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        Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments

   Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural   
   France the stress will be upon French food.  There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions
   about anything that strikes my fancy.
   If you have some good recipes  or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this  is the place to do it.

 I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! 

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This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.                      

                                       A visit to a truffle ranch ( farm?)



Yesterday we visited a truffle ranch, or is it truffle farm? I don't really know, but whatever you call it it was fascinating. I'm saying ranch or farm because that's what it was. Marc the owner planted a combination of hazelnut & green oak trees in 1998 having first had his soil tested. Apparently you need very acidic soil for truffles. His soil tested well so he did his plantings and then waited. Although he had purchased trees whose roots had been inoculated with truffle spore it was still 2004 before he got his first truffles. We had a great visit & took lots of pictures so here goes:

Before getting to the actual truffle hunt I have to mention how typically French our start was. We all met in Puylaroc across from the pharmacy. No problem there, but we then all had to follow Marc (4 cars of us) to the bread shop so he could get the bread. Then off we went then Marc stopped at the poobells to drop off his rubbish (the 4 cars waited patiently). Then our lead car was going very slowly. What's going on, doesn't she know we'll loose Marc?
Our slow lead car pulls off & fortunately Marc stops. Here's the problem!



A flat tire! And on an almost new car.

We get it fixed pretty quickly & set off again.





It just goes to show that hardly anything goes strictly according to plan in France. But as usual things turn out OK.














Here's Marc & Veronique's farmhousewith a great pigeonnier. They are between Puylaroc & Lalbenque. Lalbenque being the home of one of the largest truffle markets in France. There is even a small airfield so the buyers can fly in.
The truffle season runs roughly from December through mid-March. It is, obviously, weather dependent. This year it was late due to a very dry fall & early winter.

Their truffle fields are just a hundred or so yards up the hill from the house. I really should call them orchards because that's what they look like. The trees are planted in neat rows about 20 feet apart in each direction. The trees are small being less that 10 feet high. The hazelnut trees lose their leaves, but the green oaks are evergreen. There is a watering system for the trees.



Here's the main guy. Marcel the truffle hound. To you & me he looks like an ordinary 10 year old golden Labrador, but as he proved he's an ace truffle finder. He loves to find truffles mainly I think because like most labs he's a chow hound & gets a small dog biscuit reward every time he finds one.










Here we go Veronique & Marcel setting off to find truffles. Veronique says to Marcel 'travialez- tu' (work) and off they go. As you can see we were blessed with great weather. Sunny & not too cold.





Here we all are eager to go, but not quite believing this orchard is where we're going to find truffles.
I think we were expecting a tramp through the woods.











It doesn't take Marcel long to stop & start digging. As soon as he does Veronique gets down & stops him then starts to dig herself. She digs very carefully so as not to damage any truffle that's down there.
The truffles grow along the roots of the tree and its important not to damage the roots or the truffles. Veronique is using a small screwdriver to dig with.
The truffles aren't very far down perhaps 3-4 inches.



Marcel thinks he's found one.










Got one! Ugly isn't it? Now's when Marcel gets his reward.










You have to sniff the truffle to see how good it is. Veronique knows exactly what she's going, but we obviously didn't. We could tell though that the truffles smelled different from each other.
Linda's nose seemed particularly sensitive and she could actually smell the truffles as they came out of the ground. Maybe I'll hire her out.











This large on was growing on both sides of the root so had to be split.

I'd say that in less than two hours we collected 15-20 truffles. We (Marcel) by no means covered all the orchard.


We went back to the house where Marc was cleaning truffles for market.













As you can see he uses brushes & a small knife to carefully do the cleaning.
Interestingly for the Lalbenque market the truffles MUST NOT BE washed. For the Caussade market, however, the truffles MUST BE WASHED. According to Marc there's no good reason; its just tradition.



Here's everybody watching Marc work & peppering him with questions.

Below are a group of truffles ready for market.














Here's a close up. Note that the weight is 75 grams.

Marc says that at the moment the going wholesale price is about 1 € per gram. So that truffle is worth about 75€ (roughly $100). At least double that at a retail price.

At the market the perfect truffles are sold first neatly packaged in their little bags.

The less than perfect truffles are put into baskets to be sold off. You can't, however, buy a single truffle from a basket. You have to buy the whole basket.
We missed out on the market this time, but we'll be going next week.



Next came lunch.








We had a nice appero of local Gaillac champagne, then a squash soup.
Then we had soft boiled eggs that had been stored next to truffles for a couple of days. With these Veronique had made little batons of fresh bread (Now we were glad that Marc had stopped at the bouloungerie) smeared with truffle bits & sel de Geround. Absolutely delicious.
There was a little red wine to wash it all down.

Apple pie for dessert.






Here's Veronique preparing the little batons.











                Marcel enjoying a rest after work & a lot of play.





This was a great day. I learned a lot & thoroughly enjoyed myself. Marc & Veronique were great hosts answering our multitude of questions.

Marcel is a prince amongst dogs.

More on truffles next week.


Part II

This week I went back to the truffle farm, but then went on to the truffle market in Lalbenque.
Lalbenque is a small village, but has one of the largest truffle markets in France. Buyers come from all over to buy here. They even have a small airport.
The method of selling is interesting & unique. I wonder how long it took to work out? A long time I suspect.


To start with everyone mills around  up & down the town's main street.
The truffle sellers line up along the side of the street behind a rope about tree feet in front of them.
Each seller has his or her truffles in a basket. The potential buyer can see them And ask the seller to hold them out so they can smell them, but that's it a this stage.
In addition to all these seller with their baskets there are a few sellers in a special area selling individual truffles. (Like the ones pictured above, all in clear bags neatly labeled  & weighed.) These are of high quality & will sell for up to 1€ per gram. (That's roughly $850 a pound)





Here's a shot of some of the sellers lined up with their baskets. Now, the rule is that one can ONLY buy the whole basket unlike the 'particulars' (the individual truffles). Some of the basket were quite large, but then some of the truffles in the basket weren't all that good either. The system prevents buyers from picking & choosing and ensures that the sellers sell either none or all of their truffles.

Promptly at 2 PM a very loud bell rigs & the ropes come down. Selling is fast and furious. The big wholesale buyers quickly set a price with sellers they like & move onto the next.




This is the other side of the street just before the bell.

All the action is over in a few minutes. Not a market for the fainthearted or unknowledgeable.

I noted that after the sale many of the seller & their buyers went to where an accurate scales was set up on the steps of the town hall. Here, after weighing, many of the baskets were split up into smaller lots. Mini-consortiums I guess.

I stopped to watch one of the wholesalers at the back of his decrepit van weighing the truffles he'd bought with an ancient scale. He had a huge basket in the back (I'm talking 2 by 3 feet) which at that point was 2/3 full. Kilos & kilos of truffles.

Apparently they then all repair to the bar where they get paid.


All in all a great experience. Truly a French experience. If you ever get the opportunity by all means visit the market or if possible a truffle farm.

Next post I'm going to tell you how I used the truffle I bought from Mark.