The aspiring vegan (who loves chocolate cake)
on Nov 18, 2009 in Vegetarian in France cake Veganism chickens For once my timing isn’t out. Rather randomly my exploration of vegandom has coincided, coincidentally, with vegan month. It’s designed to encourage people to try out this lifestyle and so I’m conforming perfectly, despite thinking I was d...

Sharon fruit pushing and new solution for 'those' married moments
on Nov 16, 2009 in fruit France Fruit and Veg My lovely friend, who lives not far from me, has the most amazing persimmon tree in her garden (it’s also known as Sharon Fruit and named after the Sharon Plain in Israel). I hadn’t tried one until recently when one of three that she’d brought...

Gas emissions
on Nov 15, 2009 in Dogs Truman television While I listened to BBC News about gas emissions this morning, a severe smell wafted over turning me off my museli. I'm surprised the television didn't melt. "Truman! What's wrong with you?" I moaned - he was right under my feet and they kept on...

Will I go vegan in rural France?
on Nov 8, 2009 in Vegetarian in France Veganism I have been spending the last few weeks trying to understand how far down the path from vegetarianism to veganism I can go. So, as Kim at Charm City says, it's a period of transition, I'm just not sure if it can be 100% yet - that's what I intend to...

Food waste, vegetarianism, freeganism and new directions
on Oct 14, 2009 in Vegetarian in France fruit France Fruit and Veg Freeganism I’ve got my head stuck in Tristram Stuart’s ‘Waste’. Everyone should read it. When I turned to the glossy pictures' section I couldn’t believe the huge fields covered in oranges – rejected oranges, dying, going to waste and the rejected t...

The chestnut fair in Saint-Caprais
on Oct 11, 2009 in France donkeys nature Life in France Fruit and Veg Yesterday was "Le Fête de la Châtaigne" in Saint-Caprais, the village's twentieth chestnut festival.Despite the threat of rain it was exceedingly warm - although that might be more to do with the polo neck and fleece I decided to wear bec...

Farewell Auntie Anne
on Oct 8, 2009 in Miscellaneous In October 2007 I wrote my very first blog post after speaking to my godfather about my godmother’s traumatic diagnosis. After battling with radiotherapy and chemotherapy they thought she had won the fight, only to discover earlier on this year it...

The joy of horses on natural stimulating terrain
on Sep 22, 2009 in France Lovely Horses horses When we bought our property last year it came with ten hectares of parcelled land (some of this was by the house). What we didn’t know was exactly where the rest of the land was because what the estate agents told us didn’t quite match up to what...

Being a Vegetarian in France
on Sep 18, 2009 in Vegetarian in France Eating meat and being an animal lover has never sat easy with me (let alone the growing problem of food security, the increasing worldwide demand for meat and deforestation for animal feed). However, for many years I managed to keep these different a...

My tomato addiction
on Sep 6, 2009 in France Tomatoes Fruit and Veg Tomatoes. In my previous life I thought they were red and yellow and just available in round, plum, beef and cherry sizes. And I’ve always loved eating them. But recently I have discovered something new about tomatoes, and myself, after investigati...