Catching a Rainbow

This Site has been created in conjunction with my other sites,

www.malcolmhamilton.net
and
A Daily Picture from Brittany

to publicise my first book, Catching a Rainbow.

Catching a Rainbow is a light-hearted true-life tale of two extraordinary people who followed their dreams. It describes their eventful and hilarious voyage of discovery in rural Brittany, and the start of their new life in Armorica. This book is written with whit, charm and empathy for the places they see and for the people who help ease their journey along the way. It explores many issues both humorous and serious and revels in the similarities and differences between the people of Great Britain and France.

Catching a Rainbow also examines Brittany’s regional history and takes a brief look at French and British national history from 1066 to the hundred years war… when the British finally had their revenge. It explores the First and Second World Wars, examining the liberation of France and the extent of French involvement, as well as the Day of the Dead and Remembrance Day. The Disunited States of Europe come under some scrutiny and the reader discovers who really discovered America.

Catching a Rainbow compares the cuisine and cultures of Britain with those of Brittany and France, relishing in the wonderful diversity of France’s fresh seasonal produce and examining why the same is not possible in Britain. The reader will discover that whelks have feelings and the origins of the Cornish Pasty, and it examines how such dishes as Chicken Tikka Masala have affected British traditions and the consequence they have had on the pride of a nation.

Catching a Rainbow looks into why the French drive on the wrong side of the road, are experts in absolutely everything and some of the reasons for the animosity between these two great nations. It also takes a lighthearted look at male female relations and discovers some of the possible reasons for the differences between men and women.


We hope that Catching a Rainbow and the official site of Malcolm Hamilton, gives a small insight into this most beguiling part of the world, the villages, the towns, the restaurants, the beaches and is dedicated to all the peoples of Brittany.
The Blog allows me another dimension where I am able to introduce new ideas for forthcoming books, as well as regular updates on life in Brittany and Breton life.

I will be looking at French food as a general theme and hope that the future articles will be of interest to you.

This site will be a continual work in progress so please feel free to dip in and out and leave any constructive comments.

Roscoff or Rosko in Breton is a small town situated on the north coast of Brittany. It is located in the Départements of Finisterre, the arrondissement of Morlaix and the canton of Saint-Pol-de-Léon and has approximately 4000 inhabitants

A few hundred yards from the shore is the Île-de-Batz. This small island is reached by catching one of the small ferries, which leave the inner harbour when the tide is high. There are regular crossings all year long provided for by three companies. The island covers just a little over 5 square kilometres and has a soft climate benefiting from the effects of the Gulf Stream.
At low tide visitors have to use the impressive footbridge, which stretches from Roscoff harbour to the embarkation point, which then is over halfway to the island.

Roscoff is a bustling fishing port and is well worth a visit before one heads south. Many tourists are only aware of the ferry terminal and fail to take in the charms of this quaint town on their mad dash to somewhere else. Roscoff has numerous restaurants, bars and cafes and is a perfect stop off for coffee, lunch or a weekend before heading on to pastures new.

Roscoff was formed following the break up of the ancient parish of Plouénan. And was split between the two parishes of Saint-Pol-de-Léon and Toussaint. In 1790, Roscoff became an independent commune instead of merely being the harbour and port for the nearby town of Saint-Pol-de-Léon.

In 1375, the harbour was destroyed by the army of the Earl of Arundel, captain of the British at Brest. It was later rebuilt at its current location, at Kroas Batz.(The Cross of Batz).

In1539 the towns name changed from Rosgo to Rosgoff and ultimately the modern spelling Roscoff.

On the 15th August 1548, the six-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, having been betrothed to the Dauphin François (aged 12), disembarks at Roscoff. She had already been the Queen of Scotland since 1542 following the death of her father James V. There is a spot between the town and the old harbour where Mary was first supposed to have set foot on French soil.

Les capucins (Capuchines) an order of friars in the Roman Catholic Church and the chief and only permanent offshoot of the original Franciscans built a convent between 1621 et 1682 in the town.


In the 1960’s Roscoff was developed as a ferry terminal serving the UK and Ireland and Brittany Ferries have been using the port for much of that time which has boosted the local economy.


