Le Bois de Marie....

Le Bois de Marie, is a Cherry Orchard and Nuttery containing chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts. It is named in honor of my Mother-in-Law, Marie, who kindly donated the trees for this particular project.

After the cherry trees failed to take in the orchard (unlike the rest of the trees) 2 years in a row, we decided not to throw good money after bad and to create an area for our cherry trees elsewhere at Willowbrook. So, 2 years ago we started to convert a corner of WBP around The Lime Walk...

 The 3 Lime Avenues...

The Copper Beech...

The Hazelnuts around the Copper Beech...

The Almonds in front of the Hazelnuts...

The Walnuts...

 The Chestnuts in front of the Walnuts...

The Lapin Cherries encircling the entire project...

 We mowed the area, and then Peter used a petrol powered 'rotorvator' to loosen the soil...

Below: Apollo and Diana guarding the entrance to the Limewalk, which cuts through the Boise de Marie and the Nuttery.

We had laid out the lime trees already, so we created wooden boxes around them for bulbs and mulch. We then ran strips of buxus down each of the three avenues of lime trees, on both sides of the wooden boxes.

Below: Peter planting and mulching the buxus hedges which run either side of the boxes containing the lime trees. The insides of the boxes are also planted with Spring Green Tulips, and the space between every box, bordered by the buxus hedge has been planted with Erlicheer Daffodils..

Then around the entire arc, formed by taking a graceful curve around each of the three lime avenues, we planted the cherry trees. We chose Lapin cherries, as they were the ones which had done the best in the main orchard...

Above: The curve from farm end of nuttery.

Below: The curve from central lime avenue.

  

Below: A view back up the central of the three Lime avenues, towards the statue of Bacchus (which is standing on the future site of the Roman Rotunda).

Below: The carefully laid out copper beech, with an enclosing circle of Hazelnut trees (the yellow standards). We have planted a whole carpet of cream coloured crocuses extending from the copper beech in the centre to the circle of hazelnuts trees to create a floral carpet.

Below: The curve from Apollo towards the central lime avenue.

Now 2 years on we are starting to notice some changes. They are not as dramatic over winter as they will be in summer...

Above: The Bois de Marie showing Almonds and Cherries (with the Hazelnut circle off to the left).

Below: The Truffiere and Nuttery showing Walnuts (foreground) and Chestnuts (background).

Above: The view of the Nymphaeum  from the BDM when we first planted it.

Below: The Nymphaeum now!

Apollo with his back to the setting sun...

 The sun setting on the Bois de Marie...

Chestnuts and Marron Glace...

The sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, is a member of the fagaceae family (Oaks and Beeches), and is a native of Europe. 

It has a very prickly seed pod, containing 4 chestnuts, each in its own hard brown husk. The secret to picking good chestnuts is get them as soon as they drop on the ground and open up. They won't be ready until they have dropped, and will go off if they have been on the ground too long.

The nuts can be roasted, used for stuffing, puréed into paste for use in chocolate cakes and various baked goods, or they can be candied, into the traditional French Christmas delicacy - Marron Glacé.

Ingredients:

2 pounds chestnuts, shelled

2 pounds granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Place the chestnuts in a large pan with just enough water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil and cook the chestnuts for 10 minutes. Drain and discard the water.  Rub the husk off the cooked chestnuts.

In a separate pan, bring the 2 1/2 cups water, granulated sugar, and the vanilla to a boil, stirring constantly. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Add the chestnuts to the boiling syrup and stir until the whole mixture returns to a boil. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Pour the candied chestnuts, along with the vanilla sugar syrup into a large container, and cover. Allow the chestnuts to soak in the syrup for 12 hours.

Add the chestnuts and syrup to a clean pan and repeat the process; this time boiling for 2 minutes, and then allowing to soak for 24 hours. Repeat this process 3 to 4 times, until the sugar syrup has been absorbed completely by the chestnuts.

Preheat an oven to 120C (250F) and arrange the candied chestnuts on a sheet of baking paper. Place the chestnuts into the oven and turn off the heat. Allow the chestnuts to dry in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they are dry to the touch.

Wrap in grease proof bon bon paper, or powder lightly with confectioner’s sugar and place in a jar.

At Willowbrook we have finally finished planting The Nuttery and Bois de Marie.

In The Nuttery we have 12 Hazelnut trees, 10 Chestnuts, 9 Almonds, and 3 Walnuts. We finished planting The Nuttery a little while ago when we had friends down for the weekend, and their children Lucas and Elsa planted their own Chestnut trees...

They finished off their visit with a trip to the farm to pet the animals...