When I started this blog I did not intend to name anyone aside from Andrée, who would not let me not name her. My friend Becky Howard had a blog for years and used terms like “the Beloved Partner” and “La Granddaughter” to refer to folks who they might otherwise have called by name. But my blog quickly became populated with so many people that “my friend” wouldn’t work (when I met Walter he used to say “my sister” and “my brother” and for years I assumed he was referring to the same brother and sister. It was a shock to learn he had two of each, and I had no idea which one used to be a dancer and who had been president of NYC Now, or if one of the sisters was both. I want to avoid that!) So then I thought I’d use initials, but there are three AJ’s so we would soon be in the same mess. Walter agreed to me calling him by name, and I hope that his brother Alex (AJ#2) will be a regular guest contributor so named by default. But what about others? Do folks who read the blog want to suddenly see their name? Of course, that partially depends what I say, too. But this is not one of those “secrets from the village” blogs, nor ever will be. Still no definitive decision but lots of advice.
Then our mayor died unexpectedly. He had been so helpful to us right from the beginning, offering to close the road and reroute traffic when our containers arrived if they could not turn into our property, welcoming the KPTA summer camp (and gently explaining what paperwork we should “do next time”), advising us on the oak trees and truffles, and even bringing his truffle dog over several times to see what we had grown. We drank Bourbon with him, and shortly before he died we attended the funeral of his mother. So when I wrote about truffles I wanted to acknowledge him [see January 20, 2026] and the generosity with which he shared his expertise.
And that opened up the question of naming those who help us. One thing that is reinforced over and over for me is that we couldn’t do this without help from those who have been doing it all of their lives. I had no idea what to do with a truffle oak, although I love truffles and I have two books about them, and a recipe book. Similarly, I have been gardening all of my life, but not on top of a limestone plateau in South West France. I can, and did, look up on the internet how to prune a grape vine, but it took an expert gardener to show me what it should look like. It took an expert in plants and agriculture to help me understand how to know where to prune apple trees and roses. And our best friends here advise us about everything, switching effortlessly and constantly from dinner companion to expert as needed.
And as a professional scholar who studies information literacy and ethical use of sources, not naming the experts upon whom I depend — and whose expertise I am referencing — just seems very wrong.
So, I will. For now. If they are willing.
There is no end to this dilemma, and no conclusion to this post. I may go back and re-identify our friends by their initials, but if one is showing me how to make the best Croquants de Cordes you have ever had, she just changed her status to expert. Do I name her then, but not when she helps my sister-in-law prepare Moules? I can watch this video and find the full recipe online, but it is not the same as standing in her kitchen watching how she does it. And that is the expertise I want to celebrate.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of expertise to me or to my life here!
When I saw the black mess on our apple trees I just panic-Googled images (exactly the way I did when I had shingles). Sometimes the internet gets it right, and sometimes it says you have three days to live. Which was it? Did we have to cut the trees down and burn them (Fire blight) or control the spores and feed the trees (Apple Canker)? So I reached out to an expert (AJ#3) who said, “well, it looks a lot more like a canker.” Hmm. So I tracked down Cornell University’s “Database of Apple Diseases,” which he said was the best resource in English, and I calmed down a bit. I’m waiting for an on-site expert to take a look. Perhaps naming her will increase her business, but like all of the experts down here she has more work than she has time.
So what to do?
Feel free to offer advice — especially if you are or could be named.
