O Panier Local is an organic local farmer’s co-op here on Orthez, which opened in September 2022.  The people who run it describe the store as “Associatif, Non-lucratif, Participatif”, meaning it was conceived and founded by a charitable association, it is non-profit and everyone is encouraged to participate in the life of the store. That includes the local farmers and food artisans featured, many of whom are members of the store association, clients and pretty much anyone interested in eating well and local.  O Panier Local is also a social space, that features workshops, classes, meet-the-farmer events, cooking demonstrations and more several times a month.

Next Saturday, the store will celebrate its one year anniversary with a big, all day party. If you happen to be near Orthez, please be sure to stop by!

As I have been working as a volunteer at O Panier Local a few hours a week since spring 2023, I will be helping out with the food at the birthday party, part of the team of volunteers who will prepare a lunchtime meal and buvette.  It will be the first time I have prepared food for the public in more than a year, and I am a little nervous!

Curious about the menu?  Check out this video on the facebook page of O Panier Local…but who it that guy trying to speak French?

At the Broadway Farmer’s Market today we, found some really beautiful organic Charentais-style melons, so fragrant that, even uncut, their aroma fills the kitchen. The Charentais is the famous melon of Provence in SE France, know for its wonderful, sun drenched flavor and firm texture. The good people at Tonnemaker Farms specified that these can’t actually be called Charentais, as they are not the exact same species but a hybrid that stands up better to the cool PNW nights.

The melons I purchased for Café Presse are currently ripening in a warm corner of the kitchen but should be ready to serve Tuesday or Wednesday, watch our facebook page for a heads up when we are offering it as a daily special. I am planning something simple to feature the pure summer flavor of the melon:

Sliced Charentais melon sprinkled with lime juice and piment d’Espelette, served with sliced jambon de Bayonne

My tile in the Arcade of the Pike Place Market is still going strong, if a little dirty (I scraped some gum off this tile before taking the photo!). The tiles, found throughout the main level , were originally sold and installed in the mid-80’s to raise funds for Market preservation and restoration. Over time, they have become such a part of the texture of the Market that people hardly notice them. This tile was purchased for me as a birthday present by my sister in 1985. We have both always been been big fans of the Market. I have had the very good fortune to work in the Market for 27 years, first at Campagne Restaurant then at Le Pichet.

While Seattle waits for the Spring produce, spring arrived a few weeks ago in the Béarn.  Asparagus, both white and green and as thick as my thumb mark the apex of the season.  Strawberries (strawberries!  We will be waiting  weeks for then at home) from les Landes, 20 minutes north of Orthez in varieties with musical sounding names (La Gariguette; la Cigaline; l’Elsanta).  Purple artichokes from Provence.  Violet tinges, turnips with fine cream colored skins from near Tarbes.

Its a rare treat to be able to fete the arrival of spring vegetables twice in one year.    A side benefit to a spring visit to the Béarn and a return to Seattle in May.

A confession: although interesting as a novelty, I find I still prefer green asparagus to white.  This after exploring a number of cooking methods and using them in a variety of different dishes and having eaten the white stalks in reputable restaurants.  I am not sure I get the hype.  The white variety is sweeter than the green and more delicate, but to my mind, it lacks the earthy flavor of green asparagus at its best.  The most successful white asparagus dish I have eaten is a creamy soup, embellished with slices of fresh black truffle.

Proof of what a strange transition from Summer to Fall we had this year:  tomatoes still very present on the farm tables. Even a few melons and peppers still lingering around.

All the cabbage family really hitting their stride:  Brussels Sprouts, Romanesco, cauliflower, Savoy, red and green cabbages, broccoli.

Beautiful quinces available at prices between $3 and $6 a pound depending on the stand.

Yellow chantrelles make a comeback with the rain and don’t even look that wet.

Pears, apples, asian pears, walnuts, even some grape, both concord and white table grapes.

Squashes, pumpkins, acorns, kabochas and many more but so far none of the big French red pumpkins that were so good last year.

A lot of dogeared vendors using poles to spill the pooling rain from their tents.  You know when the vendors start thanking you for “making it out in this weather”, its a crummy day.

