In season…
Narbonne market
One of the fabulous things that thrill me every single day about living in the South of France is that we still have so much access to seasonal produce. Real seasonal I mean – not seasonal somewhere in the southern hemisphere when we live in northern spheres, like asparagus from Peru at Christmas time in Europe. Or strawberries from South Africa when there’s snow underfoot here.
Real seasonal of course means vegetables and fruit grown and harvested maybe less than 10 kilometers from your home and sold in local markets without the need for packaging, storing or transport. That is almost unheard of nowadays in Ireland, unless you visit the somewhat exclusive and expensive farmer’s markets…
market stall
Of course seasonal produce not only tastes much better (because it is meant to be eaten at that time) but it is also much cheaper at that time. And then there is that great anticipation factor – if you haven’t eaten say, fresh cherries for a year, doesn’t your mouth start watering just at the thought of them being in season again?
As we all know, by eating according to the seasons we also have the satisfaction of doing our bit for the environment – after all, by buying ‘local’ we contribute less to those wasteful and planet-damaging food-miles. Did you know that half of all vegetables and 95% of all fruit eaten in the UK comes from foreign lands? Most of this food arrives by air which generates more greenhouse gases than any other form of transport. Besides, why should a country like Kenya, which cannot feed itself, supply us with all our french beans and mangetout?
market day
Here in France, even if we don’t have the opportunity to visit our open-air market twice a week, the chances are that we still buy fresh, locally grown, seasonal produce in our supermarket because the French have a wonderful system in place that allows most managers to buy supplies locally. How good is that?
olive picker
As you may have guessed, seasonality is a subject close to my heart – one that I return to daily in my Minervois-based cookery school. So I have chosen it to be the ‘golden thread’ that winds itself through my writings here. I shall write about the things that are available every month, how to recognise them, if they can be picked wild or what to do with them once you’ve taken them home. I shall write about peaches in summer and gluts of tomatoes in august, and what to do figs when they are hanging plump and sun-warmed from their wild branches. I shall talk about fragrant ceps when the autumn mists descend or wild boar during the hunting season. I shall write about confits to serve with foie gras for the festive season or fab wild asparagus when the air begins to warm in March. I’ll talk about my favourite locally-made goatscheese, at its best after the spring pastures, or about seabass when it looks particularly good or artichokes that are so good for us. Maybe I’ll report on the salt pans in Gruissan that produce the divine fleur de sel, or the olive harvest. Whatever is seasonal, I’ll be looking forward to it…
