Wines are not the only fruit... Les bières de Noël

A selection of local micro-brewed Christmas Beers.

One thing that Pauline and I like are dark winter beers...
and the Christmas beers always seem to fit the bill...
often superb with fruit cake, they can be enjoyed sitting in front of a nice open fire...
or, if your agent deliberately ignores the fire on your design....
in front of the television...
with the "open log fire" DVD running...
[choice of real log fire sound.... or Classical musak!].

With food at mealtimes, they readily accompany...
roast meat, be it winged or hooved....
especially game...
also sausage... be that with mash...
or dried and sliced with a strong mustard and some wholemeal bread.

Normally spicy, they also withstand "mulling"....
if you pop half a pint in the microwave for 10 seconds...
or 20 on low power...
much easier.. and nicer than sticking a poker in the beer...
it warms it up enough to release more of the spice notes.
In the UK, Daleside Morroco [5.5%ABV] fits the bill for a mulled winter brew....
although it is not a Christmas brew as such.

Bieres de Noël have, however, a strong tradition on the continent...
Pelforth in France....
and both Leffe and Grimbergen in Belgium...
are readily available commercial varieties.
But you need to be ready to grab them when seen, as they are "limited editions"...
and therefore only on the shelves for a short while.
Not "real ale in a bottle", these will keep for only a couple of years at most...
and certainly will not mature in the bottle.

Even rarer are the offerings from the micros...
our local micros are no exceptions...
Brasserie de l'Aurore used to offer Tourone de Noël [6.5% ABV]...
but this year the name has changed to La Tourangelle de Noël [6.5% ABV].

2012 on the left... this years on the right.

Simply Market in Liguel stocks these Cormery (37) beers...

and has the Christmas offering on the shelf at the moment.
Our Tourist Office in le Grand Pressigny also sells the Aurore beers...
very convenient!!

Brasserie Pigeonelle at Céré la ronde (37) offers Pigeonoël [x% ABV]...

difficult to find this one, try LeClerc at Loches.

Finally, a little further afield...
is the offering from the Brasserie de Bellefois [Neuville de Poitou (86)]...
simply named Bière de Noël [5.6% ABV]....

available from SuperU in La Roche Posay.
All these brews are on the yeast, mature in the bottle and will keep happily for a few years...
so shove some in a cool, dark place for comparison with the next offering.

If there is a "winter" brew of any sort from the Brasserie Sancerroise [Sancerre (18)]...
we haven't come across it! [And I cannot find mention on their site, either.]

We've also found in the Biocoop two other Christmas ales....
the Brasserie "La Goule" [Foussignac (16)]...  Bière de Noël [6% ABV] and...
from Brasserie du Val de Sèvre [Pamproux (79)]... La Belette de Noël [8% ABV]...
the latter in a style unusual for France...
a Rauchbier... a German-style smokey beer using both torrified and smoked barley malts...
that is going to be a nice contrast...
and will most certainly suit a meal of cold meats and sausage!!
With a strong mustard... and grainy bread!
Both of these are also quite close by....
being from the Poitou region.

La Belette is a Weasel

We will be posting on each of the beers as we try them.

Not yet having sourced the Leffe and Pelforth offerings for this year,
we are starting with the Grimbergen "Brassin de Noël" [6.5% ABV]...
rich looking, with a good head as I poured this out into an old late 30s "Pelforth 43" glass.

Almost as poured... I very nearly forgot to take a picture!
But only a few sips gone...

Pelforth 43 was a Scotch Ale
[ie: a Heavy or 90/-... rich, brown and well flavoured]

All the dark beers benefit from the use of a goblet style glass...
the warmth of your hand holding the bowl helps release the "notes".
I poured at the temperature of our cellier [pantry]...
currently 15°Centigrade...
to be honest, that was a bit cold!!
The beer improved as I held it,
Pauline found the same with hers...
served in a Carlsberg "Imperial Stout" glass I spotted at a vide grenier.
[Carlsberg "Imperial Stout" [8.6% ABV]... if you can find it]
There were no serving temperatures mentioned on the bottle...
however, it said 8°Centigrade on the cardboard pack! 
But all dark ales are NOT destined to be served from the fridge!!

Way too cold... these are room temperature beers.

Most notable to me were cinnamon and burnt toffee on the nose...
and blackberries, nutmeg and ginger and caramel in the mouth...
with a none too punchy, hoppy head.
Definitely a "sipping" beer, the flavours lingered on the tongue for a long time.
Complex, these flavours came at different times... and the head kept very well...
I let it warm up in the room for about an hour after pouring, taking a sip every so often...
large traces of the head stayed right to the end.
Likely "mulling" candidate...
Altogether, very tasty!!
First time of trying...
probably buy a pack next year, too!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Links to the local microbreweries...

Brasserie de l'Aurore
Brasserie Pigeonelle
Brasserie de Bellefois
Brasserie Artisinale "La Goule"
Brasserie du Val de Sèvre 
Brasserie Sancerroise

Please note:
LIDL do a Christmas Beer...
this is the Watneys of the style...
not worth the effort lifting the pack!! 

