Poulet Pin-up- the chickenyard Wifi
chicken-wired Henri IV, the Black Gascon rooster, now has an echo. This morning after the cluck and peck feeding frenzy dies down, I hear a distant response to his broken record crowing. Great! Now, my neighbors have some chickens, too. This old neighborhood is starting to sound like its 18th-century self again. I like to think that it took this transplanted American city slicker to remind my French neighbors that this is not a suburb. This fertile river bottom farmland dotted... Read More
Meet the teachers #1- a solo act.
This is the pig that roots in the woods then lives in the barn that eats the grain that becomes the bacon that I bought in the market that came from the house that Jill built. Jill is really called Marie-Helène but she did indeed plant the corn that she feeds her long-snouted pigs that she takes to the abattoir that she turns into fine traditional charcuterie that she sells at the weekend markets in the Tarn department about 2 hours from here. Marie-Helene defies the beret-wearing... Read More
French Pin-up Butchers
Butchers. Nice to see the flurry of press about a time-honored food job here and here and Kim Severson’s take here in the NYT. I began working with meat 20 years ago, here in Gascony… on the farm. Where we still work. Where interns, students and pros still come to learn the real skills from the people who grow the meat. Funny, there’s not a tattoo among them… #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top:... Read More
CSA box de Olivier de Serres
I Love my French CSA box. That stands for Cagette Super Authentique! This is the morning harvest from Camont’s super organic potager and a tribute to Olivier de Serres, the 16th century self-taught agriculturist, who under Henri IV suggested the potager be planted by the common man and that farmers rotate and diversify their crops. See, nothing is new, kids. “Théâtre d’Agriculture et Mesnage des champs” So under a hot-alreadygascon... Read More
crowing hens…cluck, cluck, cluck whole hog!
Do you know that hens crow too? The new red hens are starting to lay their first eggs. When the commotion in the chicken garden reaches a crescendo, I know there is yet another golden yolked egg waiting in the straw nest. But here in Gascony, even little Pigs crow. So when Judy Witts and I start crowing this morning, it’s because after 4 years of reporting on all things pork at the Whole Hog Blog we made Saveur Magazine’s best of the web. Cluck, cluck, clucckkkk! learning... Read More