9am Saturday at the University Farmers Market
Memorial Day Weekend and the weather feels almost like summer.  Even at 9am, the air is warm, no breeze, few clouds.

I took the old number 43 bus to the University Farmer’s Market this morning, not sure exactly what to expect.  Given the holiday weekend, it is possible that the number of farms represented (not to mention the number of shoppers) could be pretty small.  Nice weather on a holiday never helps business.

My fears are premature, though;  lots of farmers are already set up and selling at 9am and the crowd, though not large, is respectable.  The season has finally begun in earnest and the cold, dark days of winter when only hardy souls make it to the Market, are (nearly) forgotten.

Market Highlights:
The first local strawberries of the season!  A landmark even if I decided to wait a week to buy…they looked a bit small and green, not the sun-drenched beauties that I expect in June.
Flowers, including peonies and lupine.
Lettuces really coming on strong, especially beautiful oak leaf at Let Us Farm.
Radishes, red, French breakfast and purple.
Bunched carrots as big as my little finger Willies Greens.
Rhubarb still going strong (I think the rain helps)
Asparagus ($5-6 a pound?  Ouch).
A really good bran and seed muffin at Tall Grass stand
Spring garlic.
English peas

Old-timey fish stop
One of the great advantages of the U-district Farmer’s Market is that, if you don’t find any meat or fish that grabs you, you can always stop by University Seafood on the way home.  University Seafood and Poultry, located on 47th between University Way and Brooklyn Avenue, is a longtime pillar of the neighborhood.  It was there when I was a student at the UW in the early 80’s (!!) and is still to my mind one of Seattle’s most dependable seafood vendors.  In addition to a well chosen selection of fish, the shop also features tanks for live oysters, clams, mussels and lobsters as well as one of the most divers selection of poultry in the city (where else to you go if you need quail, pidgen, rabbit and guinea hen?).  Although they dont feature as many little fishes (sardines, smelts, mackerel, etc) as Uwajimaya , they still manage to surprise me with something new every once in a while (the Ono a couple weeks ago was really tasty).

Going to University Seafood is a bit of a journey into the past,  to the days when butchers and fish mongers were opinionated, honest and thoroughly professional.      Along with Don and Joe’s Meats in the Pike Place Market, Better Meats in Greenwood, A&J Meats on Queen Anne and Mutual Fish on Rainier, University Seafood is part of a disappearing breed of stores staffed by honest to goodness craftsmen.  In a certain sense, shopping at these stores reminds me of the time I spent in Paris, a city where fierce loyalty to ones preferred bakery, butcher, fish monger and cheese seller is a way of life.

The sky looked broken and unpromising on the way to the University Farmers Market this morning.  The market itself, by contrast, had a decidedly early Spring feel; not cold but not really warm.  Snatches of sunshine breaking through the clouds but a rainbow hinting at rain to come.

In the year-long life cycle of the Farmer’s Markets in Seattle, the beginning of May is still very early in the season.  Spring produce beginnings to appear but many of the touchstones we identify with Spring are yet to arrive.  There are more shoppers than in the dead of winter but not crowded.  A sign of growth:  there are enough farmer stands now that the prepared food booths have to move out of the main stall spaces and into their summer locations in front of the school building (this week:  sautéed veggies with quesadillas or tamales, crepes, ice cream, pizza and a scattering of others).

In Seattle, it seems that on the  first of May, Spring is just getting underway.

Things that looked good:

Rhubarb is in its peak, big waxy and beautiful.

Rabes of all sorts, notably broccoli (“rapini”) and several types of kale

Plant starts, including vegetables, flowers, fruits and berries

Soft Herbs, including chives with blossoms, wood sorrel, tarragon and more.

Local Asparagus (although at $5/pound or more, the price seems daunting)

Cut flowers including irises, lilac, tulips and daffodils.

Baby Carrots

Morels, both early and true are still expensive but really beautiful.  With all the rain we have had recently, the supply should really take off, although I prefer drier weather morels from a cooking standpoint.

Shopping Tip:  Often, the farmers offering flowers also have a vegetable or two.  Not only are these often of excellent quality, the prices are often significantly cheaper.  Check out the prices on the vegetables in the two photos above.