However, Roscoff is most famous for its Onions so much so that a museum opened in the town in 2004.
The original onions reportedly arrived as a single seed on a boat from Portugal sometime in the middle of the 17th Century. To begin with onions were cultivated in private gardens, but this soon spread to local farms and very soon a thriving onion industry had developed.
Roscoff was ideally suited for onion production with its light sandy soils, the warming effect of the Gulf Stream and an abundant supply of nutrient rich seaweed, which is essential to give the Rose de Roscoff their unique colour and taste.
However, the success of onion production in this region of Brittany was not just due to the soil conditions or the climate - there was a need for the onion in Roscoff.

Roscoff was a fishing port, Breton mariners and fishermen alike travelled the world’s seas in search of trade and fish. The onion was an ideal commodity in two important ways. Firstly it could be traded easily as the onion could be kept for long periods of time and so was ideal for slow wind powered transportation. Perhaps more importantly the onion was also good for the seamen’s health, as onions provide a rich source of vitamin C and was used to fend off scurvy, the scourge of early seafarers.

Before the onion, Roscoff was renowned for its linen canvas as well as salt, which it exported primarily to England via Plymouth, but in the 18th Century economic conditions changed, maritime exportation declined and the salt and linen markets crashed. The Roscovites were forced to find another way of making a living.

The British were great consumers of onions. From the coalfields of the Rhondda, to the Scottish highlands and the docks of London the British onions played a great part in British cooking. Their farmers however, produced surprisingly very few onions to feed this desire.

It was Henri Olivier who in an attempt to resolve the problem of falling local onion sales made the first successful trip to Plymouth in 1828. Hundreds were to follow Olivier over the next 178 years and became known as the Onion Johnny’s.
The Onion Johnny’s were Roscovites who transported their onions to Plymouth, usually in July, and then distributed them from door to door usually using a bicycle as their means of transport. Vast quantities of onions were transported to England, stored in barns and then delivered door to door by the Breton farmers. The farmers then returned to Brittany in December or January.
The trade in onions was not the only trade the Johnny’s carried out. Once they had sold their onions they returned to France taking with them considerable quantities of British clay peg tiles, which were not available in Brittany. The Bretons used slate as their principle roofing material. Even today when one sales up and down the north coast of Brittany remnants of this return trade can be seen by the red tiled roofs dotted along the coast.

The golden age was during the 1920s; in 1929 nearly 1,400 Johnnies imported over 9,000 tonnes of onions to the UK. The Great Depression, followed by the devaluation of the Pound in the early 1930s, ended the era as trade suddenly fell, reaching a low in 1934, when fewer than 400 people imported under 3,000 tonnes.
In the aftermath of World War II, onions, in common with other goods, were subject to import restrictions, and were obliged to trade through a single company. By 1973 the number of Johnny’s had dropped to 160 people and 1,100 tonnes, and had fallen again to around 20 Johnny’s by the end of the 20th century.
Although having declined in number since the 1950s to the point where only a few remain, the Johnnies were once very common, and with the renewed interest since the late 1990s by the farmers and the public in small-scale agriculture, numbers have recently made a recovery.
The last London based Onion Johnny, Jean Le Roux, died a short while ago.

The Rose de Roscoff, the official name of the onion, has been awarded protection under the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée.

(Je suis désole pour le mauvais français, mais moi je crois que ce sujet est très important pour la France surtout les Bretons avec leur industrie agricole).

La semaine dernière une question a été demandée dans Le Télégramme dans leur section 'La question du net’ ou le sondage d'Internet. La question à propos de l'opinion publique sur les achats français.

Plus que 50% des gens a déclaré qu'ils ont pensé que c'était important a acheté français, que 48% a trouvé que ce n’étaient pas important. Un petit pourcentage ne pourrait pas décider. (j’ai oublié les chiffres exacts)

J'ai trouvé ce résultat une inquiétude- pour deux raisons en principe.
D’abord il dit que les Français deviennent apathiques à propos de leur identité gastronomique. Et deuxièmement, ils n'ont pas une compréhension du sens des phrases ‘les achats étrangers.’
L'idée que les Français n'achetant pas les produits français est presque absurdes.
Presque toutes les produits stockés sur les rayonnes du supermarché sont français, ou ils ont une d'origine française.
Les Français ne doivent pas considérer où vient leur nourriture parce-que presque tous les produits dans les magasins, viennent de la France.
Les supermarchés maintenant, ont une petite exposition des nourritures étrangères, principalement de Chine ou Inde, mais ils forment un très petit pourcentage d'exposition et probablement est ne stocké pas pour les Français mais les étrangers qui habitent en France.

