One of the most amazing places we visited was a small town called Giverny, about an hour northwest of Paris. Giverny was the town where Claude Monet (of Impressionist painting fame), and his wife kept a GORGEOUS house – large, but distinctly a “farm” house. Sadly, we were forbidden from taking photos inside of the house, but I recommend visiting the Giverny page HERE to see photos of Monet’s kitchen. Absolutely exquisite.

But it was in the gardens where I was most amazed – first was the main gardens at the front of the house, but there is also the Japanese water garden, where his famous water lilies reside – yes, those would be the water lilies of his most known paintings.

When I’m contemplating my garden for this year, I turn back to these photos, and consider the decidedly French techniques employed – using every square inch possible, and making the plants and flowers be the star of the show.

I’m off to do more research on the French kitchen garden, or potager, that we’ve written about before.

I suspect there will be new ideas…

Growing up on the Jersey shore, Blue Claw Crabs were a big part of our summers and to actually catch the coveted soft shell crab; well that was the greatest triumph of all! Give a call or stop by Mutual Fish for a true taste of the East Coast!

Select crabs that are still alive and moving.

To clean:

With scissors, cut off the eye area, then lift the back shell on each side and remove gills.

To prepare:

Soak crabs in buttermilk seasoned liberally with hot sauce for about an hour.

remove crabs from milk and let drain, dredge thru all purpose flour that has been seasoned with Old Bay seasoning, fry crabs in canola oil until shell turns red and crispy
serve immediately on mixed greens as salad accompaniment or on a crispy roll with lettuce, tomato and tartar sauce (and for those of you new to the SSC world…….yes, you eat it shell and all!)

Photo of Nan and Pop Neuweiler, Uncle Eddie and Aunt Ginny and Uncle Rudolph on the dock of Oyster Creek Restaurant, Leeds Point, NJ 1973