If I sound like a bit of a cheap skate, with my frequent harping on price, I can only blame the chefs under whom I worked in France.  French chefs, especially in small, family run restaurants,  have a well-earned reputation for thriftiness bordering on an obsessive.  The chefs I worked under all agreed that running a successful restaurant is a hard-nosed business where success depends on making the most of every purchase and not wasting a centime.  One of the reasons for the seasonality of French cuisine is undoubtably that the quality of all products is at its peak during their local season.  But a close second is that those products are cheaper during their season as well.

On Visiting Farms
To me, there is no better way to really understand a product than to visit the place were it is made.  Whether the product in question is cheese, hams, sausages, wine or any other artisan product, understanding how and why it tastes like it does always begins with geography.  Just as the soil, the sun exposure, the elevation and the character of the country side where a wine is produced all play a role in how it finally tastes in the glass, so it is also true that all these elements have a huge part to play in the taste of a cheese.  This is true, at least, for the best wines and cheeses, when the wine maker or the cheese maker works with respect to tradition and lets the flavor of his wonderful raw materials shine through.

Visiting a farm in France can be a bit of a tricky business.  I have visited farms in France on many occasions, and under many different circumstances, ranging from cold call visits to visits made possible by a formal letter of introduction.  Let me assure you that, despite what the promotional “cheese route” maps and local tourism offices say, just driving up to a farm and asking to see what they do is almost always awkward.  Lets face it, farming is hard work that more than fills the day, and any farm large enough to have a person on staff to just deal with visitors is generally too big and industrial to be much fun to visit.

A better option is calling ahead to make sure that a visit would be welcome and well timed, although this also can be tricky depending on your French skills.  If one feels comfortable enough to make the  necessary arrangement in French, the results are usually gratifying.  In the late ’90’s we spent a lovely afternoon at the home of a cheese maker in Rocamadour based on a nothing more than a pretty shaky phone call the day before.  After a lengthy tour of the farm and cheese making facilities, we were sent on our way with a bag full of tender little goat cheese disks and tickets to the Musée de la Monnaie in nearby Bergerac, where a relative of the cheese maker, a security guard there had provided complimentary passes.

However, by far, the king of farm visits are those where someone you know, who also knows the farmer, has made a personal introduction.  In this circumstance, it can be difficult to believe the warmth and generosity of the reception that one often receives.  During a visit to a winemaker in Sancerre many years ago, a personal introduction  from the wines American importer resulted in our being invited to a multi-course lunch after touring the vineyards and wine making facilities. With a personal introduction, ou never know exactly what to expect, but a very polite welcome is the bare minimum.

Our visit to Ferme Kukulu was scheduled at the farm-friendly hour of 9am, which meant that we would have to get an early start since the farm, nestled among the rolling foothills of the Pyrenees Atlantique, is over an hour from our house in Orthez.  Morning fog meant that we arrived a few minutes late, even though we allowed plenty of time.

Our guide for the visit was Mayi, who works in the tiny office that is the brains of the operation.  She welcomed us to the farm by letting us know that, until 1985, when the paved road to the farm was built, Kukulu was a “ferme isolé” or isolated farm reached only by horses, oxen and mules (or I suppose in 1985, they had 4 wheel drive vehicles?).

100 Years of Cheese Making Tradition:
The Hiriart family has made raw milk cheeses in the traditional style of the Basque Pyrenees since 1900.  Madame Hiriart is currently the matriarch of the family, and she still runs the the tiny cheese shop on site.

Cheese that begins with Sheep:
A visit to any fromagerie ought to begin with the animals, as this is where the process begins.  Ferme Kukulu now has about 2000 sheep, which I believe qualifies them as small to mid sized for this region.  They no longer raise the local Tete Noir breed of sheep but instead favor the Lacaune breed that is native to the region where Roquefort cheese is produced, 2-3 hours distant in South-Central France.

During the period when the animals are giving milk, they are kept in barns for reasons of hygiene (to facilitate inspection and testing…a concession to the regulations of European Union hygiene rules).  During this period they are fed on organic, non GMO grain and hay which is grown  locally.  During the rest of the year, they are allowed to feed on the grasses, herbs and flowers of the surrounding countryside.

