French Smallholding

Braised Lettuce & Peas with a Poached Egg Ingredients 500g Freshly podded peas 4 Baby Gem Lettuces 100ml Fresh Double Cream 2 Fresh eggs Olive Oil 1 small knob of butter 1 tsp White Wine Vinegar Place the peas into lightly salted boiling water, turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. ​ Meanwhile cut the baby gem lettuce length ways and heat a griddle pan. Brush the cut halves of the lettuce with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper and place cut side down o

Ingredients 500 ml White Wine Vinegar 500g Fresh Raspberries 80g Sugar Method Place the raspberries into a large bowl (not aluminium it reacts with the vinegar) and lightly mash the raspberries with a potato masher or the back of a fork. ​ Pour over the white wine vinegar mixing together well. Cover and leave for a couple of days. ​ Drain the liquid through a fine sieve or musline cloth and leave for a few hours or overnight if you have the time for fruit to release the vine

Why buy a smallholding in France? Well there are many reasons but for us the main ones centred around our love of France generally and that they are a culture developed from very rural roots. Add to this the amount of land and property you can buy in France compared the UK and the climate and you can see its appeal. A search on any french property website will reveal a huge and varied range of neglected farms and smallholdings across the country. Over the past 20 or 30 year