Presque toutes les fruits, légumes et les poissons viennent de la France. Le fromage et l’ensemble vaste de Charcuterie et articles dans l’épicerie fine sont de la France aussi. Une grande partie des plus beaux vins du monde, maintenant vient d'Australie, Californie, et Chili, comme le monde entier savent, pourtant le vin qui en trouve dans les supermarchés français peut-être une douzaine exemples des vins étrangers, le reste sont français.
Visiter un marché local alors ont va trouver le mêmes chose, presque 100% des produits offert à vendre sera français.
I l y a une petite proportion d'articles importés, souvent ils viennent de l'Union européenne- souvent fabrique avec les ingrédients français.

Pour les Français qui suggérer qu'ils ne considèrent pas achetant activement les produits français quand ils font les courses, c’est moins une décision consciente et peut être plus parce qu’il n'y ayant aucune alternative… pour la France peut être pas une mauvaise situation.
Si ceci ne pas vraie et les Français malheureusement sont devenus apathiques concernent où vient leur nourriture; alors ils ont commencé laisser tomber leur identité régionale et leur identité culturelle qui dans les années passées a été de la force de la France.

France est une nation avec une identité culturelle et régionale très forte.
Il y a beaucoup de français qui premièrement référera à quelle région de la France ils viennent, avant leur pays, et cela renforce leurs identités culturelles, régional et social.
La France est un pays de régions gastronomique. Chacune sont indépendants des autres et pourtant combiner pour former ce grand pays qu'étrangers savent comme la France. La fierté que les Français ont pour leurs régions est connectée avec la fierté ils ont avec leur cuisine et la gastronomie et sont fondations de leur fierté nationale.

La France est la destination plus populaire des touristes dans tout le monde.
Par-dessus 75,000,000 visites chaque année, et les numéros augmentent.
Ce n’est pas que les paysages, l'histoire ou le temps ce apportent les visiteurs a cette partie de l’Ouest, mais c’est les gens, leur gastronomie et les régions distinct.
La plupart des nourritures mémorable en France sont les plats régionaux la cuisine de terroir et les produits régionaux, fait dans la même façon que ils ont été faits pour centaines si non-milliers d'années.
La majorité des nourritures célèbres de pays ont été accordés-le ‘Appellation' Origine Contrôlée,’ comme une façon de protéger leur héritage culinaire. Le AOC était premier utilisé dans le 15th Siècle a protégé les producteurs de Roquefort, un fromage qui vient de sud-ouest de la France et puisque alors a été accordé protéger la qualité et le régionalisme des produits français.
Ceci produits important régional ont une responsabilité très important dans le caractère social du pays et lie les gens à la terre indivisible.
Les gens savent où vient leur nourriture, et ils sont fiers d'où il est produit. Les français savent où la meilleure foi gras vient. Ils savent quand la saison d’asperge commence et quand la saison des coquilles Saint-Jacques arrive. La fierté les Français ont avec leurs produits locaux, régional et national est un lien très forte le même social et culturel.

Si les Français pensent que les achats français ne sont pas important alors ils coupent cette affiliation entre les gens et la terre et ils seront plus pauvres socialement, et pauvre économiquement.
Si les Français commence achat d'ailleurs, pourtant pour les raisons d'apathie, coût ou convenance alors les fermiers français et l’industrie agricole découvrirent plus dur concourir.
Agriculture deviendra plus et plus centralisé les différences merveilleuses régionales du pays serrent perdu. Les fermes échoueront et avec eux ira l'emploi rural. Les gens éloigneront du paysage à la recherche du travail, comme a commencé à arriver déjà.
Les écoles de village fermeront et avec leur fermeture vont les jeunes du village. Après les écoles les magasines du village et toutes ceux qui restent c’est un village occupé mais inanimé avec pas de lieu avec ses racines ou son héritage

Une partie de ceci a déjà commencé avec l’importation a des bons prix de l’Est, et seulement deviendra pire si ou quand Turquie joint le EU avec son vaste économie agricole et climat Méditerranéen.

