Marching Forward

Almanac for Belonging: March 1-7-inside and out!

French Sakura at Camont, March 2026, Kate Hill

March 7 Almanac for Belonging. Spring’s Glory- French Sakura!

So many years ago, I’ve lost count, I planted this small but lovely Double Flowering Cherry tree at the entrance to the Relais de Camont. Before there was a gate, before there was an arch, her delicate branches waved welcome to Spring arrivals.

Now, she is blooming right on time; my photographic library proves this is her week—come rain or shine—and this morning we have had just enough sun to show off her pinkness against the green green grass and the copper patina of the new garden gate. If you are lacking Spring’s warming kiss, I offer you mine- French Sakura!

March 6 Almanac for Belonging. Can I Beet this ?

Warmish, grey cloud cover, like a thick damp duvet, kept me inside most of the day attending to chores: errands, appointments, and naps. In that order. But the hefty 5€ box of vegetables from yesterday’s farm run was calling. Especially the too many beets!

I started by separating the large red Globes from the smaller Chioggia pink and white striped ones while looking up recipes for preserving, cooking and pickling. Everything got a good scrub before I started to cook the deep red ones in their skins. I’ll reserve some for a borscht-like sour soup, and the rest, I’ll slice and pickle and put up in jars. As I was running out of steam already, I grabbed just 4 smaller pink and white beets and grated them with one carrot and ¼ of the Napa cabbage for raw slaw. I mixed up a dressing of equal parts of vinegar, sugar and oil, brought that to a boil and the sugar was dissolved, and tossed it over the grated vegetables.

It’s now sitting in the refrigerator cooling down and will a crispy crunchy mixed slaw to eat with almost anything this week. Tomorrow- the cabbage and greens will get cooked in a spring green herbal soup to eat with thick slices of toasted rye bread and sliced ham. Stay tuned!

March 5 Almanac for Belonging. A 5€ Box of Health & Vegetables.

I ask a friend for a lift to the neighboring farm, about a 15 minute drive away, so I could pick up some fresh vegetables. I had missed this weeks farmers markets and was desperate for some greens. this farm is one of the largest and most diverse in the area and although they don’t sell at the markets, that have a lovely large store arranged in an old tobacco barn and you can drive down the long unpaved road, passed the last Brussel sprouts and cabbages, on any day to shop at what’s just been harvested or held in storage.

There is almost always a smalls tack of boxes loaded with ‘uglies’ or last minute finds and I grabbed the last one that will yield moor than a week’s worth of meals plus several liters of soup for the freezer. Here is what was in the box: one Napa cabbage, bunch of celery, one leek, a big bunch of radishes, several blettes or chard, dozens of red and chioggia beets, and half a dozen radicchio. I’m all set for this weekend’s recipes!

Almanac for Belonging. March 4th/March Forth!

She has been popping open like slow motion popcorn, coral-colored and bright against the gravel paths. Flowering Japanese Quince—the first of the bright colors I planted years ago at Camont.

This is your friendly PSA (public Service Announcement) to plant something that blooms early now! And plant it where you can see it from your window—desk, kitchen, bedroom. You’re welcome.

March 1 Almanac for Belonging. March into Spring with me!

A surprise of a foggy morning softens the sharp filigree of still bare towpath trees in the distance while I focus on the windowsill garden that I have planted recently. Then once I lift my eyes, I see the coral flowering quince, a bunch of pale feral daffodils and the recently pruned wisteria arch, all part of the potager and herbier beds outside the kitchen door.

Quick grab my seed packages and notebook and let’s make a plan! Le Printemps est arrivé!

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Kitchen Window at Camont March 2026, Kate Hill

Clean Windows onto a New Season!

I love how the beginning of a new month (and a new season!) offers so much promise, so many fresh opportunities to start anew, or reboot an old project. And while March might be the first true month of Spring, although there have been Spring inroads over the last two sunny weeks of February, it still has a long way to go to entice me out first thing in the morning. Instead I clean the windows, hang some fresh curtains, and look outside.

Almanac thoughts—about belonging to March. It is a funny month, named after a god of war, (oops, was that a coincidence here?) but supposed to roar in like a lion and out like a lamb. So far we are more lamb-like in the weather, warmer sunnier days (in the high 50s to mid 60sF/ C), no wind, and the visible growing of green leaves everywhere on what were formerly dead sticks of wood and branches. March belongs to Spring!

However, before we go all “Easter eggs and Sunday dresses for April” I am focusing on the underpinnings of Spring, those little seen supporting tricks that March will help see us through this new season’s demands, inside and outside the house. It’s less about Spring cleaning and more about rearranging—which sounds less scary than organizing, doesn’t it? In general, in France, there are always cultural clues to assist one. Weekend vide-greniers and brocantes (flea markets often with professional sellers) are popping up on the weekend as well as the less interesting vide-dressing (empty your closets so lots of old clothes, kids stuff, shoes, handbags, etc) and vide-maison (house or estate sales). Exchanging your old stuff for someone else’s can be fun if not productive but ultimately French junk is still junk, unless it is lovely old faceted jam jars, mismatched silverware, and like-new vintage ironed linen torchons or tea towels.

Also, the local shops, really local like smaller grocery stores and farmshops (living rural helps!), offer things like little planting by the moon workbooks, or a Calendrier du Potager as a planting and harvesting guide. They are of course great sales tools to promote seeds, tools, and other gardening needs… So let me share with you some of my favorites.

