Category: Garden
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While We Were Away…
After a month wandering around France, visiting gardens, markets, wineries and eating far too much excellent food, I arrived home expecting to find the vegetable garden quietly waiting for me. The rabbits had other ideas. It appears that during our absence the local rabbit population decided that Rough Cut Garden was operating as a free…
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Learning to Slow Down in Saint-Étienne-de-Lescattes
After a week aboard the Canal du Midi, we traded our floating home for a stone farmhouse near the tiny hamlet of Saint-Étienne-de-Lescattes in the hills of Occitanie. If you’ve never heard of Saint-Étienne-de-Lescattes, don’t worry. Neither had I. It’s one of those places that barely registers on a map, surrounded by vineyards, rolling countryside…
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Lunch and Art at Château La Coste
Today at Château La Coste in Provence felt like one of those places where food, landscape and art all become part of the same experience. Before lunch we spent time walking through the grounds looking at the outdoor artworks integrated into the vineyards and hillsides. The standout for me was the Oak Room by Andy…
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The Quiet Confidence of Château Capitoul – Sète
One of the most interesting things about revisiting a project like Château Capitoul is seeing what happens after the “new garden” phase has passed. Six years on, the landscape has moved beyond installation and into maturity, and it is far stronger for it. The discipline of James Basson’s design is what makes it work. There…
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Tortilla for Two
1. The Situation The potatoes are ready and sitting there. If you leave them, they go soft or start sprouting. The hens are laying steadily, so eggs aren’t scarce. This is one of those moments where doing nothing wastes both. 2. The Approach This is a holding dish as much as a meal. You’re turning…
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Travelling in Provence
For the next couple of weeks, Rough Cut Kitchen is turning into a bit of a travel food diary. I’m currently in the south of France and, as you’d expect, the food culture here is impossible to ignore. Yesterday was Avignon. Today, Marseille. We’re now based in Aix-en-Provence for a few days while I wander…
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Pork Medallions with Gravy and Garden Vegetables
There were pork medallions to use, but more importantly there was a container of roast chicken gravy sitting in the fridge from earlier in the week. That’s not something to throw away. It’s already done work. It just needs a way back in. There were also beans still coming through, potatoes on hand, and the…
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End of Season Eggplant – Berenjenas en Escabeche
There comes a point toward the end of the season where the eggplants are still coming, but you can tell they’re not going to get much better. They’re smaller, sometimes a bit tougher, and you’ve usually got more than you planned for. But they still need to be used. Leaving them on the plant isn’t…
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