Bonjour French Market Friends,
In 
Paris this week, at the Porte de Versailles exhibition halls, the SIA2025, Salon International Agriculture 2025 is taking place. This is one of the top Agricultural Exhibitions in the world, showcasing all the best of France’s farming production, livestock, cultivation, agricultural services and gastronomy. Over 3,000 animals are on display from top bred cows to little donkeys raised in the Pays
Basque. There are competitions for the best agricultural products including cheese. Visitors will be welcomed by Oupette, a beautiful 6-year-old Limousin cow which has been chosen as the “mascot” of this event and whose face features on all the promo material. Bred by farmer Alexandre Humeau, he said it was a great honour and culmination of a lot of work to have her chosen. He wishes to pass on to the visitors to this Show, the values of the agricultural world by explaining his work, that raising animals is a vocation and very demanding job.
In a country where the majority of French people have come from farming backgrounds, this Agricultural show holds a great significance, with over half a million visitors expected to attend. French President Emanuel Macron visited the Salon and met Oupette and Alexandre, he said “I will always defend French Agriculture in order for our farmers to continue to produce and nourish our people”.(Image courtesy of Photo pool L’Elysees)
One such example of a unique produced French cheese, is Morbier AOC. Produced around the small village of Morbier in the Franche-Comte close to the Swiss border. This cheese is made with milk from the Montbéliard cows. The cows graze on rich pastures which gives a depth of creaminess to their milk. In the
old days Morbier was made with the evening miking curds laid out in a wide vat. The curds were sprinkled with wood ash to keep the flies away. The next morning this would be topped with a layer of curds from the morning milking. Leaving the ash line through the centre, giving the Morbier a distinctive flavour. The texture is medium firm, and the crust is dry. The Morbier is aged for over 6 months which adds to its unique taste. The finished wheel is about 7kgs. Come in and taste some and you will pick up the unique flavour.
Another cheese where ash is used in the production, is St Maure goat’s cheese from the Loire region. This cheese is made in a small, white log and the outside is dusted with ash, which used to keep the flies off the 
cheese, nowadays the ash is still used to add a unique flavour to this cheese. In addition, we have plenty of other cheeses for you to try.
In our meat range we have plenty of terrines and pates plus a new stock of saucisson sec style salamis, one is made with plain pork and the other is made with a truffle flavour.
New in this week are fresh porcinis, which we have just received in the shop. They are medium to smaller sizes at present. Let me know if you want some and we will reserve for you. We also have trays of the beautiful mauve coloured Evita figs. Note the black winter and white Italian spring truffle are currently in season, these are on a pre-order basis so do let me know if you would like more details.
France has many regional products that are unique because of the conditions of their environment. The Lentille verte de Puy AOC, has a truly unique flavour and quality. The reason why these small, dark 
green lentils are so special and sought after is that the valley of Puy, where these lentils originated over 2000 years ago, has several features. First of all, this is an old volcanic plateau and the mineral elements in the soil give a specific taste to the lentil. Located at 1200m, in the southern part of the Auvergne, the micro-climate in the valley is very dry due to the prevailing winds releasing rain clouds on the slopes of the uplands surrounding Puy. As a result, the skin of this lentil is very thin so that they can absorb any humidity quickly. Therefore, the lentils do not require soaking and retain all their flavour and crunchy texture, they do not get soft and sticky. We have them in stock at our shop.
For this week’s recipe I decided to share a traditional recipe for Lentilles de Puy in a rustic tomato and herb sauce, with bacon pieces. This is really easy to make, and it tastes great, (you can make it with or without the bacon pieces), see recipe below. I suggest pairing with a Valmoissine Pinot Noir from Louis Latour available at our shop.
Let us hope the fires on our mountain are finally all put out, tonight there did not seem to be anymore smoke on the slopes above the city, so I hope our firemen have a peaceful weekend.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team