The Crepe Season

The season of the crepe.  Hugo assures me that crepes will not make me fat. Just eggs, milk and flour, he says. Checking the ingredients off on his fingers. Luckily the eggs and the milk come from the farm because he goes through heaps of both. He makes a big batch of crepe batter every few days and we eat them for breakfast and sometimes dinner.  And he often has another late at night before going to bed.

He is going to give me a lesson on making the batter now that I have perfected cooking the crepe.

Yesterday I had roasted ham and brie in my breakfast crepe and he had Nutella. In fact he always has Nutella in his crepes.

I hope to do this with pictures for you one day but in case I forget:

The recipe for Hugo’s Crepes – (please feel free to halve the recipe – this boy has hollow legs)

• 500 g flour
• 8 eggs
• 1 litre of milk
• a little salt

(if you are making dessert crepes you can add a little sugar or vanilla or orange essence)

Sift all the flour into a big bowl, make a well, break in the eggs, (one handed while moving to French Rap)  then beat the well while you drizzle in the milk mixing the milk into the eggs while incorporating the flour. This method was new to me.

I pour the batter into a big old Teapot to store in the fridge.  So whenever a French teenager wants a snack, he heats the cast iron pan to smoking hot, rubs the end of a stick of butter over the surface, pours a little batter from the Teapot (then puts the lid back on and forgets to return it to the fridge), cook, flip, cook, eat.

I hope we get a photographic tutorial  on the method from my wild French teenager! These are great.

We had such storms last night. HUGE thunder and lightening, internet and lights going on and off, deafening thunder and lightening like endless flashing lights –   we were all on the verandah watching the show so no-one cared about the lights going off. A lot of rain, heavy rain. An Autumnal storm.  The crops are ready to be brought in so it will rain.

Which reminds me here is a short video I made the day before yesterday to show you the sound that the dry corn makes in the breeze.

This did not play very well for me when I tested it so just close your eyes and listen to it. It is the sound I want you to hear and you can see that I am right back at the house recording it. Not too close at all.

Anyway last night the lightening was so persistent that I opened the barn doors for all the cows to come in – usually only the babies take cover.  But those big cows look like a big lightening target to me. I know lightening has no eyes and it seems incongruous that lightening would hit a cow in the dark but I suppose it can. I mean in the dark storms don’t feel so scary. However erring on the side of caution I let them all in.

Boo is of course literally terrified and for hours after the storm was still sleeping in his special Storm Bed in my wardrobe behind my old coats (I really need to get in and clear all the old clothes out of that wardrobe!). What amazes me is that (here at least) only the dogs are afraid of the storms, the cows will graze and even the pigs graze in storms or stand about with their tails to the wind calmly chewing their cud. Last night when I checked them after the storm had abated they were all snoozing peacefully. Imagine if Sheila was afraid of storms, she would take out whole fences trying to hide from the thunder.

Speaking of Sheila I think she has come into heat, (after all this time) and yesterday she decided to systematically take apart the Rat House (ripping boards off the back wall) to try and get to Manu (the not so baby boar) on the other side. Consequently (as Poppy is coming into heat too) all the big pigs were sent to their rooms, to think about their behaviour, for the duration. And tomorrow our dear Manu will take a ride to the West Barn and stay over there out of harms way. I want no breeding until January.

So, as I am seem to be playing Musical Pigs; Molly and Tahiti the little gilts will get to stay here and live in Manu’s field while they grow.

AND I just might have a surprise for you – coming to the farm next week. I am still in negotiations but I have finally found a young Llama that I can train as a full time guardian over at the West Barn. Initially though she will be at the home farm to bond with Naomi and Little and learn to come to my call and all those things, then they will all move Across The Way en masse.

Just for the record Jake my good friend  lives in the house at the West Barn so they are not alone over there, he does a night time check before he goes to bed. And of course I am there two or three times in a day.

I have one last helper coming on Sunday, a girl who is going to help me and Hugo clean both barns and get them ready for winter.  I know I was determined to close the kitchens but she seems like such a nice girl. She will only be here a few weeks.

Time for work for me.

I hope you have a lovely day,

Love celi