Vous pouvez penser que je suis une pessimiste, mais je viens d'un pays où ceci est déjà arrivé, la Grande-Bretagne.
Là-bas il n'y a pas n'importe quel lieus entre les gens et la terre dans cette Grand Ile, les derniers ont été coupés après la Deuxième Guerre Mondial.
Là-bas i l y a aucun sens d'attachement ou un sens de fierté pour les produits Britanniques, il y a les quantités vastes de nourriture qui sont importé, et les Britanniques ne soigne pas où vient leur nourriture ils veulent que les prix soient toujours en bas.

Il n'y a pas de nourriture régionale dans la Grande Bretagne, en dehors de quelques exemples maintenus pour le commerce touristique, les Britanniques sont devenus une nation de gens obsédés avec toutes les produits un-britanniques et tout la nourriture du monde autrement. Ils ont perdu la fierté dans leur nourriture perdue leur fierté dans les Britanniques et ils ont perdu la fierté dans leur nation.

Ce serait un jour très triste si la France suives le même sentier que la Grande-Bretagne et pour ses gens a ne soigné pas où vient leur nourriture.

Produced on the high Jura plateaux, this seasonal cheese produced from 15th August to 15th March each year obtained its Appellation d’Origine Contrôlé in 1981 the sixth Swiss cheese to obtain this major distinction.
It requires each stage of production, from milk to finishing, to take place within its region of origin - the Vallée de Joux and the Jura foothills in the Canton of Vaud.
It lays down strict requirements that producers must respect, under the control of an independent certification body. The AOC protects Vacherin Mont-d’Or from imitations, assuring consumers that it is a fully authentic cheese.

The Mont-d'Or was first made in the 14th century by monks at the Saint-Claude Abbey, but gained its reputation much later thanks to Louis 15th.

The Vacherin Mont d’Or as it is correctly called, is still made in the age-old fashion and is a very creamy, lightly salted cheese with a white to ivory-coloured, soft, lightly pressed paste. It has a slightly runny texture with an uncooked and often pleated washed rind; its flavour has overtones of spruce wood.
The cheese must have a minimum fat content of 45% and its humidity level must not exceed 75%. Cylindrical in shape (diameter: 20-30 cm, thickness: 3-5 cm), it varies in weight from 500 g to 3 kg.
The cheese is made from raw milk taken from Montbeliarde cows; rennet is added to obtain a curd and then placed in cylindrical moulds ready to be pressed.
After removing from the 1st mould, it is encircled by a spruce band and left to ripen on spruce wood shelves for twenty-one days, after which it is placed in a smaller box, a process that gives it its pleated appearance. Seven litres of milk are needed to produce one kilogram of cheese.

The cheese is becoming ever popular and production of Mont d’Or reached 4,096 tonnes in 2005/2006 an improvement on 3,970 tonnes in 2004/2005.


The cheese is always eaten from its original box, in two ways and is perfect for informal dinner parties.
It is eaten either cold (sometimes with a small spoon); or hot, baked, studded with garlic, and a glass of vin jaune poured into a cavity scooped from its centre before cooking.
The cheese is of course best eaten with a Jura wine the Vin Jaune.

The Vin Jaune is as peculiar to the Jura region as the Vacherin Mont d’Or and is only found in an area equidistant between the Cote d’Or and the Swiss border. It is also one of the oldest wine producing areas of France/Switzerland.
The Roman Consul, Pliny the Younger, was already praising the wines of Jura in the First Century AD; archaeologists have found evidence of grapevines being grown there even earlier. The variety of grape is called Savagnin and is used in the production of the ‘Yellow Wine.’
The process is completely different to normal wine production and is akin to the production of Sherry.

After a normal fermentation, the Savagnin wine is then aged in barrels for a minimum of six years and three months; during this time it develops a yeast-like covering similar to the flor, which protects aging Sherry, but unlike most Sherries however, Vin Jaune is not fortified.
The yeast crust limits oxidation and obviates the need to top off the barrel while reinforcing the nutty aromas characteristic to Savagnin and adding further complexities to the wine’s flavor.
The wine, such as Cotes de Jura, Vin Jaune, Clos des Grives, 1997, a very fine and delicious vin jaune with flavours of walnut and ginger, is the perfect accompaniment to Vacherin Mont d’Or, and can be purchased in Great Britain. Buy it now!

The Vacherin Mont d’Or does have a certain amount of history and there is a continual argument as to whether the cheese is Swiss or French in origin
For generations, people have been telling the story of how the recipe for Vacherin came to Charbonnières.

