soon it will be Summer.  The days are long.

We will be starting the transhumance, the walk onto high mountain meadows in about 6 weeks, once the majority of weaning from the milk shed has been accomplished and the last of the lambs are no longer dependent on mama. The  Naked Ladies and Debutantes will become more attractive by then, with their wool grown out in chic ingenue style. Then they will be dating in groups.  

Kind of like a co-ed camp :)  Abouty 50 from winter 2011 will move up to co-ed this Spring/Summer...

 The rest of the girls are still too young.  They are not allowed to date yet and go to their own seperate all girls camp.  About 50 from winter 2012 and another 50 from this past winter 2013 go to girls only camp.    They are not yet mature and strong enough to be good mothers and  to additionally produce milk for the milking season.  The ones on the otherside of the feed trough have yet to be sheared.

"Do I know you?"

This time at the salon/spa did not keep these twins from recognizing their old mama.  This mama is on the thinner side and will probably be retired this following season,  the production is taking too much out of her now.  The girls are retired after 6 or 7 seasons.

The one not sheared will go into retirement next week.  Note the wool in the trailer.

All done.  

This wool in the trailer will be used to burn a few bonfires at the corners of the matured cornfield this summer…keeps the varmints such as wild boars and beavers away, this works because the smell is “too human”, a natural “pesticide” which prevents corn feasting.  

In the Fall the cornfield is then transformed into silage.

EVERYBODY, including the naked Ladies are ready for lunch.

The ladies were led to local Spring pasture.  The men came in and feasted on vegetable soup, tuna confit with hardboiled eggs and homemade mayonnaise, 5 hour slow roasted young rooster (poule), served with mashed potatoes and peas sauted in onion and lardon, salad, sheepmilk cheese, and plenty of bread. And finally desert, Esne Opilla (caramel flan).  I will have to post the recipe sometime.

EVERYTHING came off the farm…except the tuna which came from St Jean de Luz this summer and I had made homemade confit or canned tuna…20kg, fished that morning.

Almost Harmonious Spring

 Spring in our little village

                                      Beautiful in all her splendor 

                                   After watching and waiting,

false starts and abrupt stops

wild, screaming winds

followed by intimate gatherings

harmony momentarily reigns 

Almond Cake

ALMOND CAKE

100 gms sugar optional*

200 gms Vahiné creme d’amande (you add 8 Tablespoons of cold water to the mix and whisk it good :)

100gms flour OR almond powder for gluten free. I go 100 gms, because I love the real almond flavor of this cake.

150-200 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed (taste test your preferred portions)*

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon bitter almond extract

4-6 large eggs, at room temperature (taste test your preferred portions)*

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF (162ºC) between 5-6. Grease a 9- or 10-inch (23-25 cm) cake or spring form pan with butter, dust it with flour and tap out any excess. OR find a great silicone, fluted pan like I have. The tin bundt pan that I had to butter and flour is my summer corander wreath in my herb garden :)

2. First bowl, mix the sugar (I don’t use the sugar b/c for me the crême is sweet enough) and almond crême, butter.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour or almond powder or mixture thereof and baking powder.  Add to first bowl.

4. Now mix in the eggs one at a time. Farm eggs are very rich in flavor and sometimes 6 large eggs are too “eggy” in flavor;  So you decide, depending on your options; farm fresh/ size, etc.  I learned from my aunt without written instruction and personal “variation"

5. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing a bit before the next one.  Scrape the sides with a spatula once in awhile :)

7. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake the cake for 45-60 minutes, or until the top is deep brown and the knife comes out clean.  Again, depends on your oven.  Flat 9” pan will take a bit longer than the bundt type pan, and it is not as pretty. The important thing when baking is it must be as much in the center of the oven (both horizontally and vertically) as possible.

