Hockey in the Heat

The last few days have been incredibly fun and busy, which is a recipe to make time fly by quickly. I feel like I just wrote my last blog post! I do have only less than two weeks left, so perhaps I am just pushing myself to get as much done as I can and do those things that are on my To Do list.

One of those things on list was bake brownies! In the care package that my Mom sent here, she included dry brownie mix with instructions written down for me. The family has often been asking me questions about the brownies with shy smiles on their faces, so I figured I better bake them soon before their chocoholic cravings get any larger! All I needed was water, an egg, and oil, so it was extremely easy to prepare. I offered the spoon to the girls in the kitchen so they could lick the batter. After putting the brownies in the oven, the bowl was already licked clean, too! After dinner, we ate the brownies and everyone loved them! They were a bit burnt on the bottom, but nobody seemed to mind chewing chocolate in their mouth for a little longer from the crunchiness. Many people had seconds. Heather, the Canadian volonteer, was in heaven. WE had a few pieces left over, so I gave them to the neighbors. I'm just trying to spread the love.

We have been working longer hours on the farm recently. We work from 9am-noon in the morning, take a long break to eat lunch and avoid the midday heat, and then resume work at around 4-5pm. The day ends at around 7:30-8pm. We all run in to take our showers. There is only one bathroom, so it's quite a race. We eat dinner now more at around 9:30pm or even 10pm. It's a pretty strange schedule, but it's the best for what needs to be done on the farm.

We have still been doing plenty of weeding. A lot of salad plants and onions have been pulled, so the gardens need to be cleared and replanted with other vegetables plants or seeds. I watched a really neat sterilization process to help kill weeds. After Ja-Ja tilled a few rows in one of her gardens, they put a larger steamer over the soil. It was about 3x4 feet and pretty flat. It was hooked up to a nuclear power tank. They would lay the steamer over the soil for a period of time and then move it down the row. Basically, the weeds were being fried. Hopefully, less weeds will grow later on. This technique is very common in organic farming here. Larger farms even have marger steamers and they move using a GPS system. Pretty incredible!

While weeding, I've felt like I am practicing for ice hockey again. The ground has been very hard because it has been very sunny and hot lately. I had to use a large hoe to break the ground so we could still pull out the weeds by the roots. I was using all of my muscles, especially my back. I felt like I was taking slap shots on the ice, one after another without stopping. Then, on other afternoons, we have been raking the the last hay fields and baling the hay. Chérif's baler actually broke (whoa!), but a friend brought his so we could finish. The needles (large steel spears) cracked in half in Chérif's machine. I looked for replacement ones on eBay, which he thought was amusing, but couldn't find any for the maker of his machine, Claas, which was unfortunate. We still finished, at least, with the help of his friend. We raked on steep hills, so I was running up and down, throwing hay with the rake, doing cross-overs with my feet to move sideways up and down the hill. Once again, I felt as if I was at hockey practice. I'm getting good workouts here! I like this exercise a bit better now, though, because I can tan at the same time, hehe.

It's raining today, so I took a run in the mist to see the clouds around the mountains. It's very beautiful here when it rains. The cows seem happy, too! I felt well energized after eating a big French meal last night. Ja-Ja made a Provencal tart (tomatoes and cheese with some mustard) and Chérif grilled sheep from his own farm! Everything was juicy and fresh! It was a feast, along with the Californian wine that Ja-Ja bought us as a gift and salad picked from the garden. For dessert, Ja-Ja made a fresh apricot tart. There was a hint of almond in the dough! It was super sweet. I am certainly being well-fed here. I hope you all are enjoying summer's tomatoes and fresh fruit in the States! I bet peaches are out! Talk to you soon and have un bon weekend! (a good weekend!)