In 1871 the troops of General Bourbaki were retreating through the forests of the Jura during one of the coldest winters in living memory.
To force their way through the snow, the French soldiers drove a herd of cows in front of them, led by their cowherd called Roguin. And he was the man who held the famous secret - how to produce Vacherin Mont-d'Or.
The French story goes that Roguin settled in the area, produced cheese, as well as numerous children and lived happily ever after. However, the Swiss are not convinced and look to their archives to prove the story false and the cheese being Swiss.

Twenty-Six years before Roguin, a book of accounts was discovered which cast serious doubts on the legend.
It clearly records the delivery of Vacherin’s, not once but several times, in 1845 Twenty-six years before General Bourbaki's retreat.


The region

The French Jura, roughly corresponding to the old province of Franche-Comté, lies in eastern France, bounded on the west by Burgundy and on the north by the Vosges.

Two great Frenchmen were born in the Jura - the biologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and the painter Gustave Courbet (1819-1877).


Sources and Acknowledgements
(Source: SIDF Mont d'Or, or vacherin du Haut-Doubs)

http://www.vacherin-montdor.ch/en/aoc.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Denis_Bourbaki

http://www.planetware.com/france/french-jura-f-fc-jura.htm

http://www.starchefs.com/wine/features/html/jura.shtml

https://www.thewinesociety.com/tws/Welcome.asp?Page=00Welcome&Ext=asp

http://www.jura-tourism.com/fiches.php?id=15&idSM=3&langue=2

Rungis is not so much a food market - but a town and a way of life for thousands.

The original market Les Halles de Baltard moved to the site of Rungis in 1969. Les Halles was situated in the centre of Paris and not only had outgrown the site but was also causing considerable traffic congestion for the capitol.
The move to Rungis was a monumental change, there having been a market at Les Halles since 1136. (Victor Baltard designed the original market beginning in 1851).

The town of Rungis is in the département of Val-de-Marne, which in turn is in the region of Île-de-France and is only 7 miles from the centre of Paris.
It is well served by communications being only a few miles from Orly Airport, close to the junctions of the A6 and the N7 two important arterial roads in France, as well as having its own rail depot within the confines of the market site itself.

Rungis is a food distribution centre not only for France, but also for other European countries. The market is divided into sections: fruit and vegetables, dairy, seafood, meat, poultry, flowers and other items connected with the food trade such as packaging, knives and kitchen equipment.

The market covers 573 acres, an area larger than the principality of Monaco and is frequented by 26,000 vehicles a day. Rungis is a town in itself with banks, post offices, hairdressers, hotels, a laundry and restaurants for the 15000 workers who live to eat rather than eat to live.

It deals in enough food to feed twelve million Frenchmen every day, as well as the finest restaurants in Paris and the surrounding area.
Girolles(Chanterelles) and Cèpes in our local supermarket today had been purchased at Rungis and were ready for me when the store opened at nine o’clock.

The market is the property of the French State but run by a company at Rungis on their behalf. It opens between 0200 and 1300 depending on which area one is visiting; the fish market opens before the others to ensure that the fish is as fresh as possible, the food halls are usually empty by 0800.

The market itself is a labyrinth of sheds, hangars and offices interconnected by streets railway lines and paths. The main food halls are huge affairs some like the fish hall is air-conditioned to help maintain the temperature and freshness of the products.
Men in bloodstained overalls preparing and selling all manner of meats; poultry and game frequent the meat hall.
The dairy section, a less bloody affair with cheeses too numerous to count stacked in every section. General de Gaulle once famously asked how is it possible “to govern a country that produces 246 different varieties of the stuff.” And they are all on sale at Rungis.

The fruit and vegetable section is the largest of the market with eight fruit and vegetable halls. The distances between the various vendors are so great that the buyers use bicycles to travel between them.

It is well know that the French are lovers of good food. The French not only pride themselves on the production and preparation of their food, but they also take as much care over their foods distribution, which can attributed to a famous chef, François Vatel.



