Though it doesn’t always feel like it, spring is well under way in the Poitou-Charentes and farmers are hard at work in the fields tending their young crops.
But it isn’t just the land-based farmers in this region who are busy at this time of year.
Last week the fishing boat ‘Reine de la Mer’ or ‘Queen of the Sea’ set out for the waters off the Charente-Maritime on a very special mission.
On board were no fewer than 800,000 young scallops or coquilles saint-jacques as they are known in French.
The boat’s destination were the two waterways known as the Pertuis d’Antioche and the Pertuis de Breton.
Here fisherman Stéphane Bessus tipped the young scallops into the sea at depths of between 20 metres and 40 metres.
These young scallops are just three to four centimetres in size.
By the time they are fully mature and ready to catch in three years they will have grown to 10.5 centimetres or more.
It is part of a scheme overseen by the Poitou-Charentes regional council to both boost stocks of the scallop and also ensure that local fishermen are kept busy.
Last year more than 130 local fisherman were granted licenses to fish for coquilles saint-jacques in these two areas.
Some earn up to 40 percent of their living from these well-stocked areas.
An important part of the scallop ‘sowing’ done by the ‘Reine de la Mer’ is keeping a digital map of where they have been put.
Another key factor is avoiding places where predators lurk.
‘Starfish like to eat scallops,’ says Bessus.
Just like the rest of us…
Photo: Dann Blackwood, USGS
Tagged as:
France,
scallops
Growing your own is the current gardening trend du jour in the UK – but, of course, it has long been popular here. In the countryside, it’s rare for a Frenchman or woman not to have their own carefully tended potager in the garden, and for many of us new residents, growing our own fruit and vegetables is a must-do.
I love the idea of a herb garden – although my track record with basil is abysmal – and so I eagerly flicked through the pages of the newly published book, The Balcony Gardener. It’s aimed at gardeners with small spaces but many of the clever ideas can easily be transported into larger gardens.
Some of my favourite pages are those on creating window boxes for cooking with. There’s the cocktail box, planted with strawberries, mint and kumquats for making caipirinhas, as well as those for whipping up a Thai curry, and cooking with fish. I do a lot of cooking with chicken, so I plan to give the following a go – not in a windowbox but a large pot. And thankfully, there’s no basil! RL
Tools & herbs: windowbox or pot, small stones, potting mix, horticultural grit and seaweed extract fertilizer. The herbs: blackcurrant sage, compact marjoram, French tarragon, Golden thyme, Hamburg root parsley, Purple sage.
How to: mix a few handfuls of horticultural grit in with the potting mix before planting the herbs to give the pot good drainage. The herbs will need feeding occasionally with the seaweed extract fertilizer, and need to be cut back after flowering. If the pot can’t be brought indoors during the winter months, use a cover to protect them against frost.
The Balcony Gardener by Isabelle Palmer; photographs by Amanda Darcy and Keiko Oikawa, is published by CICO Books.
Tagged as:
Food & drink,
Poitou-Charentes