Gleaning

Once again La Nouvelle République has produced a fascinating back-page article, this time in response to Marcel B. of Glenouze, Vienne. He writes,

"At the edge of our communal road there are some walnut trees, whose nuts fall onto the road and are crushed by vehicles. I am authorised by the mayor to collect them, even from the communal roads. But, normally, who do the nuts belong to? And gleaning of wheat, sunflowers, maize - is it allowed?".

Gerroffa moi nuts! Walnut trees by the D103, Le Grand Pressigny

Gleaning (le glanage) - the practice of collecting fallen grain and other crops after harvest - is at least as old as the Bible story of Ruth, and probably goes back to the first cultivation of cereals, fruits and vegetables in the Neolithic period. When you don't have enough to eat, every grain counts.

Christophe Boutin's article of 29th November begins:

In these anti-waste times, gleaning and salvaging are beneficial, not to mention ecologically sound. On condition that rights are respected, and these can differ from one commune to another.

He continues...

Gleaning is an ancestral right which has gone through a number of changes (see Case Law, below). The civil code (Article 520) is drawn up on the principle that "harvests of standing crops are biens immeubles (fixtures) and fallen crops and leavings are biens meubles (movable property, furnishings)". [The distinction between biens immeubles and biens meubles is fundamental to French property law, not least when it comes to inheritance.] However a meuble on a private property belongs a priori to the proprietor. Nothing entitles you to help yourself to it or to enter the property when it has fallen to the ground. By contrast, apples from your neighbour's tree that have fallen onto your land belong to you. But only if they are windfalls. If they fall in the street, picking them up in a public place is not an issue.

Jerry gleaning for windfall apples. There's one behind you...

In fact the law of 9 July 1888 (Article 19) gives the right to municipal authorities to forbid gleaning. If there is no such bye-law, then it is allowed, during the hours of daylight ("in sight of everyone"), on a piece of land that is cultivated but not walled off, that has already been harvested. Gleaning must be done by hand (without tools, and in limited quantities). One particular local code stands out: in Franche-Comté, fruits, vegetables, cereals and other crops are considered to have been abandoned by their proprietor if they have not been harvested by 1st November. Any remaining fruits and crops then belong to whoever collects them.

By day and without tools, gleaning is widely tolerated in France. It is distinct from three other practices: "maraudage", "grapillage" and "râtelage". The first refers to helping yourself to cultivated fruit and vegetables when they are still in the ground. The second is picking, after the harvest, what remains on fruit trees or vines, which could form a second harvest. The third uses tools such as rakes (râteaux) for "harvesting".

Gleaning on the French coasts concerns items thrown up by the sea, seaweed and driftwood. Often polluted, unfit for consumption or impregnated with salt, these "gleanings" would require precautions and restricted use. As with sea angling, this harvest is strictly regulated and limited to specified zones. Respect for local practices and the environment implies taking local advice.

Not that the modern harvest leaves much grain to glean (except on the road)

En savoir plus...

Ancestral: the right to glean is based on a royal edict of 2nd November 1554 "the right to glean is authorised to the poor, the unfortunate, the underprivileged, the elderly, the disabled and little children. On another's land, it can only be undertaken after the harvest has been removed, and by hand, without the use of any tool".

not much here...

Case law: "Gleaning is closely linked to local customs and is only allowed within that framework" (verdict of the Court of Appeal of Montpellier, 21st June 2007). "The collection of unharvested potatoes from cultivated fields constitutes gleaning" (verdict of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence, 20th November 1991).

Too late now...

Reading: see "Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse" (1999) by Agnès Varda. "Gleaners both male and female, salvagers, skip-divers and freegans, whether by necessity, by chance or by choice, are all in contact with the leavings of others. Potatoes, apples and other foods thrown away, ownerless objects and clocks with no hands, that's the gleaning of our times".

Just remember:

• Every year in the UK 18 million tonnes of food end up in landfill.  (Food AWARE)
• Figures from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers show as much as 2bn tonnes of food never makes it on to a plate. (The Guardian, 10 Jan 2013)
• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people of the 7.1 billion people in the world, or one in eight, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. (World Hunger) 

Fruit cake - melting method - update

Having blogged about my old Stork recipe here, I thought it was time actually to bake it. I couldn't resist a few minor changes - the dried fruit included chopped crystallised ginger and sliced dried apricots, I used tea instead of water, and I sprinkled a handful of flaked almonds on the top for the look of the thing. I used a teaspoon of baking powder with my plain wholemeal flour, as I didn't have self-raising. I cooked it for an hour and a quarter which was less than the minimum time in the recipe. This is the result.

 

Fruit cake by the melting method

It's definitely overdone, by at least a quarter of an hour. I would say start testing after 45 minutes. The mixture was very stiff, which may be a result of the ginger and apricots absorbing more of the water, and a couple more tablespoons of water would make it more workable.

We sampled the cake, and Tim thought it was excellent, but I thought it rather too sweet for my taste. The moist fruit means that the cake is not too dry. The fruit certainly did not sink!

Just a small slice please!

