I also liked the artwork on the bag. The potatoes were excellent — I used some of them to make a gratin Dauphinois. I've posted about that way of cooking potatoes several times over the years. Potatoes, as you might know, grow really well in loose, sandy soil like that around the Baie de Somme. I'd post a photo of the Juliette des Sables spuds, but they look like... well, little brown potatoes, as you might imagine.
I've never been up to the Baie de Somme, but it's on my list. The bay, which is the sandy estuary of the Somme river, is located on the French coast along the English Channel, about half way between Dieppe and Calais — say an hour and a half from either city by car. It's also not far from Amiens (with its fantastic cathedral) and Abbeville, which are slightly inland.
All that reminded me that while I haven't yet driven up to the Baie de Somme to enjoy the maritime landscape and the seafood, I have flown over it. On one trip, in 2013, the plane I was on flew right over the bay as we took off from CDG airport north of Paris. The two villages on the edges of the ten-mile-long estuary are Le Crotoy and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, each with a population of about two thousand.
I had a window seat and snapped some photos of the bay during the flyover. I posted about it at the time, with this very blue photo. The Baie de Somme area is a five- or six-hour drive from Saint-Aignan. Maybe I'll get there one day. I'm sure it would remind me of the area on the North Carolina coast where I was born and grew up.
Superbes photos Ken, depuis votre siège d’avion. Je n’avais aucune idée qui pommes de terre poussent dans un sol sablonneux. J’ai pensé qu’ils étaient produits domaine ferme typique.
ReplyDeleteAbove I tried Google translate. I'm sure their are some errors in there.
Hi D. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made tremendous progress recently, but not enough yet to replace thinking humans. The first two sentences of the Google translation are rather good (except for grammar) and are easily understandable, and it seems there is no obvious misinterpretation. On the other hand, the third sentence is not clear; it is some kind of gobbledygook.
DeleteOf course, it all depends on the grammatical construction of the source language, since Google translates almost word for word. It's OK when the syntax of both languages coincide; but if it's different, here comes confusion
Thanks chm. The third sentence was "I thought they were produced at typical inland farms." i.e., the kind large farms we associate with the Inland Empire in CA.
DeleteIn the third sentence Google stumbled on "inland" and, just like me, didn't know exactly how to translate it directly. I never really knew how to translate Inland Empire, this I think being a California notion. If you drop the inland business (dominion) then the sentence makes sense since what comes before dominion is perfectly correct. Since inland (intérieur ?) can be opposed to coastal, I think, here, the sentence would read in French: J'ai pensé qu'elles étaient produites dans des exploitations typiques de l'intérieur [de la Californie].
DeleteThe word ferme in France usually apply to mom & pop small farms. On the other hand exploitation agricole is used for medium to large entities.
"Inland" is not a specifically California usage. We use it in North Carolina too. You can live on the coast or some specified or unspecified distance inland. That said, I never understood where the non-inland or coastal "empire" of California was located.
DeleteThe word inland in itself is very clear, what is not, as you said, is the Inland Empire. Where is it? Is it only in the far east of Los Angeles, or does it stretch, inland, all the way from Mexico to Oregon?
DeleteI think what D… meant by inland was California’s Central Valley, or, possibly, the very agricultural Imperial Valley south of Salton City.
Interesting about the loose sandy soil. Here they tend to grow well in heavy red soil, with an amount of clay, I think.
ReplyDeleteIn France, some of the best potatoes are grown in sandy areas including the Ile de Ré, the Ile de Noirmoutier, the Baie de Somme, and a lot of the Nord — not to mention Belgium and the Netherlands.
DeleteAs a Dutchman by origin, I agree Ken: Dutch potatoes are much better then the ones I can buy Downunder now...
DeleteI'll never forget something an American woman from Montana, where potatoes are grown (as in Idaho too), told me about her first visit to France. She said she had never realized how good and tasty potatoes could be until she came here. U.S. potatoes can be good, but there isn't the same range of varieties there that we have here — including the bintje and caesar potatoes that we get from the Netherlands.
DeleteI think potatoes are grown in sandy soil for much the same reasons carrots are. They grow into nice commercially symmetrical shapes and are easy to clean. Grown next to the sea I've no doubt there is the idea that they pick up salinity too.
ReplyDeleteYou can get a view of the Baie de Somme from a lookout tower at an aire on the motorway.
And the sandy soil, which is well-drained, might be important in a damp climate like the northern parts of France (and beyond). Potatoes sitting in wet, muddy soil will develop diseases. I remember "digging" potatoes on the N.C. coast. It wasn't really digging, because all you had to do was brush the sand away to uncover big bunches of nice round potatoes. N.C. has a rainy climate too, with heavy and frequent downpours rather than a lot of drizzle.
DeleteUntil reading this, I never realized that growing up in North Carolina, then on to other cities, other countries, I never appreciated a potato as much as I will now :)
ReplyDeleteI remember when my husband found those little blue potatoes at a specialty market in NYC ... that was the beginning :)
I had sort of quit eating potatoes in these past months, they are all white and only taste of what you put on them.
I quit making potato salads ... Today I think I will go find some little blue and red potatoes and make a salad again ..
Hi, Ken,
ReplyDeleteI am a potato eater, I can just eat roasted potatoes for my dinner or supper... I am Belgian, and... I think the reputation of the "bintjes" is not justified. We always buy Charlotte or Nicola (firm), in bags of 5 kgs, but some varieties are so tasty (I fell in love with "Agria"), more expensive, but the difference in price is worth it!
We regularly make "gratin dauphinois" when we invite people, and we use to make one more dish for us for the next morning... Mmmm... :-)