The tragic story of Vatel comes to a head in 1671 when François Vatel was enticed to work for the Prince of Condé. The Prince has invited King Louis XIV as well as two hundred other guests to a reception.
On the first evening a light supper was prepared comprising of turtle soup, creamed chicken, fried trout and roast pheasant.
More guests than anticipated arrived to enjoy the sumptuous meal and Vatel thought that there was not enough food to go around. He became depressed even though his staff assured him that the meal had been a great success.
The following morning the staff awaited a consignment of fish, enough to feed the guests that evening, however when the delivery arrived the quantity of fish was far less than required. Vatel retired to his room, wrote a note explaining that the shame was too much to bear, before fixing his sword blades in a door frame and throwing himself onto the blades…eight times some say.
His body was found the following morning when he failed to turn up for work and the missing fish arrived a few minutes later

The meal went ahead as planned, however as a mark of respect for the great chef the fish course was omitted. Ever since food has priority in every mode of transportation in France.
The story of Vatel has been made into a film starring Gérard Depardieu.
Explore the Works of Gérard Depardieu
Vatel film review.

There is not an equivalent to Rungis in the United Kingdom. The nearest we have to it is New Covent Garden Market, situated at Nine Elms in South London…often called Nine Elms Market.
Between 1982 and 1985 I was a buyer at New Covent Garden market, buying fruit, vegetables and flowers.
I can still remember the first time I saw the huge trading sheds and amazed at the vast quantity of fruit and vegetables on offer. The noise, the sights and the smell of fresh coffee, freshly baked bread and sizzling bacon gently wafting across the site on the early morning breeze. And I swear there is nowhere colder than Nine Elms at three o’clock on a winter’s morning…except perhaps Rungis?
For those of you who have visited Nine Elms will know how big it is. Rungis however is ten times bigger and has five times as many people visiting it on any given day and the sights sounds and smells are equally ten times as vivid.

There are two major sea-salt producing regions in Northern France, and neither of them is in Brittany. However, sea-salt is such an essential cooking component that I felt it was appropriate to broaden the geographical scope for this article.

The two main regions of sea salt production are the town of Guérande a and the l'île de Ré a small island to the west of La Rochelle.

In fact Guérande was once a Breton town but is now situated in the Loire-Atlantique département of France following the division of Brittany in1941. Although no longer part of Brittany its links with the region are strong and Breton history and culture in the department are strong and very much alive.

Guérande and the surrounding area has a strong Celtic culture following immigration to the region in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Cornish, Irish and the Welsh.

The name Guérande comes from Breton ‘gwen ran,’ which means white land and refers to the white salt deposits that naturally occurred in Guérande salt marshes. However it was men who built the present day salt flats and man who still collects these precious crystals.

The salt is collected by the natural evaporation of seawater by the sun and is to this day dependant on the climatic conditions. The natural evaporation gives the salt its special flavour and quality.

Guérande salt has a wonderful flavour with subtle aromatic undertones and is perfect for cooking or as a seasoning.
Some say that there is no difference between table salt, which is made from mined refined rock salt, and sea salt…then there are still some people who think the earth is flat.
The subtleties of sea salt should not be overlooked and as a raw seasoning it cannot be beaten. Sea salt also has two additional benefits. It adds to the texture of a dish owing to its crystalline form and augments the flavour of a recipe by the slow release of its delicate flavours and fragrance

There are those that advocate a salt free diet for various reasons, but sea salt is far from just being sodium chloride. In fact the sodium levels are lower owing to the gradual evaporation of the seawater, thus making sea salt higher in other minerals such as magnesium, calcium and potassium, as well as trace elements such as copper, zinc and iron.


Since 1996, the salt works in Guérande have been listed in 100 French sites of remarkable taste. To join this association three criteria must be fulfilled

1. A site must be connected to a unique, long-recognised, gastronomical speciality.
2. It must be of historical and/or visual interest, either architecturally or environmentally.
3. It must possess the facilities to accommodate visitors and sell the product on-site.

The Guérande salt marshes were considered so exceptional that they were included in a list of 10 top French pilot sites!

The second major sea salt production area is the l'île de Ré.

The first salt ponds were created in the 12th and 13th Centuries but all records were destroyed during the religious wars. Evidence shows that their were salt ponds on l'île de Ré in the 15th Century and expansion continued well into the 19th Century when 1500 hectares of land, more than 18% of the island, was in salt production.

