Delicious Chives Blossom

Chives blossom attracts bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects to our garden. They are nice looking and, like many other culinary herb blossoms, are also edible!

Read Linda Gilbert's ode to chives here and see a list of other edible flowers on this blog by  Jacqueline Church.

'Chives should be deadheaded when their blooms fade. But, why waste those blooms? They're edible (and look really pretty sprinkled on a salad) and have a very light onion flavor,' writes Colleen Vanderlinden from Detroit area in the USA.

By the way, 'detroit' in French is 'a strait, a passage' and there are  towns and villages in France named just that: Detroit. American Detroit was part of la nouvelle France before most of the French colonies there were ceded to Britain.

Photo by A.Anichkin

Norman Ceps

A lovely cep I found recently on a mushroom hunt in St Sever forest - and consumed with gusto. Take advantage of the mild damp weather, perfect for mushrooms and mushroomers.

Sent by Peter Drearey, 

Calvados 

Mushroom time

Summer rain and sunshine, perfect conditions for mushrooms. Many edible champignon are abundant in Normandy. Here, a perfect pair of Birch Bolets (leccinum scabrum) picked near Lake Dathe. Admire, dice, stir-fry or drop into soup.

Mussels on the beach

Mussels on the beach in August.

Sent by Molly Innes

In Honour of the Norman Cow

Bronze cow stands in the market square of Vimoutiers, the centre of Camembert cheese making region of Normandy.

French Life

by Molly Innes
published in the May Rendezvous