Just had to take a few photos of these beauties at the open market.
Cherries, apricots, green beans, peaches, melons… and of course the
olives, cheese and bread. A friend from the States recently asked me if I have grown accustom to the landscape, the beauty of France, to the point where I do not notice it anymore, take it for granted.
I made a face at her and said, "You don't read my blog, do you?"
Did I ever tell you about the time when we had a vegetable garden and we had enough green beans to feed the world seven times over? I kid you not. To this day I can hardly look at a green bean without thinking of our vegetable garden. I tell you Jack in the Beanstalk was green because of us.
Steam green beans in a little water. Rinse them in cold water. In a large salad bowl mix olive oil, crushed garlic, finely chopped ginger, roasted sesame seeds and salt. Mix. Then add the green beans and toss.
It is because of this recipe that I grew green beans in the first place.
Annie came over today with an enormous bag of Apricots. I swear it weighed at least forty pounds. I asked Annie how in the (hell) did she carry it all the way to my house, and was she nuts, why didn't she call me?! Annie told me that her neighbor, a woman of a "certain age" is a grumpy, old thing. She said, "My grumpy neighbor would rather have the apricots rot of her tree, rather than have people come over and pick them. She doesn't like people.. I do not know why she likes me… I guess she figures I am harmless since I am old… I told her I would rather have a ton of people come over to my house rather than an apricot tree going to waste… I doubt that she liked me saying that. I tell you what Corey, if I had to carry that bag of apricots another ten steps I would have died."
Annie told me to open the apricots, take the pit out, then put back together the two apricot halves and stick them in the freezer. Or she said, "We can make apricot jam!"
I tell you what that Annie doesn't stop.
This is the perfect bread to make Pizza bread.
Melons. In France they cut the melon in half, take the seeds out, then add a glass of Porto into the melon hollow, and a slice of cured ham. (I cannot believe I wrote ham on my blog?) Anyway you can add a slice of Parmesan in place of th ham.
On the corner of the market two young boys traveling with backpacks,
bought a handful of apricots, a couple of melons, and some beer. As I
took the photo of the sidewalk picnic, I said, cheese and bread is all
that is missing. One of them added, "...and chicks." __________________________________________
Some of my favorite open markets in France are:
* The Marche d' Apt: Tuesday and Saturday mornings (the photos above were taken at the Marche d' Apt).
* The open Market at Place Monge in Paris on Sunday morning
* Aix en Provence market on Tuesday Thursday and Sunday (there is a brocante market inthe middle of it.)
* Herolles... The largest open market in France, you can buy anything there: Donkeys, bunnies, a cow, lettuce, flowers, a needle and a haystack. It claims to be the oldest as well …since 1484, give or take a few years. The market is held the 29th of each month.
* The market of all markets, for most of the restaurants and shops in France:
French Notes about open market tours:
Leave a Reply