Salt was an essential commodity, salting being the main form of food preservation in the Middle Ages. Ships would put into port on the island to collect salt as they travelled across the Atlantic fishing and trading. It was however salts success that became its eventual undoing.
The trade in salt became such an important industry that in the middle ages a tax was levied on salt production. The tax was called the Gabelle and was in existence from the late Middle Ages until 1946 when it was abolished. The word Gabelle comes from the Italian word gabella or tax, which in turn comes from the Arabic word qabāla, which represented 6% of annual royal revenue.

In 1343 a decree was passed by Philippe VI of Valois, which brought about the tax on salt. Although the law was abolished in 1790 a tax on salt continued until the end of the Second World War.
The tax raised thirty centimes a kilo in 1814, which was raised to forty centimes for every kilo of salt sold in 1818. With the start of the Second Republic in 1848 the tax was reduced to ten centimes but by the time it came to an end tax on salt was being levied at 1.43 France per kilo.

The effect of the tax was to make Spanish and Portuguese salt more affordable and caused the eventual demise of salt production in France.

Recently with an upsurge in cooking, cookery and all things edible, the sea salts of Guérande and the l'île de Ré have once again become popular and are available to all at a reasonable price and at the moment free of tax.

version Anglaise. la version française pour suivre...



Last week a question was posed in the Le Telegramme under their section
‘La question du net’ or their Internet poll concerning the public’s opinion on buying French.

Just over 50% of the people polled stated that they did think it was important to buy French, whereas 48% saw no such importance. A small percentage could not decide either way.

I found this result surprising and rather worrying for two reasons. Firstly it shows that the French are becoming apathetic with regards to their gastronomic identity and secondly they have no comprehension of what buying foreign means.

The thought of the French not buying French is almost absurd. Nearly all produce stocked on supermarket shelves is French or of French origin. The French do not have to consider where their food comes from on a day-to-day basis as nearly all of it comes from France.
Supermarkets have a small display of foreign foods, mainly Chinese and latterly Indian products but these make up a very small percentage of display space and are probably not stocked for the French in the first place. Nearly all fruit vegetables meat and fish as well as products made from these come from France. Cheese dairy products and the vast array of Charcuterie and items in the Delicatessen all come from France, but let us not forget their wines.
Some of the world’s finest wines, as the rest of the world knows, now come from Australia, California and Chile and yet the wine displays in French Supermarkets have perhaps a dozen foreign wines, the rest are French.
Visit a local street market then once again nearly 100% of the produce offered for sale will be French. The small proportion of imported goods, much of which comes from the European Union is very often made from French ingredients.

For the French to suggest that they do not actively consider buying French produce when they shop has less to do with a conscious decision not to do so and more with there being no alternative, which for France may not be a bad thing. If this is not true and the French are becoming apathetic as to where their food comes from; then they have begun to give up on their regional and cultural identity something which in the past has made France so strong.

France is a nation with a very strong cultural and regional identity. Many French people rather that referring to themselves as French, will firstly refer to which region of France they come from and that in turn reinforces their cultural, regional and social identities.
In many cases this identity comes from where they were born, the local customs that went with both handed town from generation to generation and the foods they ate. France is a country of gastronomic regions each and every one of them independent of each other and yet combining to form this great country which outsiders know as France. The pride that the French have in their regions is interconnected with the pride they have with their cuisine and gastronomy and are foundations of their national pride.



France is the most popular tourist destination in the world. Over 75million people visit every year, and the numbers are increasing. It is not just the scenery, the history or the weather that entices people to this part of Western Europe but it is the people and their food, which draws so many people to France.

The most memorable French foods are local regional dishes and regional products, made in the way they have been made for hundreds if not thousands of years. Many of the countries most famous foods have been awarded the AOC or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée as a way of protecting their culinary heritage.
The AOC was first used in the 15th Century to protect the producers of Roquefort, a cheese that comes from southwest France and since then has been awarded to protect the quality and the local regionalism of French Produce. Such produce plays an important roll in the social character of the country and binds the people to the land. People know where their food comes from and they are proud of where it is produced. The French know where the best foi gras comes from; they know when the asparagus season begins just as they know when the scallop season ends and wild mushrooms arrive. The pride the French have in themselves and their local, regional and national produce is a very strong social and cultural bond.

