Domaine de la Salle

11/07/2026

Fantastic natural Flowers at the Rochefort market - the last ages, even with this heatwave. She grows them locally without pesticides - hurray !

12/01/2026

Ca roule ma Poule ! Demain vente à la Ferme... 16.00 - 18.00. Pain artesanal en produits bio, Viande de la Ferme, Legumes bio, Legumes secs, Farines, Miels, tout en bio. Et je fais du thé et gateaux comme d'hab.

09/01/2026

11/11/2025

Every Tuesday we now have a Farm Sale and Tea in the Orangerie... from 16.00 till 19.00. There are organic veggies, honey, apples and pears and juice and artesanale bread, not to mention our home grown beef. Bring a freezer bag as the beef is frozen...

17/09/2025

The mojhette de Pont l’Abbe d’Arnoult was traditionally grown here but there are hardly any sellers left, most of the land being used to grow maize with its subsidies. So its rather funny that the young farmer taking up the reigns is not even french ! But you can love a tradition and enjoy bringing something back to popularity whatever your origins. We are now selling them by the 10 kg bagful and people are so happy !

20/12/2024

I would like to wish everyone a Lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year. As I was putting the decorations on this little tree, it seemed as if our year could be summed up by the ornaments. There is a sheep, for all our naughty sheep who keep us on our toes. There is a chicken for our chickens. And a stoat like creature for the one that has reduced them from 45 to 7. There is a duck, like our runner ducks. And a fox that took them all. There is a Parisian shopping mouse, for the lovely few days I had there in November. There is a mouse with a garden fork, and another with some lovely produce. A cow like creature I suppose can represent the young oxen we have recently received. It doesn't show three escapees that are enjoying their freedom in another farmers forest and won't be rescued. What is missing is a little tractor, because there have been a lot of tractor repairs and stories. Life has been incredibly busy here, with the boy here half of the time, doing everything that one has to do when one starts farming for proper. And his many friends who have the energy of young bulls, zooming here and there, transforming everything in a flash. Incredible young people who give you hope for the future.

20/12/2024

I would like to wish everyone a Lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year. As I was putting the decorations on this little tree, it seemed as if our year could be summed up by the ornaments. There is a sheep, for all our naughty sheep who keep us on our toes. There is a chicken for our chickens. And a stoat like creature for the one that has reduced them from 45 to 7. There is a duck, like our runner ducks. And a fox that took them all. There is a Parisian shopping mouse, for the lovely few days I had there in November. There is a mouse with a garden fork, and another with some lovely produce. A cow like creature I suppose can represent the young oxen we have recently received. It doesn't show three escapees that are enjoying their freedom in another farmers forest and don't want to come home. What is missing is a little tractor, because there have been a lot of tractor repairs and stories. Life has been incredibly busy here, with the boy here half of the time, doing everything that one has to do when one starts farming for proper. And his many friends who have the energy of young bulls, zooming here and there, transforming everything in a flash. Incredible young people who give you hope for the future.

01/07/2024

Last post for a long while. The time I will gain in not logging into social media, I will use for gardening and all the things I never have enough time for. X

28/06/2024

Well that almost wraps up another week. A hot one. Everyone was very red and sweaty, and saying they could not manage. Not surprising. Its been quite cool up until now, and then from one day to the next it changes to 29 degrees. I do keep saying to people that 29 is not the 39 we often have, so how will we manage then ? Can there be hotter 29 degrees than other times ? If its humid then yes.. and I think it is.
We have discovered another hen sitting on eggs in the other combine harvester. So we will call them the ‘Claas’ chicks, and the ‘Massey Ferguson’ chicks. Well I better not count my chicks before they are hatched, but it would be funny. I have decided not to meddle as I sometimes do, but just let her get on with it, and if it works, it works. Just hope the fox does not find her.
The sheep are getting very used to me coming with treats in the afternoon. Yesterday I gave them loads of linden branches which they love. The ram, after hesitation, is loving carrots now. The girls are not having any of it. For them its the grains or the linden branches. Yesterday I went in with a bucket of grain and carrots. The ram is so eager that he tries to push me about to get them. I told him to wait, because I wanted to spread it out onto the upside down trough for all to share. ( Sharing is caring is not an expression he was brought up with ). And then it happened. He butted me so hard that I flew to the ground. The bucket too, and he had his nose in the bucket before I even hit the ground, I think. I told him off and realized it came out in french. Funny that. Every animal I have ever had, I speak to in German, but these are obviously very french sheep. I have been told by friends who have sheep, that I have to get the upper hand with this naughty ram. He is so sweet though.
As with every week so far this summer, it is to be raining tomorrow, Saturday. We will go to the market and seek shelter to have a coffee if it does. Rain that is.
I have lost all hope for having the natural pool finished this summer. The people with the liner will not reply. Neither the people for the plaster finishing. I had been in touch with a man who does a mexican sort of plaster finishing that looked beautiful but was really pricey. Only I asked for a reference, and then discovered that the person he gave as reference was an employee. How can you have confidence then ? So I listened to my instinct and dropped it. When someone pushes you to make decisions quickly and has no reference….
Well thats about all. The garden is looking absolutely stunning, though I say so myself. Better go out and do some more maintenance. Happy weekend to all.

24/06/2024

For those of you who don’t have instagram, this is the hen who managed to outfox us. She hid in the underbelly of the larger combine harvester, and on Saturday morning, on hearing a clucking from within the machine, I discovered her and seven chicks. Funnily enough, I was feeding the others, and heard her clucking to me, to say that she also thought her brood needed feeding. First, I had to take away all of the wire netting that we had put there, specifically to stop chickens going in and laying eggs there. Never a dull moment, honestly.