avril 17-22: More Roquecave time

My later days at the last farm were much the same as previous: not a ton of work because there wasn't much cheese and consequently lots of time to hang around, run, hike and read. I occupied a few hours one rainy day with baking banana bread, however. I explained to Carole and Ingo that often in the U.S. when you have overripce bananas, you would make banana bread, so I was pressed into service. After finding a recipe online that actually contained the very French ingredient of crème fraîche as one of the fats, I set about gathering ingredients from their various corners. Flour and eggs from the cave (cold room), oil in the kitchen, sugar searched out underneath the counter (thankfully vanilla bean-infused!), and walnuts from a sack upstairs. The bread was super moist and got good reviews from the family.

I also had a chance to sell at a few markets with Ingo and Carole. One was an atypical French market in that it was restricted to organic producers (with one re-seller thrown in) and took place from 4-8pm for working people to be able to come. It felt much more like a farmers' market in Massachusetts with more younger and middle aged customers and fewer vendors.

The market in Olonzac is one Ingo has done for 23 years. His table is underneath a pavillion with a bunch of others including the charcuterie truck, but the market stretches throughout the streets of this small town. There were tons of people selling asparagus during its short season, as well as the normal mix of grocery, prepared food and clothing/bags/cloth vendors. I sold on my own a bunch while Ingo took the opportunity to run some errands and wander around. I fared just fine and actually met a couple from Newton, MA one week! Customers at the market in general during the day skew heavily towards the elderly folk who congregate and chat on various corners. There are also tourists, parents with young kids, and other people who aren't at work for some reason or another. My favorite by far were the older ladies who walked around with their bikes at the market almost using them as walkers. It's great that they can still use them to get around town to see people and do their shopping even though they have trouble walking.



After the market, Ingo drove me to Narbonne where I took the train to Nîmes to spend four nights. I enjoyed a picnic lunch on the train while watching the countryside get progressively more southerly-looking.