OUTSIDE:

As a fair weather gardener, I have a tendency to be a little late to the game, while others have already sowed their entire kitchen garden inside, I have only picked up a few paltry seed packets from the grocery store. Some years I am months ahead of myself, some years too late. So why do I feel like I am Goldilocks at the just right moment to sow some patches of leaves, salad, herbs?

At the end of last month I bought several pots of already flowering plants and herbs for my window garden. They are nicely settling in and watering a good soak once a week right now seems adequate. There are lots of new buds on the dianathus popping up and with a little fertilizer (liquid, compost tea, worm wee) they should continue flowering for a few weeks. These were the ones that I did not repot so they didn’t get a jolt or shock from repotting so see happy to make more flowers. I gave the shaggy chives a good trim and used them in my dumpling mix and they are already sprouting strongly. At the end of this spring season, I’ll move most of these into the ground clustered together along the newish cutting garden edges so they don’t get lost.

Now to those seeds. Let them tell a little story of a spring salad. Sow just those things that will jump onto your lunch plate when you are bored with ramen noodles. Something sweet, something nutty, something to punch you in the taste buds like mustard seeds.

Leaves!

Mesclun (a mix of salad leaves), roquette, and chervil can be sowed directly into the raised bed by the kitchen window where I can thin the microgreens and weed at the same time. I also bought some lettuce plugs to add in as a filler and distract the slugs* while the seeds sprout. Sooner than you think there will be enough single leaves to clip or pluck and fill a small bowl for a spring salad, or just garnish a plate with some freshness just barely dressed with the simplest of vinaigrette. (Let me plug the wonderful Emily Nunn’s recent three vinaigrette master recipe here!)

*Slugs are the number one sore spot in my garden. All the small measures are useless so I resort to an organic friendly slug bait whole neon blue pellets shame me each time I use them.

Radishes!

Mix up the size of your seeds! Radish seeds are the best! Big, round and fast, I plant these like little boundary fences between slower germinating patches of minute wispy seeds like chervil. Radish sprouts are perfect to add to salads as you thin them out. Soon (18 days!) there will be those long red and white crisp bites of peppery goodness. Next, the radish greens can be the base of a spring garden soup- one of the first recipes I learned when I arrived in Gascony. Here’s the recipe and the story…

That’s all you have to do right now, you can start to buy other seeds and plant directly outdoors soon, or small plants ready to fill in the potager. I shop at my local farmers markets as there will be locally grown starters for this climate at just the right time to plant!

5€ Farm Produce Box, March 2026, Kate Hill

INSIDE:

While I have been admiring the kitchen window garden from inside mostly, and after hanging the darling red and white Vichy (gingham) curtains, I am turning my attention to what has been on my cooking list for some time. Can you tell I am getting itchy to cook and invite a tableful of folks over. At the same time, I am conscious of my own solo dining needs and decided to approach the box of farm produce that I hauled home this week, with a few recipes to tide me over at lunch time or in the evening when I am done for the day. Two things always satisfy me- soup, of course, and some sort of mixed plate of salady things- pickles, slaws, and condiments.

My big vegetable box (which only cost 5€!) was loaded with greens—several small chard or blette which I could eat cooked or in a tourte, and cabbages, leeks, radishes, carrots, two kinds of beets—blood red Globes and pale pink-striped Chioggias.

So after a good think and a browse through one of my favorite books, Olia Hercules’ Summer Kitchens, I started thinking about …

Soups- and especially borscht!

While I am not a practiced borscht maker, I can follow a recipe and riff on it before I ever make it. I discovered Olia’s culinary cultural books a couple years ago—let’s count them in war years—four of them, when I first downloaded her Ukrainian stories and recipes of a gentler time. You can read more here.

I was drawn to a Spring/Summer green recipe for making a Sour Spring Soup. So with that in mind, I scrubbed all the beets, and set the red one aside for pickling. I also peeled and grated a handful of smaller beets to make a quick slaw with a carrot and a quarter of the Napa cabbage. Next, I sorted the small tender sugarloaf cabbages and set them aside for the soup, I have two wonderfully fragrant potatoes, a fat leek, and the radish greens as well as the radishes for a garnish. There are garlic cloves and onions as needed/wanted, and while I don’t have any sorrel growing at present in the potager, I have some slightly sour fermented white cabbage with turmeric and my homemade wine vinegar to drizzle at serving. What lacks in cultural authenticity, is made up for in an approach to farmhouse cooking—using what is at hand, making do, and understanding your ingredients.

Pickles- here’s an easy ratio.

This is the easiest of all sorts of pickles to make- I cooked the unpeeled beets until tender, let them cool, then sliced the smallest ones on the mandoline and cubed the largest ones. I made a batch of pickling liquor with wine vinegar (because that is what I have in abundance), water, sugar, and some salt. This is where experimentation is your friend, since my vinegar is never the same as store bought, (I do taste to see how strong it is!) I adjust the seasoning as needed. 2 parts vinegar, 1 part water, sugar and salt to taste. The beets are generally sweet too, so I used one tablespoon of sugar per cup of vinegar, just enough to soften the edges but not to make it a sweet pickle. I love mustard seeds, black peppercorns, and bay leaves so I’ll add those in as well. Heat the pickling liquid to a boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then turn off the heat. Pour the hot liquid over the cut beets packed into cleaned jars. There is more than enough to put in the fridge for a while and offer a gift to friends for a quick bright bite at the end of the Winter garden.

This week promises to be warmish if not sunny, so all month, I’ll be digging through my March archives to offer you a few favorite recipes to share with your friends and family. Keeping your tribe happy with edible gifts is one way we knit our communities together.