Mars 10-25: Work on the farm

Laurent grows organic vegetables at his farm. He’s got four large high tunnel greenhouses, acres of fields, plus a building where he cleans and prepares the veggies, and storage part of the building for crops like potatoes, onions and celery root that are harvested in the fall and sold all the way through the spring. He’s one guy with lots of land, and I wonder how he manages in the height of the season. Every summer, they have a stagiare (or intern) from a Russian agricultural school, and they get WWOOFers, but still!

At this point in the season, not much is going on. There is even less going on right now because the family is moving house this year, and Laurent couldn’t start planting on his new land yet because of this late spring. Normally there would be garlic, onions, other salads and spring cabbages at least in the ground. As it was, there were the greenhouses, cabbages, Brussels sprouts and carrots in the field, endives growing insi de a small building, and storage crops.

I started my first Monday morning with sorting oca for re-planting, a funny root crop that is pink and bumpy. I forgot to take a picture of it, but one of thest little guys looks startlingly like a sumo wrestler.


From that, I moved on to onions which would be a nearly-daily companion over my time chez Laurent. I had watched farmer Dave at my farmers’ market clean onions during the market, and here it was my turn. Yellow, pink and red onions remained, and it was my job to chuck those that were sprouting or mushy, and make presentable for market the rest. It was repetitive, often cold work given that I was standing on a concrete floor in rubber boots (even with two pairs of socks!). I sometimes warmed my feet up by sticking them directly on the glass front of the fireplace.



I also harvested spinach in the tunnel, Brussels sprouts in the field, and endive from underneath sand and hay. Most endive nowadays is grown in nutrient-rich water, but Laurent still does the old way in dirt.



Market days were particularly fun. I helped sell a bit at the St Lo market on two Fridays where I gained a better sense of a kilo, learned what measure a livre is (one half kilo), and confused customers with my American accent. Laurent is one of a few producteurs at the market where most people are marchands. This is the big difference between a French market and an American farmers’ market – producers verses re-sellers.

Laurent also sells at the market in St Pair on the coast, to three organic grocery stores in the area, and to a few restaurant accounts. The day I went to the St Pair market, I actually took a walk up the coast to Granville, a nice seaside town where I enjoyed some of the best scones I've ever had. So un-French, but so delicious.


In addition to all of the vegetables, the farm also has a number of animals that belong to another farmer. Sheep, two goats and a few pigs are around. There are two cats who are mostly wild, but fed milk and cat food every morning, and the family has a very cute dog, Noisette, who would often hang out near us during the day. She alternately stood inside the shed peering out or basked in the infrequent sunshine outside.




And leaving the cutest for last, there was Coco, Claire's pet lamb who I got to feed from a bottle a few times. Man, was he adorable.