The All-Green Pea

... is the name of the new Bio Co-op, Le Pois Tout Vert, in Châtellerault, in English translation.

Come inside!

Rather a meaningless name, n'est-ce pas? Not in French. Châtellerault is in the département of Vienne (no clue there) in the region of Poitou-Charente (aha!) and in the ancient province of Poitou (doubly aha!). Le Pois Tout Vert = Le Poitou Vert soundalike - another example of the French love of puns. The All-Green Pea means Green Poitou. They have three stores in Poitiers as well as the one in Châtellerault and you can find their web site here.

The store has all sorts of produce on display - fresh vegetables, preserves, cosmetics, teas, flour, beer... a terrible temptation! There's a good range of gluten-free products too. I particularly like the 'en vrac' facility where you can serve yourself with as much or as little as you want of all sorts of things like cereals, dried fruit, spices and detergent. The dry goods are numbered and you fill a paper bag, put it on the scales, type in the number and get a price sticker.

BioCoop itself is a cooperative project run by its members, and links together more than 335 organic shops across France, including l'An Vert du Panier in Chinon and BioCoop Salut Terre in Tours. More puns! L'An Vert = l'Envers meaning the Other Side [of the Basket]; Salut Terre = Salutaire meaning Healthy or Beneficial.

So here come still more puns! Chat-en-Oeuf = Chateauneuf = any one of thousands of lieu-dits across France, including the farm just up the road we call "Grundys'". It is also the name of a British importer of rather good wines from Languedoc, with a very slick website. Their label is simplicity itself, and a triumph of graphic design.

Wine Design of the Year 2007

And then there's a firm that specialises in fitting out lorries as mobile shops, such as Outiror (the Tool Drawer). It isn't compulsory to buy something every time the Outiror wagon pays a visit, but they do have some good stuff, and their free gifts are nearly as good as Damart.

The Outiror wagon in the market place, Le Grand Pressigny

Everything in a lorry... cinemas, medical units, displays, team support vehicles ... so what's the pun here?

Toutenkamion

This entry is in memory of Araucaria, the great compiler of crosswords and puzzler of monkeys like me, who posted a notice of his terminal illness as a crossword solution. The Reverend John Graham, who died on 26th November aged 92, RIP.

Crown Prince becoming a Rarity

The last of 2012's Crown Prince, unblemished and still perfectly edible, became Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream at the end of October, 13 months after it was picked! See below for the recipe.

Banana Split with Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream, Crème Crue and Marrons Glacées

The harvest at the end of September stimulated the Uchiki Kuri and the Butternuts into further action! The incredibly late autumn meant that we had to balance the fact that the fruit were still swelling against the preparedness of the slugs and snails to attack them.

The additions bring Uchiki Kuri to seven fruits averaging just over a kilo, and the two varieties of Butternut to 22 fruits apiece, averaging 750 grammes (Harrier) and 830 grammes (Hunter). Harrier's batting average was distorted by the last two fruit, at 182 grammes apiece. The plants averaged seven fruits each, which is not bad at all. We have a total of 71 kilos of pumpkin and winter squash, 61 fruits altogether.

From the top - Uchiki Kuri, Sweet Dumpling, Crown Prince and Pomme d'Or from Tournon Fête aux Arbres

Some of my 2014 seed order has come from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. As a member of Garden Organic I get a 10% discount on my purchases. The bad news is that their advertised Crown Prince is actually a different F1 hybrid variety called Rarity. Some web searching indicates that Rarity produces smaller fruit (2 kilos instead of 3 to 4 - good) but that doesn't have so much flavour (bad). Compare the rounded smooth squashes in the picture below with the male flowers at top right to get an idea of the size, and with the lumpy, flattened, much bigger beasties on the stairs.

Rarity (the only picture I can find)

The OGC told me that their supplier maintained that Rarity is the same as Crown Prince, which clearly it isn't, though whether it is an improvement or not remains to be seen. They are reimbursing me, and I have ordered a replacement from King's Seeds (after telephoning them to make sure I wouldn't get Rarity again).

Spiced Pumpkin Ice cream
from Ices - the definitive guide by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir
Ingredients

375ml / 12 fl oz milk
3 egg yolks
200g / 7 oz light brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
pinch ground cloves
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground pepper
250 ml / 8 fl oz thick pumpkin purée e.g steamed Crown Prince or Butternut
185ml / 6 fl oz whipping cream
2 tsp brandy

Makes about 1 litre / 32 fl oz.

Method

Make a custard with the milk, egg yolks, sugar and spices, by your favourite method - for example see here. 

Allow the custard to cool completely, stirring occasionally.
Beat in the pumpkin puree and the cream. Add the brandy, taste and add more spice if preferred.
Cover and chill it in the fridge. It can be left overnight at this stage, if necessary. Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove odd lumpy bits of pumpkin (if you’re fussy).
If using an ice cream maker, set it going and pour in the pumpkin mixture. Freeze to the consistency of softly whipped cream. Scrape into plastic boxes, cover with greaseproof or waxed paper and a lid, label and freeze.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, follow the standard ‘still freezing’ technique.