The Loire Valley, France
Our travels in France gave us appreciation for quality ingredients and simple cooking. Gather a few mushrooms, spears of asparagus and fresh eggs at the Farmer’s Market. Stop by the cheese shop for a round of chèvre. Viola, the ingredients for crafting the perfect omelet. The omelet recipe below employs our lessons learned.
Mapping the Day
Our recent RoadTripFlavors stories have explored the burgeoning industry of craft beer in Southern California. In our land of big manufacturing, the craze for craft is exciting. It is also heartwarming to see passionate people produce new flavors for their eager brewery guests.
Travel in Europe, and certainly other parts of the world, emphasizes that craft production is a fundamental passage to quality products. We visited the Loire Valley in France where we began to understand the importance of location, heritage and technique for producing cheese and wine. The soil, the families who own the land and their signature methods make their products intrensically valued and protected.
Local Story
A little farm near the Loire River raises a small herd of goats. There’s a small pond, spans of green grass, a few buildings and the goats.
The goats share their space with a couple horses, some pigs, a few dogs and the passionate people who care for them. Oh, and then there are the people who take the milk from the goats and produce magnificent cheese.
At Ferme du Port Aubry, the goats are milked twice per day. From there, the curd is acidified, molded, turned, salted and matured right there on the farm. The famous Croutons de Chavignol is produced. And, according to the degree of ripening, a countless range of flavors are produced.
The farm family and their small crew produce small batches, craft cheese if you will.
View from the Table
After our tour of the farm and production, we were invited to taste the cheese. There were indeed so many to taste. Imagine, this is just one little farm!
One could spend a lifetime mastering the flavors of French cheese. A worthy lifetime quest, I might add.
Goat Cheese, Mushroom & Asparagus Omelet
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