All  of their practices in regard to the raising and utilization of these sheep are geared toward respecting their health, seasonality and happiness.  As the farms motto states, “A happy sheep is a sheep that reproduces and provides milk” (my translation).

The farm also has several hundred goats, and 4 or five cow, all of whom provide milk for cheeses made either in combination with sheep’s milk or on their own.

In recent years, the use of raw milk in the production of their cheeses  has necessitated a major investment for Kukulu.  It was necessary to install new cheese making “laboratory” to insure conformity to the strict hygiene standards set by the  European Union.  This modern equipment, coupled with constant independent testing of  the milk and all  cheese made from it at several stages during its production and aging, insures the safety of the final product.  However, these practices only serve to reinforce a message that French people have known for years:  high quality raw milk cheeses are not a health hazard and, on the contrary, contain beneficial bacteria that strengthen the bodies immune system.

The people at Kukulu all seemed very proud of the cheeses they make and very happy to tell us all about the process.  During our visit to the cheese making laboratory, we watched the cheese maker filling molds with the still warm cheese curds from that mornings milk.  When he noticed us watching, he motioned to us through the window,  asking  in pantomime if we would like to taste the curd.  He joined us in the observation area minutes later, with a colander full of warm, sweet, sheep-y curds.  At first the individual curds separated easily from the pile, but as the curds cooled they began to coagulate into a coherent mass, just as they would when the cheeses are formed.

Uniformly, the people working on the farm seemed most surprised to learn that people in Seattle are interested in and enjoy their cheeses.  Exportation is a recent development for Kukulu;  for people who until recently made a product that seldom traveled beyond Bordeaux, Seattle seems very far off.

The cheeses from Ferme Kukulu are featured from time to time on the cheese board at Le Pichet and Cafe Presse;  these are limited production, seasonal cheeses (as is the case with many of the raw milk cheeses we offer) so it is hard to make any promises.  If you do notice them when you dine with us, I hope you will share the feeling of connection with this distant artisan when you taste their cheese.

There are two market days every week in Orthez.  Outdoors Saturday, in the parking lot of la Moutet, is the local farmer’s market that features only the bounty of the surrounding countryside, including offerings from farmers, meat producers and culinary artisans (and also a large selection of plants, vegetable starts, trees and flowers from the local nursery). This market is small, almost intimate with only 12-13 venders, and a truck or two, selling organic fruits and vegetables, a small amount of dairy products, including Oussau Iraty, a firm sheep’s milk cheese that is the most famous cheese of the region (it is traditionally eaten accompanied by sour cherry jam),  chickens and eggs, and handmade fresh and cured sausages.  These are supplemented by a stand selling oysters from Arcachon (2 hours away) and another selling roasted chickens, hams and pork loins, all vividly on display as they turn on a huge open flame rotisserie, their fat dripping into a long tray of tiny fingerling potatoes below.

Tuesday is the big market day, and by comparison with the Saturday market, Tuesday’s is a sprawling bazaar that tumbles out of the covered market at Place de la Moutet and up the street to surround the Eglise Saint-Pierre.  The food vendors are mostly concentrated inside la Moutet, a multipurpose facility built several decades ago when Orthez was the home of the Elan-Bearnais Basketball team, a local powerhouse that won the French Championship in 1986 before moving to Pau in 1991 for bigger fish to fry and a larger stadium.  As a marketplace, la Moutet can’t match the charm of many markets on finds in the countryside, many of which date from the middle ages, but it fills the main requirement:  it is big enough to hold a one of the largest markets in the area.

Here you find not only local farmers selling one or two items harvested that morning (I spoke with a young man operating a stand with a sign touting his association with Slow Foods Landes,  and whose entire inventory consisted of a couple dozen tomatoes, a huge basket of arugula and ten or twelve lumpy green pumpkins.  The arugula and tomatoes were excellent)   but also several greengrocers selling produce from all over France, Europe and the world, with the point of origin of each item succinctly identified on the sign showing the price.   There are several permanent shops, including a fishmonger, a butcher and a man who makes keys and repairs leather goods.

