Free! Free! Free!

   This has been a bumper year for fruit. We don't have any trees of our own but neighbours and friends have been very generous with windfalls. The freezer is stacked with flat-packed plums, greengages and apple sauce. Our one little red currant bush produced an astonishing amount. And then there's all the free stuff quite literally lying around, free for the taking.
   Here's yesterday's haul. The walnuts came from a huge tree that hangs over the street opposite the school. Unless I'm quick, cars crunch the nuts into smithereens. The hazelnuts are from a piece of waste ground near our house, as are the quinces and windfall pears.
Can you make out the figs? I picked two kinds, the purple ones next to the place where we take our bags of rubbish, and the green ones from a tree hanging over the road on the way out of the village.
    Opposite, on another piece of waste ground, a plum tree has dropped kilos and kilos of purple fruit. It's all lying in the ditch waiting for me to go back with a bigger bag.

Two kilos of plums...

   The other day, on a piece of waste ground, I spotted a tree laden with small yellow plums. So I went back this morning and gathered two basketfuls. "Gathered" basically meant tickling them so they fell in my hand. They're so ripe that for every one I picked, another fell on the ground. The total harvest, washed, halved, pitted and ready for the freezer = two kilos.
    It's too hot to slave over pots of jam or chutney but come the autumn...

Free Gourmet Compote

What caught my eye, as I walked back into Léran this morning after a short amble into the countryside, were what looked like blue eggs in a dry ditch by the side of the road. When I say "blue", I  mean only a couple of shades away from the blue of a Gauloises cigarette packet. Turns out they were windfall plums so fatly ripe and juicy that their weight had detached them from the tree. 

I always carry a plastic bag with me for finds, so I was able to bring home half a dozen. Two nights ago, on our way to the café for a Sunday evening glass of wine, I noticed the walnut tree in the presbytery garden is laden, and a few had fallen into the street. Little ones, not as long as the first joint of my thumb.

So, simmering on the stove right now is a small pan of chopped plums and walnuts. I'm thinking of spooning it over our breakfast yogurt or on top of vanilla ice cream.