Un journal d'un Jardin Potager du Pays des Illinois

Author: Carol (Page 3 of 18)

Blé de printemps

12 avril 2021 lundi

67 degrees F ,  partly cloudy

10-20 mph,  NW wind

Germinated wheat seed growing in the Village of Prairie du Rocher Wheat Plot (CK)

Spring has arrived at Fort de Chartres and in the Illinois Country. Just as in French Colonial times, the agricultural fields in the American Bottom are tilled and seeded and the new growing season is underway. Wheat is one of the important crops that has been grown throughout the centuries in these rich fields in the Bottom, the land being continually renewed by the flooding waters of the great Mississippi River.

In 2018, Fort de Chartres Heritage Garden Project and Les Amis du Fort de Chartres have worked together to showcase a heritage spring breadwheat Triticum aestivum (var. Rouge de Bordeaux) representing the type of wheat that might have been grown as this region’s important ancestorial crop. With support of the Village of Prairie du Rocher, a small wheat plot was planted on village land through our Heritage Garden Project. Unfortunately, the very wet conditions and flooding of the surrounding area in recent years has not made for a successful effort thus far. In an effort to improve the plot’s drainage, Les Amis du Fort de Chartres purchased lumber in 2020 to build a raised bed to place in that village plot so that even if the surrounding ground was saturated, the soil could drain and allow the wheat to thrive. Thank you to Nick Kuntz for preparing the lumber for the plot and Jason Duensing for helping Nick prepare the bed sides and finish constructing the bed on the plot site in Prairie du Rocher. Once the bed was in place, the Village placed soil in the bed, then the soil was amended and raked in preparation for planting, with the assistance of Sabre, our garden project volunteer. I was able to sow the wheat seed shortly thereafter and now we just wait and see if our efforts are rewarded. All of the projects related to our French Colonial garden journey are always an adventure and fingers-crossed that this new adventure will be successful. If you are driving by, please don’t hesitate to park on the gravel road near the project’s sign, take a short walk to our red raised bed and check out our wheat as it grows! To revisit the original wheat project post for more of this project’s story, visit here this jardin’s previous post, Blé from mai 2018

Un cadeau du jardin

November Fort de Chartres Jardin Potager

1 décembre 2020 mardi

35 degrees, sun

3 mph, N wind

A gift from the jardin!

As we enter this final month of décembre, we approach a most special holiday season of the year. The garden year is almost at a close as the temperatures drop and the first snow is soon to be on our doorstep. Our focus shifts to the sheltering of those final cold season crops and finishing those last produce/seed preserving tasks. We can now truly begin enjoying the gifts the garden has given us this past year. This quiet season is a particularly meaningful this year of uncertainty and concern, a choice to celebrate life and its sacredness, in all its forms in our lives. I have met many individuals this year with a bit more time on their hands to explore the possibilities of bringing gardening into their lives and it has been a joy listening to their excitement and discovery of the art of gardening, helping to fill in those empty spaces this year has left in all our lives. These garden moments have been a inspiration in a year that truly needs a silver lining.

Joyeux Jardinage Seed Gifts

So, for all of you garden adventurers, looking to share your love of gardening, whether it be long-loved or newly discovered,  a limited time offer from the potager-gifts of heirloom seeds this holiday season. This moment in time seems like a wonderful opportunity for garden-loving folks to share with the other gardeners or encourage the gardeners-to-be in their lives, the jardin’s bounty and beauty with special holiday seed jardin potager packets. Next year might be the time for all of us to grow a bit more in our gardens for those in need, whether it be family and neighborsor helping supply our local foodbanks with home-grown produce. Maybe you love the look and taste of the jardin’s heritage lettuce varieties or maybe its those French Colonial flower favorites that make you happy? Or perhaps it is the garden’s heritage peas and beans or squash and watermelon varieties that bring such flavor and joy that you would like to share? Share your mix and/or match garden favorites with those in your life, giving the garden’s gift of life and beauty in the simple offering of heirloom seeds to those in your world who might appreciate a heritage garden seed gift to brighten the holidays and 2021!

