A step into Marta's universe!
Exceptional post in English, as a tribute to my friend Marta who offered me a free access to her beautiful garden! It was so inspiring and touching to discover her little world!
I already knew it because of the picture and the blog, and recognized the typical Marta’s touch at first sight! So confusing, I don’t know how to describe the feeling!
It was a kind of babysitting, but what do you have to do when the garden is self-watered?! Just… holding the hand to harvest the ripe fruits?! This is a disguised gift!
Violet beans?! Whatever... delicious!!
I wanted to share a few pictures of our lovely afternoon in the garden, where we spent a few hours admiring Marta’s work and knowledge, the generosity of Nature, and the view on the surroundings mountains. It really makes us want to change our lifestyle!! Anyhow, each thing at a time!
View on the Chartreuse's cliffs!
We felt a bit like raptors, looking back to everything we harvested, but we did not wanted to let rote the delicious vegetables!! Anyway, as you can see, we have been able to eat easily for more than one week! T___T Shame on us, when you imagine all the efforts Marta had to make to able them to grow: hours and hours of hard (and passionate!) labour, that she speaks about on her blog: the war on slugs, preparing the garden during winter, cleaning trees at spring, etc…
Raptors, you see?!
Fifty grades of tomatoes... (in fact 80 to be more precise!)
As promise, I share here the recipe of the tomatoes pie I made out of the beautiful fruits I harvested from the garden! The crust was nice, and crusty, even if I did not pre-cooked it before garnish.
It’s an approximate recipe but here it is (just had a pinch of flour if too wet and a pinch of water or oil if too dry…):
(Recipe of an 22cm backing pan - with a removable pastry circle)
For the crust:
- 1 big egg
- 60g of lentil flour
- 60g of corn flour
- 50g of butter
- A handful of wheat flour
- Water and sea salt
- 2 dessert spoon of blond sesam seeds
For the garnish:
- 4 tomatoes (I took two varieties, “noires de Crimé” and some reddish ones)
- 2 eggs
- 2 generous dessertspoons of mustard (“A l’ancienne”, made with the seeds)
- 50 ml of oat cream
- A pinch of smoked salt for me
As I said I did not pre-cooked the crust. It’s normal if the dough is not really “packed” as the recipe is poor in gluten and fat, which doesn’t help to get the desire density. Put directly the dough in the backing pan, and compact it to make something sealed but not too thick (don’t know if I a really clear!)
Then pour the mustard mixture, whitout filling the crust over the border, than place the slice of tomatoes (I alternated the two varieties), and cook at 200°C for half an hour. Et voilà!
We also tried Marta's recipe with the Kohlraby sprout: surprising and delicious!
Thank you so much Marta, I’m sure you can make a living our of your knowledge!
And to finish, here are a fex pictures taken of the other inhabitants of the garden! :)
Not that usual inhabitant, but let's say a bigger visitor! ;)
And you, do you dream about having your own garden?