Spring Market inspiration. Open your eyes!
Why go to the market?
I mean the local farmer’s market, of course.
Fresh, simple, direct- a bargain.
Inspiring, colorful, nurturing- satisfaction.
Diverse, diverting, fun- amused.
All those words pop into my head when I think of the many very good markets I can throw a Gascon stone at from Camont. But versatility is reason I stay faithful to one of my first loves in this area, the little true producer’s market nestled under the unattractive eaves of the Chat d’Oc strip mall on the Avenue des Landes. Not only can I buy just picked old-timey vegetables out of neighboring market gardens, get a great baguette at l’Envie de Pain (thanks Pierre & Valerie!), take my weekly beekeeping lesson from Narcisse, pick up some house paint or maybe get a blood test at the Laboratoire and get Bacon groomed, I can also wash my car at the best carwash in town! It’s a full service strip mall French style… with wine.
What the Chat d’Oc lacks in French country charm it makes up in seriously good content. Here’s a sample of what I picked up yesterday before our MAGYC Day Cooking Class with Michelle & Rochelle where we started with a little fresh herb soup we drank as a hot cocktail. Read More
May Day ~ Mayday ~ M’aider: in a pickle
May Day. All is quiet this early morning but the vast aviary outside my kitchen door. In France, this first seasonal holiday, Labor Day, is the promise of Summer to be. Although it still smacks of worker’s right and labor issues, waving red flags or lily of the valley, it is just a very quiet day in the Gascon countryside.
Mayday- Mud! The famous Garonne River Fog is late this year; it has rained, rained, rained these last two weeks. So much rain now that with the soggy bottom clay silt soil holding moisture like a sponge, the promise of a clear sunny sky later makes morning fog. My own little micro-climate at Camont alongside canal & river is good for the garden…if I could only get to it though the muck.
This week’s market also shouted “Mayday” with a rouge abundance of rhubarb, strawberries, peppers and early tomatoes. Instead of pique-niques, boat rides, country walks, and gardening, I’m sticking close to my Keeping Kitchen and brewing up some seasonal treats- micro batches, single jars, starter vats. Here’s the list from the market booty…
My Keeping Kitchen! A is for Asparagus
I’ve always loved the term “a keeping kitchen.”
Keeping Kitchen…
- a place for making food to keep for the winter.
- an edible way of keeping traditions alive.
- a gathering then sharing of abundant harvest.
Over the years, I’ve referred to my French pantry, the way of keeping it stocked, and the very kitchen at Camont as the “Keeping Kitchen”. Within these stone walls at Camont, I have been keeping the traditions of Gascon cooking alive as well as adding to it with my own fresh take on authentic recipes- folding in a new good idea here, leaving out an old bad habit there but always keeping true to the spirit if not the actual letter of the laws of the kitchen.
Good friend and co-conspirator in Italy, Judy Witts- the DivinaCucina diva and I hatched the idea of another combined blog effort like the Going Whole Hog blog project we did a couple years ago. We wanted more than a way to keep tabs on each other’s gardens, kitchens, and lives in Tuscany and Gascony. We want to share our euro-view of what surrounds us as not-quite natives/not-quite-expats. Trends come strong and fast up the internet pipeline but from here they can actually be old world news. We decided to share our everyday cooking habits for stocking the Euro-Larder otherwise known here as the Keeping Kitchen.
Inspiration rolls into town- Les Fromages de Marie
Where does it begin?
“It” being the Frenchness of the good food made here in Gascony.
“It” being the idea for recipe.
“It’ is an homage to a certain way of life. My life.
For me, it begins and ends 100% with a list of names that sketch across the Gascon landscape like 18th Century signatures.
Jehanne = foie gras, rillettes, vin de peche.
Narcisse = amber bramble honey
Pierre = dense and crusty baguettes
Chapolard = charcuterie- deep and porky
And most newly arrived at the Saturday Market at Nerac…
Marie de Chèvre = Creamy goaty goodness, clean sweet hay milk transformed into a plateau of delicious chèvre. And what did I do with the 4 creamy fresh faiselles I scored? Here’s my recipe for les petit gateaux de Marie.
spring treasures- wild leeks & aillets
Spring arrives early in Gascony.
I remember that first February along the canal, watching two flaneurs along the canal, walking and stopping, bending and tugging, standing and walking. What were they doing? I watched from the voyeuristic comfort of the Barge until I could stand it no longer. Crossing the canal over a little stone bridge, I went to meet les messieurs. ”Excuse me, but what are you looking for? have you lost something?”
They smiled at me and my naivety then reaching into a vest pocket pulled out a handful of pencil thin, green and white stalks- Poireaux de Vignes.
These wild leeks not only grow among the vines and along the canal but in my garden, too. These came from the Saturday Market in Nerac along with a small bunch of the first aillets or garlic shoots.
Georgia braised them with some endive and we ate them with this fat magret, grilled very rare over the coals under the watchful eye of Cheminée Angel.
Magret Angel
