At the market, there are hardly any strawberries or asparagus for sale. Maybe there just won't be any this year. It's getting fairly late. April is usually the beginning of the season for these local specialties. It's kind of mysterious to me because we didn't have a cold winter. Or maybe that's the problem — having some cold, freezing mornings in winter is beneficial to a lot of plants. We have had long stretches of unusually wet weather since Christmas. Now it's dry and sunny, but certain signs of spring are just missing. Every year is different, I guess. Maybe there was an April freeze that I didn't notice and that killed buds here and there. I do see good crops of plums on at least a couple of trees around the hamlet.
It's always fascinating to see how different the climate and weather is between you and us. Our apples have been flowering profusely since late April. In fact I am surprised to see how many flowers they have, partly because of the hard frost on 27 April, but also because last year was such an abundant year for apples. I expected them to take the year off this year. The local plant nurseries and market gardeners say the problem has been lack of sunlight and cold nights for longer than normal into the year.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how our climates differ. You got the freeze on April 27th (or at least T & P did) but I saw no sign of it here. This morning I took a walk around the hamlet and examined nearly two dozen apple trees within, say, 200 meters of our house. I found only one that was in full flower. Some others had more flowers on them than ours do, though not many. I guess we won't have many apples this year. Tant pis.
DeleteAt the market here in Biarritz there are strawberries and white asparagus
ReplyDeleteThere are some here too, but I don't think they are local. I didn't go to the market yesterday in Saint-Aignan, but the man we usually buy asperges and fraises from had very few to sell the Saturday before.
DeleteBerries are local not sure of asperges
DeleteNice view from "my" bedroom window! Everything is so green. Any reason why?
ReplyDeleteAll that rain all winter, I guess. The ground is saturated, though it is now drying out at the surface.
DeleteIn Carcassonne, we've had local strawberries and asparagus for several weeks (3 or 4). Even tomatoes, though they're protected under plastic. The apricot tree has hard green fruit starting, as do the cherry trees.
ReplyDeleteCherry trees in and around our hamlet (sour cherries) are starting to produce fruit, but it's all far from ripening. There are a lot of plums on two trees that I keep an eye on. Your climate is definitely very different down there.
DeletePerhaps your apple trees went into some sort of shock after all that pruning.
ReplyDeleteThat could well be a factor. Even though people say the pruning makes them produce even more apples. Maybe next year.
DeleteYou did say you had a near freeze a while back that zapped some of the vines that were leafing out in nearby areas. Maybe that was a factor.
ReplyDeleteCould be that but the grapes and plums around here show no sign of damage. More tomorrow...
DeleteOh no! I can't imagine a spring without strawberries or asparagus. I hope your blossoms arrive. We've had a fairly early spring for Ohio, and out strawberries have bloomed and are just getting ready to start growing the berries.
ReplyDeleteI'd love it if you'd play along with Dreaming of France. Here’s my Dreaming of France meme