If the French no longer feel that buying French is important then they are cutting this affiliation with the land and the country will be far poorer for it, poorer socially, and poorer economically.
If the French begin buying from elsewhere be it for reasons of apathy, cost or convenience then the French farmers and agricultural industry will find it hard to compete. Farming will become more centralised and the wonderful regional differences of the country’s food will be lost. Farms will fail and with them will go the rural employment. People will move away from the countryside in search of work, as has begun to happen already. Village schools will close and with their closure go the young people of the village. After the schools the village shop and before you know it you are left with an occupied but lifeless village with no tie to its roots or its heritage.

Some of this has already begun with cheap imports from Eastern Europe and will only become worse when or if Turkey joins the EU with its vast farming based economy and Mediterranean climate.

You may think I am being pessimistic, but I come from a country where this has already happened, Great Britain.
There are no ties between the people and the land in that Great Island any longer, the last were cut after the Second World War. There is no sense of attachment to or a sense of pride in British produce any longer, vast quantities of food are imported, and the British do not care where there food comes from as long as the prices are low.

There is no regional food left in Britain, apart from a few examples maintained for the tourist trade, The British have become a nation of people obsessed with everything un-British and everyone else’s food. They have lost pride in their food lost pride in themselves and have lost pride in their nation.

It would be a very sad day if France were to follow the same path Britain has done and for its people not to care where their food comes from.

Roquefort is one of the most famous of French cheeses made around the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Roquefort is an un-pasteurised, blue veined semi hard cheese made of ewe's-milk which takes about three months to reach maturity.
Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Cambalou limestone caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort, since 1925 Roquefort has had and AOC and as such it has a protected designation of origin.

The cheese is white, crumbly and slightly moist, with distinctive veins of blue mould. It has characteristic odour and flavour; the blue veins provide a sharp tang. It has no rind; and the exterior is edible and slightly salty. The saltiness and flavour develops with age but becoming ammoniated when the cheese is past its best.
A typical wheel of Roquefort weighs between 2.5 and 3 kilograms, and is about 10 cm thick.
Roquefort must be made of raw Ewes milk and have no less than 52% fat content and provides 350 kcal per 100g (4oz).

The mould, which gives Roquefort, its distinctive character (Penicillium roqueforti) is found in the soil of the local caves and is the same type of mould as found in other cheeses such as Stilton.
Traditionally the cheese makers extracted it by leaving bread in the caves for six to eight weeks until the mould consumed it. The interior of the bread was then dried to produce a powder. Nowadays the mould can be produced in the laboratory, which allows for greater consistency. The mould may either be added to the curd, or introduced as an aerosol, through holes poked into the rind.

Roquefort, or similar cheeses have been made in the region for thousands of years.
Pliny the Elder remarked upon its rich flavour in 79AD and cheese making tools have been discovered amongst the region's prehistoric relics.

Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a young shepherd, eating his lunch of curds, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he failed to catch her, he returned to his now mouldy lunch and ate it out of pure hunger.

Roquefort is made from the Lacaune breed's milk produced throughout the département of Aveyron and part of the nearby départements of Lozère, Gard, Hérault and Tarn.
Ripe Roquefort is creamy, thick and white on the inside and has a thin skin.

As of 2003, there are seven Roquefort producers.
Roquefort Société.
Roquefort Papillon
Carles,
Gabriel Coullet,
Fromageries occitanes,
Vernières and
Le Vieux Berger.

The cheese should be creamy white and veined uniformly with a blue or blue green mould
It is the quality of the milk, the processing of the curd, the adding of “Penicillium roqueforti” and finally the ripening in natural caves that give us this unique and remarkable cheese.
The exterior aspect of Roquefort should be white and faintly shiny. The cheese should have a cohesive texture but at the same time slightly crumbly.
Roquefort dislikes sharp changes in temperature and is at its best if removed from the fridge one hour before you intend to eat it. It is best stored in the bottom of the fridge, wrapped in greaseproof paper. If wrapped in plastic film the cheese will ‘sweat’ and lose much of its character.

Ups

The first leaves of Salad de la Mâche or Lambs leaf lettuce are coming onto the market.
This tender leaf, available through the winter needs to be treated carefully as it bruises easily.

It is easily damaged by too much vinegar, which being acidic actually cooks the leaf.
Wonderful served with a walnut oil dressing and a few fresh cob or hazelnuts.
Here I have made a dressing of 4 parts Walnut Oil to 1 part white Port and added a few smoked bacon lardons sautéed with brown mustard seeds