8. Remove the cake from the oven and flip onto a wooden board after a few minutes. "Peal off" the silicone cake pan.  I love the rubbery bending in mine and the way I can flip up the edge of the pan once the cake is turned over, begging for her release.  Now you can sprinkle with powdered sugar

By then the kettle has whistled her preparedness for a cup of tea to join that cake.  When I bake this cake, my imagination (sometimes gone wild) will talk with my Tantta Ginette.  I miss her.

* must test these “options” yourself :)  Whew, it was hard work trying to write this recipe.  See why I didn’t do it yesterday?

Afternoon Crêpes

Today was non-stop in the kitchen, making goodies.  Foul weather does that to me. This is the main reason the Sheepfarmer does not mind Winter;  I keep the hearth warm  and the food abundant.  Warm bellies are far more tolerant to cold.

Unfortunately...Winter had an encore today. I now understand where that saying comes from as I literally keep the fires burning and the cuisine warm, the food and fuel (both) plentiful.

Our teenage tomcats sitting close to the warm window
Note the burners. Charcoaled wood used to be inserted by a hole on the side,  see bottom photo.  This is another photo of the wall…with lovely glass jars in which I had preserved cêpes.

yesterday au Pays Basque

Today au Pays Basque
Winter is selfish and egocentric and is hanging onto the stage by his firm, icy grip. The newly born green hills are covered in soft, white down. And everything has once again become a silent, muted grey….sssshhhh the Spring baby is sleeping.  Winter is supposed to hang on for the week.  it will make my conference in Bilbao on Friday a bit more challenging.  Rather than freeze and panic and stress, I baked and made crêpe(s) batter for the Sheepfarmer for when he comes back into the house prior to our last milking of the day.  He is a very loving person with a warm, full belly.  He takes after his sheep, who eat more when it is cold too.  Actually, this is true for everyone who needs the extra calories to keep warm and, as is the case for the sheep to produce milk! 

yesterday...

today...

I have the wood burning stove cranked and the old washing tin filled with wood, that I brought in myself.  This is another advantage to living on a farm, you save the membership fees you would pay a gym.  Sometimes when it is warmer I haul small pieces of branches and limbs I find along the hairpin turn and the road coming up to the farm.  These go into a seperate area/pile of the woodshed.  This is my starter fuel...

The blossoms shivering on my Peach tree, just outside my kitchen window.

A view from my office directly above the kitchen, actually to the left of the third view/photo.

Because it was so cold, I found an excuse to also turn on the gas oven and baked an Almond cake (receette de grandmêre simplifier, next post!) which can be made gluten free.  So moist and delicious and great in the summer too, instead of the cake used for strawberry shortcake.  It works well with ANY berries (or other fruit) you might have on hand or in excess.  Simply leave overnight with a squeeze of lemon and up to equal parts sugar (I use far less sugar, but it is up to personal taste and the innate sweetness of the chosen fruit.
Voila, "colis de fruits”
Voila…I am dreaming of summer :)
.

Our twin 6 month old Tomcats, come up close to the warm window and watch me.  Although they purr and roll on the path in front of me when I take them out their food, they will not let me touch them and I will NOT risk being bitten.

Note the hole surrounded by stone in the wall where hot charcoaled wood was shoveled in order to heat the “plates” that are in the first photo of the window.  The black oven next to it is the door to the old bread oven.  It now stashes bar supplies.  SOMEDAY I am going to get it back outside to my outdoor kitchen.  There it will once again be a bread oven and hence PIZZA oven!
When the farmer and his nephew came back this afternoon from moving the rams to another pasture and barn, the cake was no longer warm.  So I made the crêpes! THAT recipe I will give you today.  They did not last long enough to take a photo!