Beyond these stands, the selection explodes:
A mobile fishmonger from Saint-Jean de Luz, 45 minutes from Orthez and one of the most important Atlantic fishing ports in France, near the border with Spain.  He featured squid, tuna, sardines, anchovies and his own house made salt cod, dried, as brandade or stuffed in piquillo peppers.

A basque butcher and charcutier, displaying a range of pork options, from fresh chops and shoulder, to fresh sausages (chipolatas, duck and piment d’Espelette, basque blood sausage) and  aged sausages (chorizo, wild boar, duck), pates, confit of pork shoulder, ventreche (the French version of panchetta, salted and cured pork belly), much if it made from black footed pigs from the Pays Basques.

A stand selling locally produced foie gras, raw or preserved in bocals, and all the leftover parts of duck and goose including hearts, necks, feet, magret (the thick, steak like breast of fattened duck), rendered fat, gizzards and sausages stuffed in hog casing or in the skin of the ducks neck.

An artisan baker selling crisp baguettes, fat country loaves and Gateau Basque, the local specialty filled with pastry cream or cherry jam.”

A truck labeled “Provisions de Provence” selling dried fruits, nuts, olives, olive oils and spices (who by the way, warned us that in two weeks he would be going on vacation so we might want to stock up).

A coffee roaster who grinds to your specifications or selects a personal tea blend of herbs, flowers and roots depending our your needs.

One cheese monger selling only the local Oussau Iraty cheese, with  specimens form just over a month old to more than 2 years and gnawed by cheese mites; another offering cheese from throughout France, cream, house-made  yogurt and butter cut to order from a huge chunk and wrapped in red checked paper

In short, everything one needs to stock the larder in the Southwest of France.

Outside la Moutete, the market continues in a profusion of trucks and stands that surrounds the Eglise St.-Pierre like cars in a busy highway rest stop, filling every square food of available space.  Here there is food for sale as well, but also clothing, leather goods, kitchen small wares, hats, scarves, cd’s and dvd’s, garden and shop tools, even a mobile Singer store offering sewing machines and on the spot repair service, as well as needles, thread, zippers and fabric.

I waited in line at a long, long trailer selling an astounding selection of shoes, while an elderly woman was assisted by the owner in her purchase of new calf-high boots for the coming winter (the first rain in weeks and a 12 degree drop in temperature is predicted for the next day).  My goal is a purchase not that much different from hers:  a pair of waterproof work shoes for garden work at our new house.  When I finally had my turn, the Monsieur recommended a pair of shoe height boots by Chameau, made in Morocco.  I liked them so much, I include a photo.

As the September equinox approaches, bringing with it the official first day of Fall, Seattle has been enjoying one of the warmest stretches of Summer.  The evening when I visited the Madrona farmer’ market recently felt like an evening in July, with many people strolling idly, the park full of couples chatting on benches and bar-b-ques flavoring the air.  The products in the markets are reflective of this unexpected warmth, featuring a return of fruits and vegetables that already have come and gone earlier in the year.

Pike Place Market:  Fall fruits are in full swing… many kinds of pears including some of the first winter varieties I have noticed this year.  A few winter squashes have begun to trickle in, mostly small pumpkins,  delicatas and gourdes.  Peaches, plums, Italian prunes, radishes making a comeback, beets in  many colors.  Alvarez Farms is selling peppers of every description, corn, watermelons, slender green beans.

Madrona Farmer’s Market:  Wilson fish offering some lovely king salmon and ling cod, all line caught on the Washington coast and landed the afternoon before.  Blackberries (as big as your thumb but not as sweet as earlier in the summer), raspberries, strawberries (!) and blueberries enjoying a second harvest.  Kohlrabi, both green and purple and some flowering purslane both caught my eye (it was beautiful and the leaves were tasty, but as the vendor told me with perhaps a bit too much frankness, the flowers tend to taste a bit slimy).   Shell beans, both flageolets as well as runners (the latter reminding me of the “Haricots Mais” that I saw last year in the markets of  Southwest of France.  The unique quality of these beans is that, as they are grown between the rows of corn, locals say that they have taken on the flavor of their neighbors when cooked fresh).