Jennifer Duensing, Illinois Country Harvest Farm

The Joyuex Jardinage (Merry Gardening) Holiday Seed Collections are offered here for you to choose your garden favorites to share with those growers in your life. Two special holiday seed packet collections are offered for a very limited time. They contain a selection of seeds of your choice from the Fort de Chartres jardin potager or my personal heritage varieties. One has the option to choose either a 3 seed variety collection packet for $10 or a 5 seed variety collection for $15. You can pick your cover design in a green heritage design or a more modern red sepia garden inspired motif. As always, the seed collection will contain seed variety history and growing instructions in heritage packaging and sealed with wax. Seed gift collection ordering deadline is December 9 and the seeds will be shipped for an extra cost of $4 on or before December 19.  Also an option, ordered seed gifts can be available for in person pick-up for no additional cost on December 19,  for in person store pickup at either Illinois Country Harvest Farm Stand in Prairie du Rocher or Sassafras Creek Originals in Ste. Genevieve. Click on the two links below (French Colonial Seed Collection Lists and the Order Form) for further details.

Heritage Seed Collection List                                           Order Form

Please note: These special holiday seed gifts are for the individual seed varieties only contained in the the heritage seed collections not the full heritage seed collections themselves. You can mix your individual seed collection choices from the different collections. For example if you want to order lettuce/spinach varieties for your 3 seed variety seed gift choice-you can order Cimarron and Monstrueux De Viroflay Spinach from the Early Spring collection and the Tennis Ball Lettuce from the Spring-Summer Seed Collection. Please feel free to email me with any questions.

Kandye Mahurin, Sassafras Creek Originals

And as always, if one is looking for the seven regularly offered full French Colonial Garden Seed Collections for the proce of $20, they continue to be available online at Heart of Illinois Country Heritage Artisan Shop, at the Illinois Country Harvest Farm Stand in Prairie du Rocher, Saturdays through December 19 (9 am- noon) or Sassafras Creek Originals in Ste. Genevieve, Wednesday through Saturday all year round.

Thank you for supporting French Colonial gardening in the Illinois Country. From my garden to yours, offering best wishes to all for health, happiness, and successful gardens in 2021. The approaching holiday and New Year offer such hope and promise of life yet to come. Joyuex Jardinage!

La Jardiniere

Update: Ordering is now closed for the jardin’s holiday seed gifts. Thank you to all who placed orders and your seed gifts will be mailed beginning this Saturday, December 12.

Graines de jardin

8 novembre 2020 dimanche

75 degrees, clouds

2 mph, N wind

On this warm autumn day in the Illinois Country, garden seeds are still being collected and processed for use in gardens in the new year. Let’s take a moment to celebrate our heritage seeds harvested all season long in the jardin potager! This garden year has been an important one to many gardeners, whether experienced or novice.  At times throughout the year, it has been difficult to find the seeds needed to plant our gardens, as the demand for seeds dramatically rose as home and community gardens grew and expanded. As a response, special attention was given to gather more seed from the jardin potager than usual this past season and the French Colonial Heirloom Herb, Flower, and Vegetable Seed Collections continue to be offered online at the Heart of Illinois Country Heritage Artisan Shop link, hosted by Les Amis du Fort de Chartres.

Announcing new this fall, garden volunteer Jennifer Duensing is offering my French Colonial Heritage Seed Collections in her Illinois Country Farm Stand in Prairie du Rocher. Jennifer and Jason Duensing’s Illinois Country Harvest small sustainable heritage farm is just up the road from Fort de Chartres on 4074 State Route 155, near Prairie du Rocher. Their farm stand will be open every Saturday morning from now until December 19, 9 a.m. to noon. Jennifer also has her farm gathered dried flowers, beautiful wooden barn quilt blocks, and barn ornaments for sale in her farm stand this season. Check out their farm’s Illinois Country Harvest Facebook page for latest information and activities. If you would like to shop in person for the seed packets or peruse the wonderful items in Jennifer’s farm stand, please stop by on Saturday mornings!

