Winter bloomers

If you feel that your garden’s a little bit empty at this time of the year how about considering the following to cheer you up next winter.
1. Hamamélis (witchhazel)
2. Viburnum farreri (photo below 3. Daphne mezereum (with pink clusters of flowers on the stems)
4. Lonicera fragrantissima with little white perfumed flowers )from November until March. This is a honeysuckle but unlike most it is non-climbing, and an evergreen.
Have a look in pépinièristes and in catalogues, but wait until the spring before planting as they won’t want to be disturbed while still in flower, a delicate time of the year for them.

Périgordine camaroons

Many French News readers live in the Dordogne, where the News as it then was then began. This is the pays de chataignes ou castagnes. These of course are used to stuff the Christmas turkey. My parents used always to collect the wild ones in the Dordogne to take them back to the UK, preferring them to those they could find in Devon (even though they had their own tree). It was an annual event linking the end of their autumn holidays in the Dordogne and Christmas. It would seem that they knew what they were doing.
I was talking to an old local yesterday and he was saying that the best chestnuts came from the Périgord. They are found wild in the woods and are called camaroons. He went on to say that grafted chestnuts are not so good, all floury (farineuse). These grafted ones are twice the size. As with many edible foodstuffs – fish, mushrooms, meat and vegetation – big is not always best.
This year however the rain came too late for the camaroons (ironic after such a rainy summer) and a lot of the fruit fell. If you can, find your own and start the fiddly job of preparing them. It is most important to take off the bitter skins (roast these first, see Mrs Beeton’s recipe below). According to my old man (the one in the café, not my husband) , it’s a good idea to soak them for two days and then dry them. This should eliminate any worms. The stuffing being homogenous will freeze well. This means that this timeconsuming stuffing-making job is one that you can do in advance. It was always a Christmas Eve job at home and I found this painstaking task particularly irksome.
Alternatively, given that this is not a good year for camaroons, buy yourself a non-forcefed goose for this year’s stuff-up for Noël (apple sauce and sage and onion stuffing is much easier). Keep in mind this info for next year or whenever for that matter.
Here is Mrs Beeton’s recipe which she calls chestnut farce for roast turkey:- Ingredients:
2lbs of chestnuts
1/2 pint of stock or, failing that, water 1oz of butter
Good pinch of sugar and salt and pepper Method: Cut the tops off the chestnuts and bake or roast for twenty minutes. Remove the outer skins. Remove the inner skins. Put into a stewpan and add enough stock to barely cover them. Simmer until they become tender and dry. Rub through a fine seive (these days it might be easier to use an electrical joby). Add butter and salt and pepper.
Happy Christmas and good stuffing.