"The ancient link between the gardener and the cook is at the heart of this remarkably evocative cookbook, in which Amanda Hesser relates the story
of a year she spent as cook in a seventeenth-century château in Burgundy.
Before long, her culinary life becomes inextricably bound to the seasons of
the Yonne River Valley and to Monsieur Milbert, the seemingly impervious,
charmingly sly peasant caretaker of the château's kitchen garden..
"Along with the recipes comes a wealth of practical advice on everything from storing potatoes to beginning sourdough starter to making cassis. Essays
celebrate the seasons of the château kitchen garden and relate the growing
friendship between the old gardener and the young cook. As Milbert opens
up to Hesser, the reader glimpses the quirky customs and sensible wisdom of
a vanishing way of life in provincial France."

The Cook and the Gardener is the winner of the 2000 IACP Cookbook Award
in the Literary Food Writing category. No doubt you'll agree the award is well deserved. It remains one of our all-time favorite cookbooks.
 

  August

“There are just two fruit trees in the garden that Monsieur Milbert did not plant.
The rest of the trees, about 20, are his doing. The two that preceded the Milberts’ move to the château are a trained apple tree and a large pear tree. He once told
me the pear was almost a century old. As gnarled and twisted as it is, that is not
hard to believe. It yields about three pears a year, and they drop like lead bombs
long after the pears from the younger trees are harvested. The fruit has to be hard
to withstand the fall, but that’s not the reason the pears are such stones. They are growing from bloodless limbs.
“Monsieur Milbert said that when he first came to the château, there were just
as many trees are there are now, mostly apple. Many were diseased and aged,
neglected by the former gardener, who was apparently more familiar with the
local bar than with the garden. On the west wall, Monsieur told me, a line of espaliered apple and pear trees created a balanced backdrop for the eye as
one entered the garden through the main gate. Although these were healthy,
the new owners ordered them removed, a matter Monsieur Milbert spoke
about gruffly. The trees he had since planted were thriving: apple, pear,
white-fleshed peach, red-fleshed peach, clementine-orange (a new experi-
ment), quince, fig, apricot, green plum, and cherry, among others.
“Many of these trees he had received as gifts from the owners of the château
and from friends. The fig trees, for instance, which hover along the south-
facing wall, came from a woman down in the village who is a long-time friend
of the Milberts. She visits the Milberts with her poodle on Saturdays to confirm
and rehash all the gossip heard at the market that morning. And the château
dogs visit her daily for treats they’re not supposed to have. (She denies everything when questioned. Later on, once I got to know her, she told me she doesn’t just
feed them she feeds them well. They eat beef stew, pork, and meaty bones, ‘not
just the leftovers’.)
"The fig trees she gave Monsieur Milbert are healthy. She instructed him on
where to plant them and how to prune them. He takes especially good care of
them, I think, because she comes up the hill now and then to inspect his work.
French women are like that.
"Most of Monsieur Milbert’s plum trees were gifts, which partly explains his
erratic placement of them throughout the garden; he never knows how many
he will receive. Two varieties, the mirabelle, which is a small yellow-green
plum with a pulpy and juicy flesh, and the prunier, a small oval purple plum
similar to our Damson, ripen in August. Most of his plum tress have been
well grafted and are expertly pruned; they are dense with plums, ripening progressively over a few days.”

Pork Tenderloin with Peaches

Serving Suggestions:  White Beans with Pistou, and
green beans blanched and tossed with olive oil.

White Beans with Pistou

“Beans have three major stages in their lives as legumes. Fortunately, all are
edible. Each bean variety is at its best at one of these three stages. The young
pod is considered a snap bean. Our common green bean fits into this category. Mature pods with plump, developed seeds (or beans) are called shell beans
because we shell them and ear the seeds inside. Peas are a shell bean. Then
there are dried beans. At this stage the beans have been stripped from their
pods and have been dried. Red beans, Great Northern beans, and fava beans,
are typically sold in this stage.
“In this recipe I call for shell beans, which are fresh mature beans. It is best to
buy or harvest the beans in the pod and shell them just before cooking. Lacking
a garden or a good farmers’ market, though, you will probably need to use the
dried form, the third stage in the life of these beans. If you are using dried
beans, notice that I call for a smaller amount. This is because dried beans
shrink in the drying process and then enlarge again when soaked in liquid.
The cooking times for fresh and dried beans may also vary greatly. Fresh
beans will take less time than dried.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

General note on cooking beans:  After beans are cooked in stock and drained,
they need something to keep them from sticking together. Stir in some fruity
olive oil, crème fraîche, or butter. In autumn and winter, I often toss them
with goose or duck fat, a delicious alternative if you have either.

Variations:  Substitute summer savory for the pistou. Add three branches to
the simmering stock and remove the branches at the end of cooking. The flavor
of summer savory is powerful enough to infuse the beans, so there is no need
for more at the end.
You can also add the cooked beans (with or without the pistou stirred in)
to salads of spicy summer lettuces, or to pasta with wilted greens, grated
pecorino cheese, and coarsely ground black pepper.

Summer Stock

Pistou

“One thing you should be a purist about is using a mortar and pestle,
which will force the maximum amount of flavor from the ingredients.”