My Polar Fur, Please

Even though I first hoped that the farm would have Mediterranean-like weather, I have finally accepted that I am really living in the mountains. This weekend has actually been pretty chilly, as well as yesterday. The mornings are a bit nippy, and the wind seems to continue throughout the day. I have had to wear my fleece often. In French, it's called une fourrure polaire, which translates into "a polar fur." I think that is quite amusing.


Sunday was a free day for me. I slept in, of course, until around 10am. I then watched a Japanese animation film with Naoko. She wanted to show me a film from her country. We watched it in French with French subtitles so that we could both practice our French. The title in English is "Howl's Moving Castle." She told me that it is a popular film in Japan and made by a well-known film maker, Hayao Miyazaki. I thought that it was very creative and the animation was incredible, but the story didn't make much sense and was somewhat boring for me. I guess I'm just not the sci-fi type. I'm glad that I got to see something of her culture though and share the moment with her! I had a good time just relaxing with her.

For the rest of the afternoon, I took a very long walk. It was good walking weather since it was cool and cloudy. I brought a book along with me: "Animal, Vegtable, Miracle: A Year of Food Love" by Barbara Kingsolver. I love the book, especially because it mostly takes place in southern Virginia and she recalls her childhood in Kentucky. Her family have started their own farm and have committed to eating only locally grown foods. It's extremely fascinating, especially since I can learn more about our lovely Appalachia region and the larger picture of food system issues in the United States. I strongly recommend the book. Thanks, Mom, for getting it for me! I read it while taking some stops along my walk, sitting in a spot overlooking fields or in Lasalle.

I also met a Spaniard named Victor on my walk. He just moved here, but speaks French very well. He moved here after splitting up with his wife. Coincidentally, Naoko decided to come here after breaking up with her boyfriend. I guess these types of life changes deserve a change of scenery. If you have recently left a significant other, then maybe coming to Lasalle is the right move to make, or any other cozy French village. Just a thought.

Yesterday, a new WWOOFer volunteer arrived. She is from Manitoba, Canada. She is in her late twenties and learning French like me. She is taking classes for law in organic farming issues. I am looking forward to talking to her about what she has learned and issues that Canada is facing. She is writing a paper now comparing France and Canada on this topic. She brought her laptop, like me. North Americans can be so studious!

Hadda, a friend of the family who is also Berber and lat me stay at her house the first night I arrived here in Nimes, is staying here for a few days. She is on vacation and helping some on the farm. She cooked an Algerian specialty last night. It was a special soft, flaky rice with diced dates. It was fabulously sweet! We also ate ratatouille for the first time of the year on Sunday night! Finally! It tasted so fresh: eggplant, tomatoes, and onions all from the garden. Chérif said that the best ratatouille is made by cooking all of the ingredients separately, and then mixing them together at the end. Ja-Ja didn't have the time, or probably the kitchen space as well, to cook in this fashion. Instead, she cooked everything together. On top of rice, it was still magnificant! Inès, the youngest daughter, doesn't like ratatouille and just wanted to put ketchup on her rice, haha. She did, and ate it all up! She loves ketchup, and Ja-Ja says it's because Americans love ketchup. I argued and said that during the summer, Americans love cold cucumbers salads! A minute later, Inès was sliding cucumbers onto her plate from the salad bowl. I'll leave it at that.

On the farm, I've pretty much just been weeding. I also sprayed the tomatos and eggplant leaves with an organic insect spray to stop the worm and bugs from eating the tomatoes and the spiders from making webs all over the eggplant leaves. The chemical I sprayed was a bacteria that serves as a virus for these animals. I think the bacteria called Actium or something like that (the bottle was in German, anyway, so I have to idea). It's natural, though, sense it's just a bacteria in liquid form. Walking around the gardens, more flowers a blooming, butternut squashes are getting orange and large, and the onions are breaking the surface of the soil.

That's all the news I have for you. I hope it's sunny and beautiful in the States. The heat will come back here for sure. The sun is incredible hot. Shade is a blessing. Enjoy your air-conditioning and iced lattes. Talk to you soon!