October

The clocks have gone back and it is now dark by 6:30 pm. We lit our first fire last night in the salon. The log burner, idle and empty for so many months, fires into action…literally! We have had such a beautiful October and even a few days ago felt that the warm weather would never end..but it has! We still have a host of outside jobs to do and the list gets ticked and then added to.

October has seen our first appearance on the Alistair Sawday’s website, we were delighted to be invited to join their collection of special places to stay. The first stage of the process was to send information of where pictures of your holiday home could be seen. Initial responses were good so a time was arranged when the Sawday’s inspector could come and see the property. They asses the house and the facilities and also look at its surroundings. We talked about the things to do in the area and our favourite restaurants, that wasn’t difficult ! We didn’t know on the day if we would be accepted as a report had to be written and sent to head office. The following week we received a phone call to say that we were in! People I tell have either never heard of Alistair Sawday’s or it’s the only place they go to for holidays! I remember buying the Alistair Sawday’s books, back in the day before the website world, their recommendations gave a kudos to a place and that’s what we hope it will do for FFQ, it’s someone saying that your place is a good place and it’s a little badge of quality. Click on the link below to have a look at our page on the Sawday’s site, we’d love to hear what you think.

The French Farmhouse in Quercy

Quinces

There are two quince trees in the old orchard and this year, like many of the trees it has been full of fruit. I have no experience at all of quinces but decided that I should do something with this furry pear. A little searching on the internet got me to “membrillo” a quince paste and quince jelly. These two recipes seemed to go together as the residue of the one provided the ingredients for the other, a win win! Collecting the said fruit turned out to be the first challenge. With pool net , very long secateurs and Robs help we managed to harvest the fruit. (The camera in hand didn’t make the job easier ). Then after what seemed days of chopping, cutting, boiling and using every available piece of kitchen equipment, we emerged with a tray of membrillo, quince jelly and quince puree. Will I make it again? well it has taken 4 years to have a crop of quinces worthy of doing anything with .…so maybe in four years time I will be ready to jar up the jelly again!

Quinces

October and an evening with some of the people who have helped us this summer at FFQ.

Autunm.