I've been buying plants again

I go to a plant fair and make a salad. It's been very busy.

When we lived in London, I went to Columbia Road Market every Sunday morning. Now I’m using the very useful Columbia Road bag to carry home my French plants.

When we lived in London, each May I began counting down the seconds to the Chelsea Flower Show. It has all the elements I need for a perfect day out: glorious plants, people watching, military brass bands and day drinking. I came home each time with a bag full of plant catalogues and a notebook full of indecipherable scrawl – was that a Latin name? A plant combination? A bit of gardener gossip I really mustn’t forget? It all got a bit easier, and a little bit less fun, with the evolution of phones that meant I could snap plant labels, gardens and the hortorati showing the signs of a few too many plastic glasses of Pimm’s.

I am yet to make it to the Festival International des Jardins at the Château de Chaumont in Chaumont-sur-Loire – though I have little excuse honestly, given that unlike Chelsea, where the floral extravaganza is crammed into a few short days, the Chaumont festival runs from April to November.

But I never let a smaller flower festival pass me by. Last weekend, we drove down to the Abbaye de Fontfroide, about an hour away, south west of Narbonne. This Cistercian abbey in the foothills of the Corbières mountains (called Fontfroide from fons frigidus, cold fountain, because of the nearby springs) dates back to 1093. By the time it was bought at auction in 1908 by artist and collector, Gustave Fayet and his wife Madeleine, its cloisters, courtyards, buildings and terraced gardens were in a desperate state. The Fayets poured considerable resources into the renovation, which I suppose gave Gustave something to do when he wasn’t amassing an art collection that included works by Gaugin, Van Gough, Cézanne, Renoir, Manet, Degas, Sisley, and his great friend, Symbolist painter, Odilon Redon. Redon’s huge frescoes, Le Jour et La Nuit, cover the library walls.

Gustave Fayet, courtesy of fontfroide.com

It wasn’t the frescoes that drew us to Fontfroide this time, but their Fête des Plantes, now in its twentieth year. We parked our car in one of the large fields at the bottom of the hill and, foolishly, I declined the loan of one of their beaten-up wheelbarrows as though I had never actually met me. Dozens of growers filled courtyards and vaulted buildings with their plants, and of course there were stalls of soaps, essential oils, indescribable things made with lavender, and all manner of horticultural tchotchkes of the kind you see at Chelsea too. It was overwhelmingly delicious. Is manic serenity a thing? Because this is how best I can describe my state when surrounded by thousands of plants, some of which I know will be coming home with me.

I was looking for herbs, vegetables and strawberries for the tiny potager I’m planting in our courtyard. Until now, this space has been a builder’s yard, home to cement mixers, work benches, bags of sand, offcuts of pipe, plastic buckets and broken brooms. Its only adornment has been weeds and cigarette butts. Potager makes it sound too grand. We’re not talking Villandry here, it’s really a series of wooden boxes I am planting up with things to eat. When I’m done, I’ll share its modest splendour with you. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy these pictures of the abbey and its plants.

The edible plants are great and everything, but what I really want is the lion.

The cloister. The columns of flowers are entries into the flower arranging competition, as dramatic here as at Chelsea. A bold look, is all I’ll say.

I’ll take ten of everything, thank you.

I loved the roses, but the one I wanted - rosa banksiae lutea - was already sold.

Home, on my back porch, aka the builder’s yard.

Abbaye de Fontfroide
Route départementale 613
11100 Narbonne
www.fontfroide.com

The abbey has an orchid festival this autumn, 3-5 October, if that’s your sort of thing.

Consolation prize tuna and pepper salad

On market day, I wanted to make a dish with palourde clams and peas. I couldn’t find any palourdes, so I fell back on what I had in the cupboard. How to glam up a tin of tuna? Like this, I guess.

For my consolation prize lunch, because I’d bought some peppers, I roasted them myself, but of course use bought ones if you like. I added basil, chives and a spicy oregano I bought at the plant fair to the salad, but it’s great just with basil, or with basil combined with some parsley. Like all of my recipes, I hope you feel free to adapt it and change it depending on your own personal tastes and what you have in your kitchen.

Serves 2

200g roasted peppers, cut into strips, I used a mixture of red and yellow – if you want to roast them yourself, see my TIP below
1 large tomato, about 200g, cored and diced
130g artichoke hearts in oil, drained, halved or quartered if large
60g pitted olives, green or black, or a combination
A handful of basil leaves, torn
A few oregano leaves, roughly chopped, optional
To finish, some olive oil, chopped garlic, lemon juice – though you may not need this (see recipe)
1 tsp mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tin of tuna in oil, drained
1 small celery stick, about 30g, finely diced
1 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 small spring onion, white and pale green part only, finely chopped
2 tsp capers, drained if in brine, rinsed and drained if in salt
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered lengthways
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

TIP How to Roast Peppers

I have a gas hob, so I simply scorch the peppers directly on a high flame until the skins are blackened then put them into a plastic bag for 10 minutes or so to steam. The skins should easily peel off – I sometimes rub them with a bit of dampened kitchen paper to help it along, but I don’t worry about getting every speck of black off. If you don’t have a gas hob, place the peppers under the grill set as high as you possibly can and turn them regularly until blackened. Cut out the cores and dispose of them, along with any stray seeds, and cut the peppers into strips. I made these a few hours before I made the salad and stored them in a container with a bit of olive oil and a chopped garlic clove, a little salt and pepper.

In a bowl, stir together the pepper strips, tomato, artichokes and olives. Taste. Depending on what the peppers, artichokes and olives have been marinated in, you may need to trickle on a little more olive oil, add some chopped garlic, a squeeze of lemon. Season with salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard and vinegar. Gently fold in the tuna, celery, spring onion, chives and capers – don’t stir it too much, you don’t want it to look like cat food. Taste and add salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

On a plate, arrange half of the pepper salad and half of the tuna, and top four of the egg quarters. Arrange the rest of the ingredients on a second plate. Serve immediately.

Printable Recipe

Consolation Prize Tuna And Pepper Salad

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Market haul, April 30 2025

This week’s market haul comprises: strawberries, radishes, a leek, spring onions, celery, new garlic, an avocado, a red pepper, local extra virgin olive oil from Florensac, spinach, coriander, tomatoes, pak choi, a shallot, courgettes, green chillies, peas, beans, artichokes in persillade.