Les Crêpes
4 cups milk
3 farm fresh eggs
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon oil
1 packet sucre vanillé *

*or a teaspoon/tablespoon of vanille or other flavoring, such as almond or orange.  Some people use rhum or even Franjelica.  If the flavoring is “real,” a teaspoon does the trick.  If it is “flavored” I would go with a Tablespoon (same for the liquers)

NOW here’s every French Woman’s Secret to great crêpes;  they must have their own personal pan that you do NOT use for anything else.  EVER.
Mine is a large (about 14 inches across) teflon frypan with a low lip.
After whipping/mixing the above ingredients (and letting it set for at least an hour to really absorb the flavoring) you heat your pan on high heat and wipe it with a paper towel moistened in oil. Lick your finger and touch the pan.  When it is ready it will sizzle w/o burning.  I pour about a ladle of the again foueté mix in the pan and swirl it around covering the bottom.  Keep swirling until the liquid is “no longer” but looks like a flat, very thin, pancake.  Next French Woman’s Crêpes Secret, a large spatula to turn over the crêpes,  once the bubbles appear on the surface it is ready to flip.  Once flipped pour on some brown sugar and fold/roll over 1-2 times from each side with the help of your special, wide spatula.

It sounds complicated, but is really easy. Now on to the next one until you finish the mix...I use a Duralex Picardie tumbler for my cup/glass.  Therefore this size batch should yield about 8 crêpes.  It will keep for about 3-4 days in the fridge too.  Just shake it up well before cooking. AND make sure your crêpe only pan is hot, but not “smoking”  I sometimes ruin the first one and therefore have to immediately eat the “flopped” but tasty evidence :)

Spring In My Backyard

       Winter has taken her cue and she has gone backstage, where she belongs.The freshly bathed and naked trees are already doused in their perfume, I smell it warm and sweet. They are ready to put on their best, leaves are wanting to primp and pose, ready to PLAY in Earth’s Orchestra and I, for one, am so ready to hear her song.

A walk on Devil’s Bridge reminded me how mail and letters used to be delivered by cable dancing across the river, communication back then had a whole other meaning, talk about snail mail….

But, then again, people had and took the time to see the earth gushing, with the Springtime birth imminent in her step. WHAT happened? Why did we forget that progress comes with a price and it is not always worth paying?

Nature in all her glory, howling in birth

And she is so wise and wonderful even in her newest of days,when we take the time to respect her, 

…and we realize,

can words even begin to describe the fragrance of the newborn breath of Spring?

Infinite Black Night

Beauty in the present without rushing towards the future, sometimes something so difficult for me to do...  

The air is cold and thin.  The grey trees bare, with featherlike branches beginning to bud.  The birds sing. The lambs dance and  the rivers rage…
The green velvet earth is absolutely sodden and begging for mercy.  I hear it, the fine tuning of Earth’s Orchestra, exploding with life behind sealed curtains.  I can’t help it,  I am so ready to dance...  
Sometimes in my impatience for the rising of spring’s day long sun, bearing her hours of dance,  I forget to look at the deep wonder of the dark winter sky and her lace of pearls and stars hanging in winter’s infinite black night…
Spring fine tunes her life’s symphony, still backstage of winter’s performance. She whispers,  she humms and she tells me...

“Sometimes in the hurry to see the morning’s sun, we have forgetten to look at the gifts in the nightime’s sky” 
And so I tap my feet, patiently waiting and admiring winter’s perfectly set stage…spring is the next performance.

Earth’s Orchestra

                       Spring whispers, but winter won’t quite let go... 

We have had days, upon days of rain, falling gently, yet oftentimes, heaving in cloud breaking torrents.  The rivers are calling and crashing, an overflow of turbulant adolescent energy with nowhere to go and everything to see...   

Spring bears her scent, but winter carries her shield and is she is unforgiving to the earth, swollen and earnest for the warmth of Spring’s new, clean sun. 

In the sheepbarn the lambs sniff and scratch at straw, while on the outside they smell the earth, heavy and wet, ripe and almost ready.  The lambs finalyze their steps, perfect in rhythm and timed to dance their Spring Ballet.  They are ready to pirouette and bounce and sway to the songs of the birds still fine tuning in perfection.  We can hear them, practicing and waiting for their cue to sing their song… 

The Earth’s Orchestra is almost ready and everyone is seated and waiting in place.  Finally.