Offering heirloom seeds has been an important and ongoing component of this independently funded heritage garden project located at Fort de Chartres and it has been a disappointment these past two seasons not to be able to host the usual site garden events, where free small seed packets and seed growing information could be shared. Seasonal flooding and the current pandemic have restricted Fort site use but these seed sharing opportunities will resume once normalcy can safely return to our lives. So, for now, my La Jardiniere’s heirloom seed collections can offer a way to share the French Colonial and Native Garden seeds and their history. Currently these heirloom seed collections now include seven different types. Newly added this fall, a French Colonial Heirloom Annual Flower Collection showcasing the easy to grow and much-loved period annual flowers grown in the Fort de Chartres jardin potager. All of the heirloom seed packet collections are packaged in the typical manner of an eighteenth-century letter and sealed with red wax. The package itself opens to detailed information reflecting the history and additional growing details of each variety. Ten individual small seed packets are contained in each vegetable, flower, and herb collection packet. The Three Sisters Native Garden collections contain corn, bean, and winter squash varieties plus additional information about this Native Peoples tradition. This summer there was hope to add a Late Summer-Early Autumn Seed Collection but was unable to locate adequate seed for the collection, so this new vegetable collection will have to wait until next year.

Update: The jardin’s heritage seed collections are now offered at Sassafras Creek Originals in Ste. Genevieve, Wednesday through Saturday all year round as of November 20.

Kandye Mahurin, Sassafras Creek Originals

A sincere thank you for the continuing interest in the Fort de Chartres Heritage Garden Project and the support of my efforts researching and offering heirloom seeds that allows exploration of the area’s rich French Colonial heritage through its historic foodways. Merci!

Carol Kuntz

 

Donate to the Fort de Chartres Heritage Project!

La sérénité du jardin d’automne

29 octobre 2020 jeudi

45 degrees, rain

10-20 mph, NNW wind

As the mantle of autumn settles across the American Bottom, the rhythm of nature and the region’s harvesting of crops heralds the end of the growing season, bringing with it a sense of calm and order. Everywhere garden beds and farmland are preparing for their winter dormancy, while the autumn potager plantings slowly make their way to their final harvest. In a year filled with chaos and uncertainty, nature provides a path and a quiet space for our consciousness to regroup and contemplate. We are given this opportunity to rediscover balance and purpose through the simple autumn observations of nature and the seasonal garden tasks yet to be completed.

Work to be done in November

They who have trees to Plant in a light or free Earth, which is neither hot or cold, must not fail to do so this Month. Omit not neither to have some Dung laid over the Earth at the Foot of each Tree you Plant.

When the Stalks of Asparagus are in Seed, you must not cut them till the Seed is grown red – if you do it sooner the Seed will be spoil’d, and the Plants themselves produce only small sorry shoots in the Spring…

To preserve Winter Roots, as Red Beets, Carrots, and Parsnips, chuse a fine day and take ‘em out of the Ground, with the Earth about ‘em, then carry them into the Place where you intend to keep ’em, laying them one one by another, to take them as you have Occasion…

We Raise small Salleting on Hot Beds, which cannot be well done without Glass Frames or Bells

We sow Peas in some warm sheltered Place, to have em very early, but they must be covered during the Frost.

This is the Month when we make the Operation upon Old Trees, of cutting off some great Root to make ‘em bear Fruit. It may likewise be done in December and January.

-Francois Gentil, Le jardinier solitaire. 1706

The beginning of the autumn season brought warm weather and sunny skies, perfect conditions to gather the garden’s heirloom produce, seeds, and its largest crop yet of heritage apple and pears. October’s recent frosts and colder weather have brought an end to the last harvests of Cornfield beans, Bull Nose peppers, and Listada de Gandia eggplants. As the more hectic garden work subsides, now time is spent gathering the last seeds for next year and finish cleaning up spent frost-bitten crops while nourishing and tending the fall-planted, cold-hardy vegetables. These autumn vegetables are chosen for their cold tolerance and shorter growing season, such as cabbage, carrot, kale, leeks, lettuce, peas, radishes, and spinach.

