The grapes and I are still waiting. On the news I hear that southern England experienced its hottest September day yesterday since 1911. The temperature topped out at 34ºC, which is about 93 or 94 in ºF. At our house near Saint-Aignan, it didn't get quite that hot, but it did hit 90. Humidity was low.
Not all the wine grapes grown around here are destined to become red wine, of course.
The local white wine varietals, mainly Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc, but also some Chardonnay, look ripe now too.
Dry leaves and fat grapes out in the Renaudière vineyard
Walt keeps bringing in buckets of ripe tomatoes every morning. I'll be drying more of them today, but not in the oven. I took commenter Tim's advice and bought a dehydrator. It was delivered yesterday, and we'll find out this afternoon and evening how well it works. More about that tomorrow...
We are awaiting delivery of a fruit press for making apple juice and "cidre"... we've always been hankering after one... but the sheer quantity of apples this year decided us!
ReplyDeleteSo Pauline ordered one... it should arrive today... and a good job too... after last night's wind.
Well done on getting a dehydrator, have fun... don't forget you can dehydrate almost anything!!
Which reminds me.... I need to cube some courgette for the machine... they work very well slung into soups and stews. And, now, of course, we'll be tomato and appling.... not at the same time of course. And I'll make up leather gunks and freeze them... ready to thaw and put through after the solid items have been done.
It's funny, there are almost no apples on the 15 or 20 apple trees around La Renaudière this season. That wind was amazing, wasn't it? I say that even though I slept through it. Walt told me about it.
DeleteI went out after posting the reply.... one large trug, full, of our Newton Wonder apples.... and still loads on the tree....
Deletesame applies to our "inherited" Reinette Blanche... but in that case, I'll be going down there with a wheelbarrow!!
The first wind that arrived here was before midnight... I was still up, comforting the cats.... the wind was banging against the side of the house.... if I'd realised that it wasn't raining, I would have gone and closed the shutters on the front door........
The harvest over at St Georges sur Cher is expected to start between 20 and 25 September, but no decision has been made yet.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the grapes actually need some plumping up. We're having light rain here this morning, but there's supposed to be a lot more tonight.
DeleteWe got back to Saint-Aignan again yesterday for our autumn break. We were just in time for lunch and hoped to try Le Mange Grenouille but they were full so we enjoyed L'Embarcadere again. The campsite is very smart again with everything working well after l'inondation. It is possible to see damage in the grass and small hedges but Ludovic has obviously worked very hard to pull it back to normal.
ReplyDeleteThe temperature hit 33C down here yesterday afternoon. That is hotter than we have had in England this summer but we live on a little island so often the surrounding sea keeps our temperatures down cf the rest of Southern england.
Many people seem to reccommend Le Mange Grenouille - so perhaps we will try again?
I have no idea how a dehydrator works, but I don't think you can use olive oil or herbs as in the oven process. So the final product should taste different, innit?
ReplyDeleteThe dehydrator isn't for cooking, it's for drying. When you dry a vegetable or a fruit, you don't put oil on it. I'm drying a lot of tomatoes, some slices of zucchini, and some slices of eggplant. We'll see how it works.
DeleteAh, this will be interesting. I can't wait to see pictures of the process and the results.
DeleteYes, please, tell us how it goes. I'm really curious.
DeleteYou will come out one morning to greet the day and there will be a long line of Blog Followers standing there waiting to meet , greet you and share your tomatoes :)
ReplyDeleteWe will bring our own buckets.
I can see you all on the plane and train with all those empty buckets. Careful -- it's raining here today.
DeleteI can't believe that you don't have apples! I hope you will tell us about your new machine. I bet your soups will benefit from the gizmo.
ReplyDeleteToday we are drying tomatoes -- there are so many of them -- and some slices of zucchini and eggplant. Can't tell yet how long it will take. So far, the déshydrateur has been running for 10 hours and it has a ways to go.
Deletewow I am dreaming about wine
ReplyDeleteLOL .. is that because you felt dehydrated ?
ReplyDelete: ^ )
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DeleteI'm trying to imagine what dried eggplant would be like, and how you'd use it.
ReplyDeleteHi Chris, well... I've dried some, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. As for fresh eggplant, Walt cooked some today with zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, and garlic to make "rat" and I plan to make some moussaka over the next few days.
DeleteWill you be able to dehydrate zucchini/courgette to make chips? Should be good.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how dry zuke chips would need to be. The ones I've dried will be good rehydrated, I think, but I can't imagine eating them in their present state. Too leathery...
DeleteI'm not sure how dry zuke chips would need to be. The ones I've dried will be good rehydrated, I think, but I can't imagine eating them in their present state. Too leathery...
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