Kermit Lynch wrote a great article about us in his October newsletter, so I thought I'd share some photos of our local markets so that you can get an idea of what they are like! Kermit and I spent a Friday morning in August browsing around our farmer's market here in Saint Quentin la Poterie. He was simply amazed at our wonderful local produce. I stress local here, because I only buy from actual producers not from stands that re-sell produce that could come from just about anywhere. There are several stands that do this, and it's not all that bad really. Their produce is still very fresh, but I prefer to buy directly from the people who grow it. Most of what we buy is organic, but not all of it. Some of the smaller guys use hardly any chemicals, but they still aren't fully organic. In the end for them, chemicals and fertilizers are very expensive, so they use as little as possible. I would prefer that it was 100% organic, but I also refuse to buy organic produce that has been shipped across the continent, or worse the ocean. For me that negates the whole idea of organics.
We checked out the local goat cheese, tomatoes, and
new stand that is a "traiteur" - someone who make all kinds of yummy things that you can take home and re-heat, kind of like high-end take-out, just not that expensive. We have a guy that makes falafel and brandade (a regional specialty made from salt cod). Every week we
stop to get a dozen of my favorite falafels and some accras, which are little spicy balls of fried salt-cod! Yum! Then to see our "Chicken Man", as I affectionate call him. Sylvain raises free-range chickens right here in Saint Quentin. He says that the only reason he isn't organic is that he has to buy the chicks from an organic chick-farm and that it's too complicated to get them for the moment. Next to Sylvain is our local goat cheese producers, who you have already read about here. They're the ones who give us the whey for our biodynamic preparations. Also pictured here is our "Honey Man" . He has bees all around in the hills, so we get fresh honey too!
There are so many other wonderful people here, and this is just the Saint Quentin Market. We also have two in Uzès, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday! I'll tell you more about those soon! - and more about those potato chips!
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