Earlier in the year, the Fort de Chartres jardin potager experienced another stretch of challenging, damp, and cool weather in the spring and early summer. The garden finally hit full stride mid-summer as the weather eventually warmed and settled. The warm seasonal crops of beans, cucumbers, and squash proved bountiful and just in time to welcome returning garden visitors. The autumn season brought warm weather and sunny skies, perfect conditions to gather the garden’s heirloom produce, seeds, and its largest crop yet of heritage apple and pears. As always to be found in any garden year, there are still plants that thrive and those that fail. Over and over, spring seeds of lettuce, bush beans, and beets along with other root crops were planted, only to never really flourish, and it was a relief to welcome the arrival of late summer to begin anew with the planting of the fall garden. Now, these final remaining autumn crops will be nourished, cherishing the life and energy they bring to the now sleepy jardin potager.

Calville Blanc Apples

As previously mentioned, the garden’s apple and pear trees offered a fine harvest this past growing season. These French heirloom varieties were picked in September and early October and allowed to fully develop their flavor in cold storage for a few months. This fall has been a wonderful time to bake, preserve, and experiment with these garden jewels. The kitchen has been filled with the lovely fragrance of fall cakes, fruit desserts, and cider, certainly comforting in these recent dreary days. Using some of our earlier harvest of Anjou and White Doyenne pears, a centuries-old French dessert standard of Stewed Pears in Red Wine was prepared. And for the first time since the trees began to bear fruit, there were enough apples from our heritage Fameuse, Calville Blanc, and Summer Rambor trees to try making some homemade cider (unfermented), with a light and lovely result. If one wants to add a bit of bourbon or brandy to liven the taste, no judgment will be offered here. These autumn recipes and other desserts, and a bit of their history, can be found on this website’s Recettes page by clicking Recettes 2020.

An Autumn 18th Century Taste Recettes Photo Pascale Kichler

In the French colonial home, fruit was often preserved with sugar, and if left long enough, the fruit would ferment. Ciders, vinegar shrubs, and other fruit vinegars were additional methods of preserving fruit harvests beyond drying or the making of jams and jellies. Frugality was an essential component of survival in French or other colonial households; thus, all parts of the fruit were utilized. The peels and other fruit detritus could be combined with water and some sweetener such as sugar or maple syrup, and after a few months of fermenting in the warmth near a hearth, one would have a basic fruit vinegar. These vinegars would have benefit all winter-long for the use in the preparation of foods and other household activities.

Taking a lesson from the Illinois Country’s garden history, perhaps there is a glimmer of light and more than a small bit of art to be found in the sustenance of the everyday jardin potager and its seasonal tasks. To make something delicious and sustaining from whatever our gardens (or life) offers us in any given season, gives real meaning and purpose to our journey. Best wishes for everyone’s good health, and may you experience the hope and healing solace that can be discovered in nature and one’s own garden. A bientôt!

 

 NOTE:  Recent summer and fall jardin potager visitors have inquired if there was a place online to donate to this heritage garden project. A sincere thank you is owed to Les Amis du Fort de Chartres, for they have created a garden donation link that benefits the Fort de Chartres Heritage Garden Project. Many thanks to all who support this independent heritage garden project and its mission to share the rich French Colonial and Native Peoples foodway history and the heirloom seeds that illustrate and preserve this story. Merci, your support is gratefully appreciated! And don’t forget-my French Colonial Heritage Garden Seed Collections are available online at Les Amis du Fort de Chartres Heart of Illinois Artisan Heritage Shop.

Graines pour un jardin

27 mars 2020 vendredi

Jardin 2016 seed exchange (CK)

69 degrees, Clouds

8 mph, SSW wind

Seeds for the garden!

In keeping with the Fort de Chartres Heritage Jardin Potager mission of sharing with the community, the jardin project has seeds to offer.  Need a few seed packets?  If anyone is in need of a small amount of the garden’s free sample seasonal heirloom seed packets (limit 6) or a print of the Early Spring Garden Design Layout, send inquiries and requests to heritage@fdcjardin.com. Since the annual jardin annul seed swap was not held this year, there is a nice variety of heirloom vegetable, herb, and flower seeds available of the type grown in the Fort de Chartres jardin potager. To view the general varieties, view the garden blog’s Jardin Layout page.

Happy to share!

And if you would like to give to a fundraising effort by the garden, for sharing these seeds and for the Fort garden’s Prairie du Rocher local food pantry, visit a FdC Heritage Garden Project Facebook fundraiser hosted by Les Amis du Fort d Chartres, through March 31st.

Together, we make our communities stronger! Merci.

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